Kemo
04-30-2023, 09:58 PM
Kofi Kingston's reign as WWE Champion was a long-time coming for fans, but the promotion knew from the very start how it was going to end.
Kingston won his first, and to date only, WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35 with a victory over Daniel Bryan, in an emotional moment for the Ghanaian wrestler. Kingston had often been considered one of WWE's most overlooked Superstars, and much of the storyline going into WrestleMania was about how he was apparently not WWE Championship material.
KofiMania Ends
When WWE announced that Kingston was to defend his championship against Brock Lesnar on the first SmackDown on FOX, fans feared the worst. Sure enough, Lesnar not only won the title, but did so in seconds, infuriating the audience. A post-match segment with the debuting Cain Velasquez all-but-confirmed that Kingston was out of the title picture.
Speaking to Fightful's In The Weeds, former WWE writer Dave Schilling said that plans for Kofi's loss had been in the works for months.
"I never felt that storyline was treated in a way where Kofi came off as a 'token champion.' That was a great storyline and I'm very proud of the small part I had to play in that
"We can debate how it turned out in the end, when he lost to Brock Lesnar, which I found out about in April... [The writers] were talking about, 'the plan is first 'SmackDown' on Fox, Brock is going to come in and win the title and it's going to be a quick match. That's exactly what happened after I left."
While Kingston would never get his one-on-one rematch with The Beast, the two did face-off during the Men's 2020 Royal Rumble, which saw Lesnar eliminate Kingston. By WrestleMania 36, one-year after his title win, Kingston was back in the tag-team division, where he has remained to this day.
Kingston won his first, and to date only, WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35 with a victory over Daniel Bryan, in an emotional moment for the Ghanaian wrestler. Kingston had often been considered one of WWE's most overlooked Superstars, and much of the storyline going into WrestleMania was about how he was apparently not WWE Championship material.
KofiMania Ends
When WWE announced that Kingston was to defend his championship against Brock Lesnar on the first SmackDown on FOX, fans feared the worst. Sure enough, Lesnar not only won the title, but did so in seconds, infuriating the audience. A post-match segment with the debuting Cain Velasquez all-but-confirmed that Kingston was out of the title picture.
Speaking to Fightful's In The Weeds, former WWE writer Dave Schilling said that plans for Kofi's loss had been in the works for months.
"I never felt that storyline was treated in a way where Kofi came off as a 'token champion.' That was a great storyline and I'm very proud of the small part I had to play in that
"We can debate how it turned out in the end, when he lost to Brock Lesnar, which I found out about in April... [The writers] were talking about, 'the plan is first 'SmackDown' on Fox, Brock is going to come in and win the title and it's going to be a quick match. That's exactly what happened after I left."
While Kingston would never get his one-on-one rematch with The Beast, the two did face-off during the Men's 2020 Royal Rumble, which saw Lesnar eliminate Kingston. By WrestleMania 36, one-year after his title win, Kingston was back in the tag-team division, where he has remained to this day.