Sunday\'s match between Eddie Kingston and Bryan Danielson may have been contested for a trio of championships on paper, but in reality, it meant much more.
Danielson challenged Kingston for the Continental Crown Championship (ROH World, NJPW STRONG Openweight, and AEW Continental Championships) at Revolution 2024. The contest stipulated that if Danielson lost, he\'d have to shake Kingston\'s hand out of respect. In the weeks leading up to this face-off, \'The American Dragon\' demonstrated repeated signs of disrespect toward Kingston, such as spitting in his face and flipping him off.
Danielson later revealed that his disregard stemmed from his belief that Kingston had fallen into several bad habits, and never lived up to his true potential. After Kingston defeated him at Revolution, though, Danielson came to a pivotal realization.
\"I thought it would hurt me more than anything to shake Eddie\'s hand and say that I respect him.\" Danielson said in a post-match promo. \"But there was a moment in that match where I knew I f***ed up his wrist. I\'m good at that. I\'m good at f***ing people up. And I know exactly how hurt he was, and he fought through it. There was this just this internal moment, this internal click that me not respecting Eddie, it wasn\'t Eddie.\
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Danielson Says The Underachiever Has Finally Realized His Potential
Though it may have taken longer than expected for Kingston to push past some of his struggles, Danielson is proud that he eventually did. In that same vein, Danielson is also proud of himself for seeing through his own \"bull****\" so he could give Kingston the nod that he well-deserved and earned.
\"All the things that we said about Eddie 20 years ago, about how much potential he had, about how he needed to work harder, about he needed to do this, and how he needed to do that, and how he needed to change his bad habits, and all of that. It took him a while, but he f***ing did it.
Here I was holding on to this petty bull****, and I realized it might have taken him longer, but the things that he\'s battled through and the things that he\'s struggled through, I should have given him my respect a long time ago.\
Eddie Kingston Is Grateful
For Eddie Kingston, the element of respect is all he ever wanted from his peers.
While championships are great resume boosters, Kingston believes that one\'s legacy is truly based on the amount of respect one garners from their cohorts. In his case, he was specifically aiming to impress the Blackpool Combat Club members -- Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, and Claudio Castagonli.
\"I don\'t care about promoters. No offense to the Twitter fans or fans that came out there. I appreciate y\'all, but what I care about is the respect from the boys, because at the end of the day, you guys are the ones that are going to be talking about me,\" Kingston told Danielson.
\"Whether I was good, whether I was bad, whether I was a waste or not. I don\'t want to get too emotional, so I\'m gonna get out of here. I just want to say thank you, Bryan. Dude, thank you for everything.\
