I really wanted to talk about what this match on July 4 means to Brett Ison. I wanted to talk about how much Eddie Kingston means to him. How much we’ve talked about this match through the entirety of our friendship. I wanted to, but there just isn’t anyone that can talk about the importance of this match like the man himself. The following is something Brett sent to me a few nights ago.
An Ode to Eddie Kingston
I have had a lot of people ask me how I feel about finally getting this match with Eddie Kingston.
There were a handful of times that other promotions tried to make this match happen. Obviously, it didn’t and I understood that business is business. I had accepted that it wasn’t going to happen until I woke up to a message from a friend that read:
“Yo! You ready?”
“For what?” I replied…
“You and Kingston”
I answered the only way I knew how:
“Name the time and place”
Of course, I told those that are super close to me, but when the world got the announcement, that’s when it felt real. The response was surprising. Not for Kingston, because most know how all-around great he is in this sport, but for how many people really knew who I was, what I bring to the table, and that this was going to be a fight. At the end of the day, that’s what Eddie Kingston and myself are…fighters.
But to answer the question as to what this means to me..it’s everything. I can’t tell you how many times one of my heroes have saved my life.
There were a lot of times I was ready to call it quits in wrestling and in life. The thought that the one match that I hadn’t got yet was still there kept me from pulling the trigger or putting the pill bottle down. Instead, I turned on the computer and I watched Eddie Kingston matches, promos, highlight videos. Because there are three men that can captivate me and pull me in, allowing me to escape the darkness of my mind: Eddie Kingston, B-Boy, and Samoa Joe.
King once said “If I have to feel this pain, then everyone else in this locker room does too!”
That resonated with me, and I’ve kept that in my head ever since. Now I’m days away from looking across the ring at another hero. I get to show the world again that I am meant to do this. That I can hang with the best in the world. That I belong.
-Brett Ison (@IRONELBOW88 on Twitter)
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