Kofi Kingston: Not An Over-Night Sensation
Unless you are living under a rock, you might have heard of a fan wave going around at the moment to support Kofi Kingston to win the WWE Heavyweight Championship this year at Wrestlemania. Social media is flooded with such messages and #KofiMania is trending all over the globe. These have forced the management and Vince to give him a push. He is still not in the title picture yet, but the way that storyline is progressing, it is a matter of weeks before we see Kofi going toe to toe with Daniel Bryan in the show of shows.
It all started a week before the Elimination Chamber in Smackdown, where all the participants of the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match were put in a gauntlet match, with the winner getting to enter the chamber last. Kofi took the complete advantage of the opportunity given to him and went to survive in the match for around 50 minutes and eliminating wrestlers like Daniel Bryan, Samoa Joe and Jeff Hardy in the process.
Because of his endurance, strength and the will to fight, Kofi won many hearts that day and fans started looking at him as more than a mid-card player. That was the first time people had taken him seriously, and many seem to think that it was just because of that one gauntlet match. Fans seem to forget about all the efforts that he had put over the 11 years of his career to get to the point from where he could pull out that one impressive performance.
Kofi is not an overnight sensation. He is a star who was just discovered late. While he has spent most of his career as part of the popular stable, New Day, he has had one of the most decorated careers, with little acclaim and recognition. He took the tough route to get to WWE as he first had to prove his worth as a competitor in many different promotions like Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), Chaotic Wrestling, Deep South Wrestling (DSW) and Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW).
He made his main roster debut on the rebooted ECW brand, defeating indie sourdough, Kimo. He instantly became crowd's favourite with his hi-flying athletic ability. Despite being on a comparatively unpopular brand, he found a lot of fame and recognition within weeks.
It didn't take him much time to get his hand on the gold either as days after coming in Raw as part of the 2008 Supplemental Draft, he won the Intercontinental Championship for the first time, defeating Chris Jericho.
From there on, Kofi became one of the precursors of WWE’s mid-card, winning both the US and Intercontinental Championship two more times each over the next three years. After his first four years in WWE, he was a 3x IC Champion, 2x United States Champion, and World Tag Team Champion. In 2009, he entered his first Royal Rumble match and started the tradition of staving off elimination in the most unimaginable way.
Other than New Day, he has successfully formed teams with wrestlers like CM Punk, R-Truth, Evan Bourne and had won tag team championship with each one of them. Within the first five years of the career, he has had held different championship 10 times, which is a dream for any upcoming wrestler. He was a bonafide champion in his own regard but it seems like he peaked too early.
By 2014, he didn't have anything else to achieve in the mid-card and since the management was not looking to do anything with him in the main event's scene, it seemed like he will soon fade away. But, fortunately, in July, he started off one of the most successful factions, New Day with Big E and Xavier Woods and as they say, the rest is history.
The trio redefined the tag team division and till date has won tag team championship 5 times, pushing Kofi to become the longest reigning (combined) tag team champion in WWE's history and part of the longest reigning single run ever (483 days).
Kofi has been breaking the barriers since the last 11 years and even at the age of 37, he is still keeping youngsters on his toes. He recently proved that he is more than capable to hang with stars like Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles and, Samoa Joe.
He has done everything that he could and is about time that he gets his due paid. He may have only gained recognition as the main event contender after that gauntlet match, but that match was 11 years in the making. With New Day and WWE fans by his side, 2019 is destined to be Kofi's year.