Kofi Kingston as the US Champion is meaningless

This past Monday night on RAW, Kofi Kingston defeated WWE United States Champion Antonio Cesaro to earn his second run as US Champion and end Cesaro’s lengthy reign in the process. Kofi will likely defend the belt against Cesaro in a rematch or two before moving onto another feud for the championship.

Unfortunately for Kofi Kingston fans, however, this title reign means very, very little in the grand scheme of things.

Kofi has now been on WWE TV for about six years. And in that time, he’s won several WWE Tag Team Championships as well as four runs with the Intercontinental Championship. Normally, with a track record like that in that time period, you would think Kofi would be onto bigger and better things, like main eventing pay-per-views and being a top contender for the WWE or World Championships. Yet, all these years later, that has not happened.

Kofi is in a weird place and, quite frankly, WWE doesn’t seem to know what to do with him. It seems like he has been on the cusp of entering the upper echelon of WWE for several years now, yet it has never happened. A few years ago, it really looked like he was headed for bigger things when he entered into a feud with former multi-time champion Randy Orton, even dominating “The Viper” in several brawls. However, much like most feuds with Orton, it was rather one-sided in Orton’s favour, and the feud was scrapped after a couple of losses.

Fast-forward to the next year, and rumours circulated that Kofi would be winning the Royal Rumble and move onto Wrestlemania. Didn’t happen. Fast-forward once more, and it was said Kofi would be booked to win Money in the Bank at Wrestlemania. Instead, Jack Swagger took home the prize, and Kofi once again became lost in the mid-card, a spot he has been in ever since.

While the US and IC titles are often used as a springboard for the World or WWE titles for many wrestlers, Kofi Kingston will not be one of them. In fact, in the last few years, the WWE US title actually seems to be somewhat of a curse when you consider where the former champions are on the card now (Santino Marella, Jack Swagger and Zack Ryder all immediately come to mind).

And things likely aren’t going to be much better for the former champion, Antonio Cesaro. While it was expected he was going to be a big star in the company, Vince McMahon is reportedly unimpressed with him. It’s sad, because Cesaro should be a major star in the company. Even former WWE Champion CM Punk agrees with me, having stated as such in a recent interview. Both Antonio Cesaro and Kofi Kingston are being criminally misused in the company right now. Both are extremely charismatic, athletic, excellent performers, good talkers, and maybe most importantly, have insane international appeal – an area where WWE makes a huge portion of its profits every year.

If WWE can surprise me and do something big with either or both men by the end of the year, more power to them, and I will be happy to change my tune. However, I am not holding my breath at this point.