10 Greatest Promos In Modern Wrestling History

5. Eddie Kingston Made A Promise

Cody Rhodes AEW
AEW

More of an angle than a promo per se, Eddie Kingston's role in his face-to-face standoff with Jon Moxley to promote their I Quit match at Full Gear 2020 was seminal.

It was a huge undertaking. Eddie Kingston - working the remote outposts of the indie circuit in March and a pay-per-view headliner in November - had to convince the audience to reconcile that. He also had to put over the stakes and the stipulation; he had to convince the crowd that he was the right man for the spot and that he wasn't going to lose.

He achieved that with his ability to make it feel like a rivalry had consumed his very soul.

He told Tony Schiavone to get the hell out of the ring in a tremendous extension of his character arc. He loathes the trappings of television. He just wants to fight and tell people as quickly as he can that he's going to win the fight. He went nose-to-nose with Mox and told him like a man directly to his face, as close as he could possibly get, that he was going to destroy him. He didn't need to do anything else.

The incandescent conviction with which he spoke those words, and his explanation that he was never going to quit because he gave up carrying on the family name to win a World championship, was more than enough. This was hard, real, everything that is electrifying and credible about the sport.

His body language and reaction to Mox's rebuttal was sensational too. At the merest mention of anything that wasn't about the upcoming war, Eddie screamed "Who cares?!" over and over again to convey the idea that absolutely nothing else mattered to him other than it.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!