American professional wrestler (born 1981)
Edward Moore (born December 12, 1981), better known by the ring name Eddie Kingston, is an American professional wrestler. As of July 2020[ [update]], he is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is out of in-ring action because of a leg injury, but continues to make on-air appearances. He was the inaugural AEW Continental Champion. Moore also performs for AEW's sister promotion, Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a former ROH World Champion. Additionally, he makes appearances for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a former Strong Openweight Champion. All three of these championships were defended jointly under the Continental Crown Championship banner until he lost the Continental Championship.
Moore started his wrestling career in 2002, and has wrestled for numerous promotions, including Evolve, the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Chikara, AAW Wrestling, Combat Zone Wrestling, Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South, Impact Wrestling (renamed Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2024) and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG). Outside of brief stints in Impact and ROH, Kingston was a mainstay on the independent scene for 18 years before signing with AEW. Moore has been praised for his speaking skills and ability to cut promos, and is regarded by many as one of the best talkers of the modern professional wrestling era. This ability to cut promos has allowed him to stay on AEW programming even through his injury.
Early life.
Edward Moore was born on December 12, 1981, in Yonkers, New York, to an Irish father and a Puerto Rican mother. He had a difficult childhood in the suburbs of Yonkers, constantly getting into fights at school; he credits getting into wrestling at an early age from watching old tapes, particularly from Memphis and AJPW as what kept him out of jail and trouble. He estimates he has watched the June 1994 match between Toshiaki Kawada and Mitsuharu Misawa over 1,000 times. Kingston worked as part of the Iron Workers Union (Local 580) early on in his professional wrestling career.
Professional wrestling career.
Independent circuit (2002–2016, 2018–2020).
Chikara (2002–2016).
Moore initially trained alongside BlackJack Marciano and Jigsaw under Kevin Knight at the Independent Wrestling Federation in Woodland Park, New Jersey (formerly West Paterson). After Moore was kicked out of the school, he became part of the second class of students to train at the Chikara Wrestle Factory, where he was taught by Mike Quackenbush and Chris Hero.
Moore made his professional wrestling debut, under the ring name Eddie Kingston, on October 12, 2002, at Chikara's seventh event, where he and BlackJack Marciano, the team known collectively as the Wild Cards, defeated Melvin Snodgrass and Lester Crabtree in a tag team match. In 2003 Kingston and Marciano began feuding with Mister ZERO and UltraMantis, the team known collectively as Ultra/ZERO. The feud came to an end on July 5, when Ultra/ZERO defeated the Wild Cards in the semifinals of the 2003 Tag World Grand Prix, after which Kingston and Marciano moved on to feuding with Team F.I.S.T. (Icarus and Gran Akuma). The following year the Wildcards teamed up with Jigsaw to form the Toxic Trio, while Icarus and Akuma recruited the help of Mike Quackenbush. On May 22, 2004, the Toxic Trio faced Icarus, Akuma and Quackenbush in an Ultimate Jeopardy match, where Kingston's, Marciano's and Icarus' hair, Jigsaw's and Akuma's masks and Quackenbush's various championship belts were on the line. In the match Akuma forced Kingston to tap out and, as per stipulation of the match, both the Wild Cards were shaved bald, effectively ending the feud. On September 18, 2004, the Wild Cards won the IWA Mid-South Tag Team Championship and enjoyed reasonable success outside of Chikara, until a knee injury forced Marciano into retirement, thus disbanding the team.
After taking a break from wrestling, Kingston returned to the ring in July 2005, turning face and teaming with Sabian, Equinox and Quackenbush to take on The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli, Gran Akuma and Arik Cannon). On August 13, Hero defeated Kingston in a singles match, that would lead the two into feuding with each other over at Combat Zone Wrestling, while in Chikara they were kept apart from each other following the match. For a majority of 2006, Kingston had a rivalry against Larry Sweeney. Kingston and Sweeney traded many verbal and physical exchanges for months, and the feud culminated with a No Disqualification Strap match between the two at Chikara's last show of the year. Kingston won this match and the overall feud.
In 2007, Kingston turned "heel" (villainous) when he was pinned in an eight-man tag team match. Following the loss, Kingston attacked Hallowicked and attempted to remove his mask. The resulting feud lasted for over six months. During this time Kingston frequently forced his opponents to wear a replica of Hallowicked's mask. The feud ended when Kingston defeated Hallowicked in a Falls Count Anywhere match.
Kingston, along with fellow BLKOUT stable members Joker and Ruckus, went on to the finals of the 2008 King of Trios tournament, coming up short against the team of El Pantera, Incognito and Lince Dorado, when Kingston tapped out to Dorado's Chikara Special. After the tournament Kingston was not seen in Chikara for two months, but when he returned in May, he quickly targeted the man who had forced him to tap out at King of Trios, Lince Dorado. Kingston defeated Dorado in back-to-back singles matches on July 13 and August 10, but both times Dorado refused to stay down and begged for more. On September 7 Kingston and Dorado face each other in their third singles match, which ended when referee Bryce Remsburg disqualified Kingston due to "excessive punishment". However, once again Dorado refused to stay down and demanded the match to be restarted. After the restart, Kingston had himself disqualified by low blowing Dorado and then walked out, before declaring that he was done with Dorado, since he was making him mentally unstable with his actions.
