The Royal Rumble is at hand… this weekend, we will see two instances of the most excited special match type that WWE has to offer. 30 men and women in their respective matches all vying for one opportunity. It’s sure to be full of fun and surprises. And the field feels more wide open this year than usual to me, hence this mini-series! I don’t think you discount even the longest of longshots, like the subject of this article – Kofi Kingston!
In the days leading up to the Royal Rumble, you’ll see articles like this going into the various favorites to win it all. Ten for the men, and ten for the women – but with both matches, one spot is left blank! This is because you get to decide who the last superstars we’re looking at are! You can vote on that here. These polls will only be open for a little less than two days now, closing at the stroke of midnight this Friday!
With that said, let’s take a dive into someone who is more a sentimental favorite than a betting favorite…
Kofi Kingston – Relevant Stats
- WWE Debut: 2008 (Vignettes began in 2007)
- First Rumble appearance: 2009
- He has never won a Rumble match before
- This will be his thirteenth Rumble appearance. (Greatest Royal Rumble included.)
- He is a former WWE Champion.
- He has amassed eight total Rumble eliminations.
- Current betting odds: +3300
How 2019 Went For Kofi Kingston:
I think it’s safe to say that nobody expected Kofi to have the year he had in 2019. Not the least of which the man himself! Kofi’s been a WWE mainstay for well over a decade now, a fact that I’m sure will make plenty of you feel old. He’s always been popular and well known for his hunger for midcard championships, but aside from a false start main event push in 2009, he’s never touched the top of the card. Even when the New Day emerged and became a surprise hit as a trio, it didn’t necessarily move him much higher.
All seemed normal as he rolled into 2019, but then a weird bit of destiny came to be. Common consensus is that Mustafa Ali, who at the time had basically just moved from 205 Live to SmackDown, was in line for a sudden moonpush as an underdog babyface. The thought is that they devised a lengthy gauntlet stay for him that would build to his entry to an Elimination Chamber for the WWE title, where he would then just barely lose to Daniel Bryan, setting up a big Mania one-on-one match. But then… Ali got injured right before this would’ve happened and all that instead went to Kofi.
I do basically believe this story. Whether Ali was going to actually win the WWE title in the end, I can’t be sure. Nor am I positive that they immediately decided then and there that Kofi would become champ when the time came to sub him in. All that’s for certain is that Ali was meant to be in that Chamber and when he got hurt, Kofi took his place. And thus, he entered the Gauntlet match instead as well.
That night, on February 12th of 2019, everything changed for Kofi Kingston.
The gauntlet was to determine who would enter the Chamber last. Kofi got the unlucky draw of starting against the champion himself, Daniel Bryan. But he fought his hardest anyway… and fought him and fought him for nearly half an hour until eventually he managed to surprise him with an outta nowhere Trouble In Paradise and he straight up pinned the champion right there to eliminate him. And somehow, that was only the beginning. He would go on to pin Jeff Hardy and Samoa Joe in succession as well. Ultimately he’d given all he had by the time AJ Styles came out but still he battled as much as he could before succumbing.
After a staggering 52 minute performance, suddenly the always beloved wrestler was legitimized as a main eventer.
Then, in the Elimination Chamber match he came frightfully close to winning the WWE title right there. He entered #3, pinned Randy Orton and was among the final two with Bryan yet again, he man he’d already proven he could pin. Ultimately got the better of him this night, but he was given a standing ovation for his efforts afterwards.
The chase was on at that point. With his New Day brethren backing him up, he kept demanding a title match at WrestleMania. Finally he was given a meager chance in the form of a gauntlet he’d have to run. For another 48 minutes and 15 seconds he fought on, getting past Sheamus, Cesaro, Erick Rowan, Samoa Joe and Randy Orton… only to again be defeated by Bryan, who had entered himself into the match at the last minute. But then, in one of the sweeter moments in wrestling that year, Kofi’s partners Xavier Woods and Big E took it upon themselves to right this wrong. They entered a gauntlet of their own just to get their man into that title match, and they beat just about every team in the division to make it happen, including Bryan and Rowan.
