OTT Wrestling Promoter Joe Cabray on Eddie Kingston Sudden Withdrawal The Day of ScrapperMania Event

For the 2023 iteration of the Over The Top Wrestling tentpole event ‘ScrapperMania’, in collaboration with All Elite Wrestling, the announced headline act for the show was top AEW star, Jon Moxley. Unfortunately due to a communication on the North American promotions part, Mox was withdrawn from the independent promotions showpiece event at very late notice, with tickets being sold, and multiple events promoted off the back of the announced headliner agreed to appear.

Two of AEW’s top stars were volunteered by the promotion to appear in the previously announced headliners stead – OTT alumni Eddie Kingston, and the United Kingdom’s own PAC. Eddie Kingston had been due to appear at the January 2023 OTT Homecoming shows in Dublin, Belfast, and Wolverhampton, but due to the untimely death and funeral of Jay Briscoe, Kingston was unable to appear, but had given his word publicly he would make it up to OTT and fans alike.

With the promise of Kingston fulfilling his previously announced dates, cards were adjusted, promotional materials amended at great expense, and there was huge excitement for seeing the Mad King once again in an independent wrestling ring on these shores. However, on the day he was due to arrive and perform on the first of his three booked dates, OTT management tweeted that Eddie Kingston would not be able to perform due to contracting the COVID-19 virus and that NJPW stand-out Gabriel Kidd would be his replacement.

While speaking on the OTT podcast, the owner of the promotion Joe Cabray discussed the events of the day, and his own thoughts on the situation, alongside AEW’s understanding:

‘AEW understands there was a lot of money just dropped on this. And then you have the Eddie Kingston situation, which is just more money just dropped. Which is no reflection of AEW’, Cabray said. ‘I don’t believe the COVID test failure 2 hours before he is supposed to get on a flight. I just don’t buy it. And that was a really tough one because Eddie is supposed to be the makeup’.

‘He pulled literally less than 24 hours before the show. I don’t know what’s going on with Eddie; I know he has a hernia issue at the moment. I just hope that whatever is going on with him, you know, that he gets sorted. Will we bring him in again? I don’t think so‘.

Elaborating further in regards to the costs associated with the late pull-out, Cabray would add:

‘I calculated it again last night, I think we dropped €3,500 on lost flights, hotels, and work visas. It’s just too much to try to justify tying it for a third time. It’s a lot of money for an independent wrestling company, to just drop €3,500 like that on someone.

With Kingston pulling out another European independent wrestling promotion advertised event, Progress Wrestling’s Heavy Metal show, fans, and wrestlers alike across the wrestling space will be curious as to where we see Kingston next and will be sending thoughts and good wishes, for his health and well-being.