Edward Moore (born December 12, 1981), better known by his ring name Eddie Kingston, is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a one-time and the inaugural AEW Continental Champion. He also performs for AEW's sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a one-time ROH World Champion, and in Japan for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a one-time Strong Openweight Champion. He simultaneously defended all three championships as the singular Continental Crown 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, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). Outside of brief stints in Impact and ROH, he was a mainstay on the independent circuit for 18 years before signing with AEW.
Edward Moore was born in Yonkers, New York, on December 12, 1981, the son of a Puerto Rican mother and Irish father. He had a difficult childhood in Yonkers and was constantly getting into fights at school, later stating that he was kept out of trouble and potentially jail by watching old wrestling tapes, particularly from the Continental Wrestling Association and All Japan Pro Wrestling; he estimates that he has watched the June 1994 match between Toshiaki Kawada and Mitsuharu Misawa over 1,000 times. He was a member of the Iron Workers Union to support himself whilst pursuing a career in wrestling.
Moore initially trained alongside BlackJack Marciano and Jigsaw under Kevin Knight at the Independent Wrestling Federation in Woodland Park, New Jersey. After he was kicked out of the school for undisclosed reasons, he became part of the second class of students to train at the Chikara Wrestle Factory under Mike Quackenbush and Chris Hero.
Wild Cards / Toxic Trio (2002–2004)
On October 12, 2002, Moore made his professional wrestling debut under the ring name Eddie Kingston at Chikara's seventh event, where he and BlackJack Marciano (a tag team known as the Wild Cards) defeated Melvin Snodgrass and Lester Crabtree in a tag team match. In 2003, the Wild Cards began feuding with Ultra/ZERO (Mister ZERO and UltraMantis). 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 the Wild Cards moved on to feuding with Team F.I.S.T. (Icarus and Gran Akuma). The following year, the Wild Cards teamed up with Jigsaw to form the Toxic Trio, while Team F.I.S.T. recruited Quackenbush. On May 22, 2004, the Toxic Trio faced Team F.I.S.T. in an Ultimate Jeopardy match where the Wild Cards' hair, Jigsaw's and Akuma's masks, and Quackenbush's various championships were on the line. Akuma forced Kingston to tap out to end the match and, per the stipulation, both the Wild Cards were shaved bald. 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.
BLKOUT / Roughnecks (2007–2009)
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 a trio named the Roughnecks. They defeated the Order of the Neo-Solar Temple (UltraMantis Black, Crossbones, and Sami Callihan) to advance to the 2009 King of Trios, where they were 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 claimed to be able to out-wrestle 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 Castagnoli and his former tag team partner Chris Hero were shady and deserved respect from no one. At the end of the event, Kingston was proven right as Castagnoli turned heel 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 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.