Kofi Kingston credited with saving current WWE star's career: "This is probably my last match"
A current WWE star is thankful to Kofi Kingston for saving his career. Kingston put on a show against Ivar in September 2023 and it led to the 300-pound star embarking on a singles run.
Ivar was the latest guest on Insight with Chris Van Vliet and one of the topics they talked about was his match against Kingston on RAW. It was the 40-year-old's first singles bout since Erik went out with an injury. He even thought that management would want to keep him away from television because his tag team partner was sidelined.
However, the banger match with Kofi Kingston convinced Triple H to give Ivar a chance as a singles star. Reflecting on the contest, The Viking Raiders member said:
"We were scheduled for [a] two out of three falls match with The New Day, [but] that match got scrapped. And then they had they decided to put me and Kofi into a singles match instead, but they didn't cut our time. So we had the same amount of time as we would have had for a two out of three falls match. Then I'm like, 'This is probably my last match because historically when the one tag guy goes out, both tag guys are out.'"
Ivar further spoke about his discussion with Kofi Kingston before the match.
"So I said to Kofi, 'This is probably my last match. I'll be out with [Erik] while he's getting fixed up.' It's like, 'Alright, let's just do it. Let's just do the match. Let's kill it. And that's what we did. And after the match, I got called over and they said, 'Hey Ivar, do you mind sticking around in singles stuff, while Erik's out?' Absolutely!" [27:37 - 28:21]
Ivar trained Kofi Kingston and other WWE stars
Kofi Kingston having a great match against Ivar was a full-circle moment for both WWE stars. The New Day member learned from Ivar, who trained many WWE stars in the New England area at Chaotic Wrestling.
In addition to Kingston, Ivar trained Tommaso Ciampa, Dijak, Oney Lorcan, and Mercedes Mone. Other notable alumni of Chaotic Wrestling include John Cena, Kenny Dykstra, Carmelo Hayes, Austin Aries, Christopher Nowinski, Low Ki, and Matt Taven.
Before he became a trainer and a pro wrestler, Ivar was initially known as Handsome Johnny. He learned the craft from Killer Kowalski, who also trained Triple H, Chyna, Perry Saturn, and Big John Studd.
If you use any quotes from the article's first half, please credit Insight and add an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.