WWE superstar Kofi Kingston recently appeared on Table Talk to discuss all things pro-wrestling. Highlights of his interview can be found below.
On people not recognizing The Rock as a black champion:
It’s silly that people try to not count The Rock in that category because regardless of what you look like, you are what you are. He’s black. Whether he’s half-black, he’s black.
Says he takes pride in being the first African Born WWE champion:
I take a lot of pride in that sentiment (of being the first African American born WWE Champion). For a long time, people of color, especially African Americans have been waiting for someone who likes exactly like them to hold that title. On Twitter and social media, the moment it happened, I got so many messages and tears. The video of MVP and Shad [Gaspard] crying — [MVP] doesn’t like when I bring that up, that he cries, because he wants to be a tough guy — what’s important to me is to be able to inspire people to go out and do great things. Winning championships is cool, when I was a kid, that’s what I wanted to do. The more seasons I’ve become, the more I realize it’s all about paying it forward and being able to motivate people to follow their dreams. For me to be someone that young African Americans can look to and say ‘anything is possible because I saw it happen’ is a big difference than saying ‘anything is possible’ in theory. There were so many people who never thought they’d see the day when someone who looked like them got to be WWE Champion, and it did. When you think about where we were in wrestling 100 years ago or even 50 years ago, you just didn’t see African American people in positions of championship or substance. Last month, the majority of the champions were African American. We’ve come a long way as a society to be in this position. We take a lot of pride in that.
Full video is below. (H/T and transcribed by Fightful)