Finally, at WrestleMania itself, Kofi did the unthinkable and won the WWE Championship.
The instant it happened, the entire rest of his career took on a totally different context. Kofi would go on to have a pretty good reign, atleast by modern WWE standards. Not a ton of great matches, but he was a fighting champion and managed to hold onto the gold for most of 2019. Most notably he had a long rivalry with Randy Orton, a storied affair that traced it’s roots back a decade. For someone who’d been there and recalled those times, it was a nice story, a very rare bit of deep continuity.
But then… then came October. SmackDown moved to Fox and on their big debut on the big network, Kofi Kingston defended his WWE Championship against Brock Lesnar. And he was promptly pinned in seven seconds. He ran right in, was immediately hoisted up for an F-5 and that was it. It probably took you more time to read that recap than it did for Kofi to lose the title that night. It was damaging, certainly, doing a lot to undo what he’d spent all of 2019 doing. Effectively it put him right back where he used to be, which was almost hammered home by beginning his ninth tag title reign a month later.
His WWE title reign happened, ended and that was that, with his character accepting the stunning defeat with an inhuman quickness. Aside from a few cracks sent his way in recent weeks, there’s been little hint that he’s ever gonna try to regain the gold.
So where does that leave his Rumble chances?
Not great… but hey, he’s way higher on the board now than he has been any other year. Honestly, if it’s going to happen for Kofi at any time, it’s almost certainly going to be this year. Not saying a whole lot… but it’s something. And it’s kinda funny because now I get to why I really wanted to do this particular preview. For years prior to 2019, I’d actually had it in mind that, should Kofi Kingston ever somehow become a world champion, it could only possibly happen after a Rumble win.
Kofi’s become deeply associated with the Rumble matches these past few years after all.
The Kofi Save is a fun little tradition that’s been a thing for over ten years now. He always finds a new, inventive and impressively athletic way to avoid elimination. But then he’s almost always taken out immediately after he gets back in, taking the wind out of everyone’s sails. What if we just… took that last part out, yannow?
While it’s become increasingly difficult for him to top himself, I don’t think he necessarily has to do that to win. Because my idea was always that he could FINALLY up and win the damn thing after putting on something of a Greatest Hits collection. Using everything he’s worked towards to make himself virtually impossible to eliminate.
Imagine if in one singular Rumble match, he brought back the handstands, the feet on the steps landing, the rolling chair save, the leap from the barricade, the Big E assist… every last one of them in one go, en route to winning the match. Can you picture the frenzy the audience would be in by that point? The magic and meaning of that moment? If anything could launch him right back into the stratosphere, surely this would be it.
What would his story be?
Honestly, in a way just winning the Rumble itself in this fashion would be a hell of a story. But beyond that… it’s not hard to imagine what the angle would be going forward. It’d be a pure, bonafide redemption story, something everyone can get into. I mean, Brock Lesnar utterly humiliated him if we’re being honest. He shared the ring with a monster and was swiftly made to look as though he did not belong. Not just in the same ring as him or in the same conversation, but in the same universe.
Kofi’s tried to play things off like it doesn’t bother him. Smile and laugh the pain away. But it eats at him, of course it does. He’s a competitor as much as anyone else is. And he fought so damn hard to finally become world champion, only to lose it in such devastating fashion. Lesnar did more than just beat him for a title, he sent him right back down the pecking order. Right back into the status quo he’d been trapped in for a decade.
Of course he should want another shot at him. Of course Kofi should want the chance to right this wrong and prove that the first match was a fluke. Should he win the Rumble, there’s no way he’s doing anything other than going after the Beast, Brock Lesnar. Even if he has to jump brands and leave his partners on SmackDown without him to do it. That’s another neat facet this angle would have, but I’m sure they’d support his decision.
Is any of this even a little bit likely?
No, not really. But it sure would be a neat story. It’d practically justify that seven second loss in the first place. But I’m not getting my hopes up…
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