5 Reasons why WWE ended Kofi Kingston's 21-match winning streak
Kofi Kingston passed out to Samoa Joe’s Coquina Clutch submission on the July 1 episode of Raw, bringing an end to his 21-match winning streak on WWE television.
The New Day member, who was not originally advertised to compete in a match on the show, came to Big E and Xavier Woods’ rescue after Samoa Joe interrupted their tag team match against The Viking Raiders.
Following a commercial break, the 2-on-2 tag match became a 3-on-3 tag match, with Joe defeating Kingston to gain the upper hand ahead of his match against the WWE champion at Extreme Rules on July 14.
This is not the first time that Kingston has lost via pinfall or submission during his winning streak – Dolph Ziggler pinned him on the June 25 episode of SmackDown Live in a 2-out-of-3 Falls match – but the six-man tag was his first official loss since Daniel Bryan defeated him in a gauntlet match on March 19.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at five reasons why WWE decided to end Kingston’s winning streak on this week's Raw.
#5 Samoa Joe needed to gain credibility
Samoa Joe has spent the last two summers trying to win a world title on each of WWE’s main-roster brands.
In 2017, he won a Fatal 5-Way match at Extreme Rules to set up a Universal Championship match against Brock Lesnar at Great Balls of Fire, where he put up a good fight but ultimately lost after just one F-5. One month later, he was unable to win the title again in a Fatal 4-Way match at SummerSlam.
In 2018, history repeated itself for “The Samoan Submission Machine” when he faced AJ Styles in four PPV matches – SummerSlam, Hell In A Cell, Super Show-Down and Crown Jewel – but he failed to win the WWE Championship on every occasion.
After two years of unsuccessful world title challenges, Joe desperately needed to make a statement ahead of his match at Extreme Rules against Kofi Kingston – and statements do not get much bigger than defeating the current champion.