Former WWE Champion reflects on his personal rivalry with Randy Orton
Randy Orton is widely respected and beloved in the wrestling world. The Viper has been on hiatus for over a year, and many fans eagerly await his WWE return. Recently, a former WWE Champion talked about his personal rivalry with Orton.
The Apex Predator does not have a clean reputation as, in the past, he had been the center of attention in several issues with his peers. One such incident was in 2009 during his on-screen rivalry with Kofi Kingston.
The two revisited their real-life issues in the storyline after a decade. In between, they buried the hatchet. Kofi Kingston reflected on his summer feud with Randy Orton in 2019. Their first encounter during this time was at SummerSlam.
While speaking to Toronto Sun, Kofi recalled the closing moments of his match against Orton for the WWE Championship and how his son stood up to The Viper when the latter "heckled" at his family.
"Most kids, they see a big, strapping guy like Randy Orton and they’d start to cower in their seats and get scared and start crying. But my older son, he was ready to fight," he said with a laugh. "He was ready to jump the barricade and fight Orton himself. At that time, I think he was like 6 or 7 years old. That was just a funny memory there because we didn’t know Randy was going to do that stuff. But sure enough, they were down to jump in there and help their pops out. That was a really fun moment."
Kofi Kingston felt it was "awesome" to revisit his rivalry with Randy Orton as it was "boiling for like a decade plus," and he got to do it while representing the company as its top champion.
Kofi Kingston believes he is similar to Roman Reigns based on how they have evolved on WWE TV
When Kofi Kingston made his WWE debut in 2008, he had a gimmick that saw him speak in a Jamaican accent. He gradually transitioned into the character he is best known for today.
In the aforementioned interview, The New Day star praised Roman Reigns. He spoke about how he feels they are similar in some ways specifically because:
"I think Roman has done a fantastic job," Kingston said. "If you go back and look what Roman started off as and what he is now, the difference is legitimate night and day. Being able to be yourself is, I think, the key to really going to the next level and really immersing yourself in your character. It makes it a lot easier when there’s a little bit of yourself in there. I think in that way, there’s certainly some similarities between myself, being able to move past the Jamaican persona, to who I am." [H/T: Toronto Sun]
Roman Reigns and Randy Orton were reportedly slated to wrestle at SummerSlam last year, but plans had to change owing to The Viper's injury. A new report surfaced online recently about the WWE star's return date. Check out the details here.