The Most Insane Wrestling Lore HIDDEN On The Internet

When Eddie Kingston appeared to attempt to eat CM Punk's head in their seminal and era-defining post-promo brawl on a 2021 edition of Rampage, perhaps he honestly felt like he was doing unto others before they did unto him. Sure, 'The Punker' wasn't going dislodge Kingston's boiled-red raging dome from his shoulders in the heat of battle, but he'd bitten his head off verbally just seconds earlier, and as it turns out, 'The Mad King' has something of a history with fighting beasts not necessarily of his own species.

CHIKARA was an all-things to all-fans promotion, which is odd considering how niche it was willing to be in order to pop the boys, pop its ultra-dedicated fanbase and - before social media took all the currency out of it - sell itself on the strength of a match or moment going viral on forums and other shared wrestling spaces. A lighter take on something like Ring Of Honor with an in-ring ceiling that cleared TNA with ease, CHIKARA's vibes could also be found in PWG, making that company way more than the spotfest haven it was erroneously purported to be. Like so many other ideas, wrestlers and promotions from the time, it deserves inclusion amongst the countless other tiny steps towards the existence of All Elite Wrestling as viable opposition to WWE. 

AEW thrives when it spotlights performers that might not necessarily get a look-in with the market leader, and in spite of the infamous picture of him in a company-branded t-shirt from a training seminar, Kingston is undoubtedly one of those talents. He honed so much of what made him the realest-feeling wrestler in the game before ever working on television, including a CHIKARA run that saw him win their Grand Championship, form, join and destroy stables and, appropriately, become a monster in order to fight the monsters of the world.

Out there in the internet wilderness or from the last of the never-say-die tape traders, try and track down Kingston's work against the likes of The Proletariat Boar Of Moldova from CHIKARA Key Decisions, The Lithuanian Snow Troll from CHIKARA For Your Eyes Only, Volgar from the equally Bond-esque Moonraker, and various battles with the group's Colony of Ants - including one in particular that might these days reach into his backpack to give his performance the most passive of thumbs up. The juxtaposition between Kingston and this cast is worth the hunt on its own, not least when comparing that-era Eddie to the 2026 version of himself.

As a final recommendation, make sure to check out Kingston's battle with masked and mysterious luchador El Generico, if only to prove that maybe the internet isn't forever after all. Despite building up a remarkable legacy without the backing of WWE and in a post-WCW landscape, Generico wasn't long for the world, and indeed hasn't been visibly present in it since. Within two years of his loss to Kingston in January 2011, he wasn't just out of his mask but out of the industry completely. Rumours abound to this day of what became of him, but in an era where any mystery can be solved with a simple online search, that one is beyond even this article's reach.