Kofi Kingston Discusses Daniel Bryan Helping Him Get Title Match At Wrestlemania, Losing to Brock Lesnar

Former WWE Heavyweight Champion Kofi Kingston recently sat down on Corey Graves Podcast After the Bell along with New Day members Big E and Xavier Woods to discuss Kingston’s monumental rise to becoming the WWE Champion at Wrestlemania this past April. In October on the first Smackdown on Fox episode, Kingston disappointingly losing the title in eight seconds to Brock Lesnar.

Kingston stated that the original plan was not for him to be in the title match at Wrestlemania at all, and that it was actually Daniel Bryan who campaigned for Kingston to win the title at the biggest show of the year.

“[Daniel Bryan] pushed for that to happen. The plans weren’t for me to be at WrestleMania. I’m not sure who it was for Daniel to face, but Daniel went in and went to bat for me and the situation and the title match for us to happen. He had a big part in it too. It’s a testament to his state of mind as far as advancing the business and doing the right thing for the people and best product. I give a lot of credit to Daniel Bryan, who I think is legitimate, like a generational talent. It meant so much more because Bryan was so hot and Bryan is just so damn good in the ring, on the mic, with his character. He was so giving with the build to the story that it meant more.”

While not confirmed, the original plans were for Bryan to face Kevin Owens for the WWE Title at WrestleMania. The plan changed and Bryan ended up facing Kevin Owens and Mustafa Ali at Fastlane instead.

Kingston’s WWE Title run came to an abrupt end when he lost the title to Brock Lesnar in eight seconds on the debut episode of Friday Night Smackdown on FOX. Kingston spoke about how he doesn’t understand why people are upset on how his on-screen character reacted to the loss. Kingston stated that he can’t dwell on it and is just trying to push forward in his career.

“A lot of people will be on my social media and be like, ‘Kofi, you’re out there and you’re acting like you don’t care, man! You forget that you were the champion’ and this and that. And I’m like, well look … you’re asking my on-screen character to be angry as if it was my real character. And the reality … I’m a good guy who lost in 8 seconds, so as far as making a case for a rematch …. uhhhhh, like, what would my character have to say? You’re wanting my real-life character to take on this anger and be mad with what happened on-screen. So it’s just this weird conundrum.”

“You can’t dwell on one day. There’s been a lot of days that have been, I guess, negative – for lack of a better term – but if you dwell on those, then all of a sudden you’re miserable. You don’t want to come to work. And for me, I’m just trying to push forward. I appreciate the passion that people have, but I’m puzzled by the anger some people have towards me because I’m not the one who’s making all of those decisions.”

Thank you to Fightful.com for the quotes.

Matt’s Musings: Kingston seems like one of the genuinely good people in the wrestling business. I was lucky enough to be in the arena at this years Wrestlemania when Kingston finally became the WWE Champion. Although the title run didn’t end how anybody hoped it would, it is encouraging to see Kingston keeping a positive attitude throughout it all. Hopefully, Kingston can find his way back to the top of the card real soon.

You can listen to the podcast below.