WWE superstar Kofi Kingston recently spoke to DAZN about a number of different subjects, including how he was thrusted into the main event scene back in 2019, and how he wishes his world title loss to Brock Lesnar on the FOX debut of SmackDown went down differently. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Recalls WWE giving him an opportunity after Ali got injured:
There’s always a chance. You show up to work one day, and they tell you what you’re doing, and that’s what happened to me when Ali got hurt in 2019. They told me I’m going to be in the Elimination Chamber, and we’re going to have you do a gauntlet match, and you’re probably going to be in there for an hour plus. Can you do it? I got thrown in that scene. Then we all know what happened after that in 2019 with the KofiMania craze. It’s not cool when I say it. I hate when it comes out of my mouth, me saying KofiMania. It’s nails on a chalkboard to me.
Says there’s always a chance you can get thrusted into the main event scene:
You just never know what’s going to happen. For example, on Raw this past Monday, me having a match with Randy Orton (and) having a really good match there. Then who would have thought that I would be the one to answer the open challenge. Nobody on my timeline said that I was going to be the one to come out. People were surprised. You just never know. So there’s always a chance that you’re going to be thrust into the main event scene. The key is just to be ready at all times. When you come to work, be ready to knock it out of the park with whatever opportunity that you’re given. You just always show up to work with the mentality that I’m going to kick ass today. You just never know what’s going to happen in our world.
Says he wishes his world title loss to Brock Lesnar would have went down differently:
I told a lot of people that if it was up to me, I would have had that match be different in the way that it went down. But the thing is, that it’s not up to me. I think what we need to realize is that you control what you can control. That’s it. I don’t get mad over what I can’t control. I show up to work, and it’s like, ‘what we’re doing? Ok, maybe we can do it like this, but we’re going to do it like this’. Then once you have the outline of what’s going to happen, that’s the way that you proceed. I wish it would have gone down differently. I appreciate that a lot of people were so angry with the way that it went down. I’m always just trying to work towards what’s next. For me to come into work and be disgruntled about the way that things were handled, I’m the only one that’s going to be affected by that. But what I can control is going out and starting afresh, getting back on the horse and riding, and keeping that positive attitude. I would say that I was disappointed with the way that it went down. But again, I wasn’t so mad that I was going to come into work and just pout. I’m not going to come pout and be mad. That’s not my style. I’ve never been like that. It’s always been just a matter of just pushing forward no matter what. So that’s what I did. You just keep on marching until the wheels fall off.