Eddie Kingston & CM Punk’s beef is based on a real life incident from their indie days

Not that Eddie Kingston can’t sell an entirely kayfabe angle, but if his words felt a little more real when he and CM Punk were promo-ing at each other on last Friday’s Rampage, it’s probably because they were based in reality.

That’s according to a wrestler who wrote in to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer ran the anonymous quote in today’s edition:

“I can fully vouch for Eddie’s promo on Punk the other night. I was sitting right there in an IWA Mid South locker room when Punk called Eddie and his partner at the time, Blackjack Marciano, fat, lazy and unsafe. Marciano had just accidentally injured Delirious in a previous match and Punk was hot about it, so just buried them nonstop. I could see why Eddie hung onto that hate and anger for so long.”

A little internet sleuthing at my favorite website, Cagematch, leads me to believe this 2004 IWA Mid-South show in Evansville, Indiana might be ground zero for one of Full Gear’s hottest matches. If I’m right, it also gives us a tantalizing list of possible identities for Meltzer’s anonymous source:

ALL WORKERS: Abyss, Ace Steel, AJ Styles, Alex Shelley, Anthony Franco, Arik Cannon, Austin Aries, BJ Whitmer, Chad Collyer, Chris Candido, Chris Sabin, Christopher Daniels, Claudio Castagnoli, CM Punk, Danny Daniels, Davey Andrews, Delirious, Eddie Kingston, Evan Starsmore, Jack Marciano, Jim Fannin, Matt Turner, Mercedes Martinez, MsChif, Nate Webb, Nigel McGuinness, Petey Williams, Roderick Strong, Ryan Boz, Samoa Joe, Shane Hagadorn, Steve Stone, Super Dragon, The Wild Cards

We’ll never know, and it doesn’t really matter, but it’s a fun little diversion.

What does matter is that 2004 is a long time ago, and both men have talked a great deal about how much growing up they’ve done over the years. Even if there are any residual hard feelings from IWA Mid-South Autumn Armageddon, they’re professionals who are only using that in the right way ahead of the PPV tomorrow night (Nov. 13).

I mean, they were able to work together to call this IWA classic in 2005, so it can’t be all bad...