In late 2008 Kingston would team up with Brodie Lee and Grizzly Redwood to form an alliance that would later be named "The Roughnecks". In early 2009 The Roughnecks defeated the Order of the Neo-Solar Temple (UltraMantis Black, Crossbones and Sami Callihan) to advance to the 2009 King of Trios, where they ended up being eliminated in the first round by Team Uppercut (Claudio Castagnoli, Bryan Danielson and Dave Taylor). Following the loss Kingston started a feud with Castagnoli, claiming that he had been embarrassed and disrespected. On May 24, 2009, at "Aniversario Yang" Kingston, who had claimed to being able to outwrestle Castagnoli, pinned him cleanly with an Oklahoma roll. After Castagnoli defeated Kingston via countout at the 2009 Young Lions Cup, the two of them were booked in a "Respect Match" at the season eight finale "Three-Fisted Tales", where the loser of the match had to show respect to the winner. Castagnoli won the match, but instead of showing respect, Kingston laid him out with a spinning back fist, after claiming that both him and his former tag team partner (Chris Hero) are shady and deserve respect from no one. At the end of the event Kingston's suspicions about Castagnoli were proven right as he turned "rudo" and formed the stable Bruderschaft des Kreuzes (BDK).
On January 31, 2010, at the season nine premiere Kingston, now a tecnico, replaced Lince Dorado, after he had turned on his "tecnico" teammates and joined BDK, and teamed up with Mike Quackenbush, Jigsaw and Equinox in an eight-man tag team match against Castagnoli, Ares, Tursas and Dorado. BDK won the match, when Castagnoli pinned Kingston after a low blow. After the match Kingston once again refused to show respect to Castagnoli and was therefore beaten down. On March 21 Kingston re-ignited his old feud with BDK's newest recruit Lince Dorado by facing him in a singles match. Dorado won by disqualification by taking his mask off behind the referees back and throwing it at Kingston, who was holding it when the ref turned around. This is an automatic disqualification as per lucha libre rules. After the match Kingston attacked Dorado, while also taking care of BDK members Pinkie Sanchez, Sara Del Rey and Tim Donst, who attempted to make the save, before he was stopped by Castagnoli, who once again demanded the respect he was owed from "Three-Fisted Tales". On May 23 Kingston was set to wrestle one of his idols, Tommy Dreamer, at Chikara's eighth anniversary show, but the match was ruined by an interference from Castagnoli and Ares. After Dreamer helped Kingston take care of BDK, the two made a challenge for a tag team match for Chikara's July 25 show in The Arena in Philadelphia. On July 25 at "Chikarasaurus Rex: King of Show" Kingston and Dreamer were defeated in a non-title tag team match by Ares and Castagnoli. On October 23 Kingston represented Chikara in the "torneo cibernetico" match, where the company's originals faced BDK. He eliminated Daizee Haze and Sara Del Rey from the match, before being stuck in a two-on-one disadvantage against BDK members Claudio Castagnoli and Tursas. Castagnoli was disqualified from the match, after low blowing Kingston, but Kingston managed to come back and pin Tursas to win the 2010 "torneo cibernetico". On March 13, 2011, in Brooklyn, New York, Castagnoli defeated Kingston, after hitting him with a chain, in a grudge match fifteen months in the making. The following September, Kingston made his first tour of Japan, with the Osaka Pro Wrestling promotion, which had a working relationship with Chikara. During the tour, Kingston teamed with the villainous Joker stable. ;templatestyles src="Template:Quote_box/styles.css" / ;
 People ask me why I call the Grand Championship "her". You see, as a 33-year-old man, the only time I've felt love or wanted to give love out was when I had the Grand Championship. When I had her. For 33 years, I've had a hole in my chest that could not be filled by anything in this life but her. When I held her at night, when I defended her in that ring it gave me peace. It gave me calm. It gave me a purpose. Icarus, do you understand? Hallowicked, do you understand how it feels to walk this Earth and not have a purpose? For 33 years, to walk around in life not knowing what you are meant for? Just aimlessly wandering around. When I got her, I knew why I was here. I knew why God put me on this green Earth was to protect her. To be with her. To love her. She is more than a title. She is way more than a belt. She is the love of my life and Icarus, you took her from me? I hate you! I hate the air that you breathe! I hate the fact that you're even living. You make me sick! You should not be alive; you should not breathe the same air I breathe! You are scum! You are below me! You will always be number two! And at the season finale (CHIKARA Top Banana), for you taking her away from me, for you taking my peace, my calm that I've been looking for for my whole life, I will bury you. And right before the daylight dies outta your eyes, Icarus, you're gonna see me laughing and smiling.
Hallowicked ... There's nothing personal with you. There's nothing deep with you like there is with Icarus, but you hold her. You hold my wife. You hold my love. So I'm gonna bust your gut open and I'm gonna watch you die at the season finale and then she will finally come back to me. And days before I turn 34-years-old, 14 years in this great sport, I will have my purpose again and I will have my life one more time. This is deeper than anything in the world. Anything in wrestling. This is life. This is purpose. This is everything.
—Eddie Kingston, December 2015
From May to October 2011, Kingston took part in "", a tournament used to determine the first ever Chikara Grand Champion. Kingston ended up winning his block of the tournament with a record of four wins and one loss to set up a final match with the winner of the other block, Mike Quackenbush. On November 13 at Chikara's first internet pay-per-view, High Noon, Kingston defeated Quackenbush to become the