Kofi Kingston Reflects On Losing WWE Title To Brock Lesnar
Kofi Kingston has revealed his true feeling about his 2019 run as WWE Champion, which ended abruptly when he had to face Brock Lesnar.
It was in early 2019 when “Kofi-Mania” dominated the WWE Smackdown brand. That was the time when longtime midcard/tag team wrestler Kofi Kingston got the big push to the main event scene. After a story that had some twists and turns, Kofi earned a WWE Title shot at WrestleMania 35.
As the challenger to the heel WWE Champion Daniel Bryan, there were definitely some doubts if Kofi could win. During a competitive match with the fans strongly behind Kingston, he found a way to get it done and Kofi won the WWE Title. That led to a memorable celebration with his New Day buddies Big E & Xavier Woods along with Kofi’s young sons joining them in the ring.
Kingston would go on to hold the WWE Title for 180 days, which is about six months. Brock Lesnar ended up beating Kingston very quickly on the 20th Anniversary of Smackdown episode on October 4, 2019, which was the first time Smackdown was on Fox as part of a new TV.
Kofi recently spoke to Steve Fall of NBC Sports Boston about how he didn’t get a rematch with Lesnar and why it was such a quick match.
“I have no idea. I don’t really dwell on the why. There are a lot of things in the industry that you look at sometimes and go, ‘why did that happen?’ You just move on and the wheel keeps on turning. For me to dwell on what happened in that match with Brock Lesnar doesn’t serve me any purpose. It’s not going to make me better or change what happened or do anything besides make me feel bad. I’m not going to let it do that. I have a lot more career left to handle. It’s a scenario where, it’s a rare and unique opportunity to be on this roster. As far as my run, being WWE Champion, I got to go six months almost to the day. That is a very long reign. If you look back at how many current champions have had a reign of six-months or more, it’s Brock Lesnar, Bobby Lashley, Roman Reigns, and myself. You can’t be mad at that.”
The 41-year-old Kingston also mentioned some of the other great superstars he successfully defended the WWE Title against.
“All the great rivalries I had were great. Going up against Kevin Owens. Dolph Ziggler, he and I fought for the Intercontinental Championship. Samoa Joe, we got to show some personality and go up against some of the greats. AJ Styles at the beginning. Randy Orton, tying everything together seeing as I was in for a ‘push’ in 2009 and having a rivalry with Randy Orton and it didn’t work out. To be able to button that up was great. I enjoyed my title run, I enjoyed every single moment of it because I know how rare it is to be in that championship role. You embrace it.”