Opinion: Why Vince McMahon double crossing Kofi Kingston was a huge mistake
Let's be honest here, while watching a superstar get tricked out of a title opportunity or a high profile match might be an effective storytelling tool and help move the plot along, it also loses its effect both in storyline and with its audience when it is repeatedly used. Unfortunately for the WWE Universe, this is one of the tropes that the company seems to overuse lately.
Think about it! WWE started things off by having Vince McMahon remove Becky Lynch from the Raw Women's title picture. While it was an effective move on WWE's part, it has lost all meaning lately between Kofi Kingston repeatedly getting tricked out of a WWE title shot, but also by McMahon taking Strowman out of a Universal title match earlier this year.
If nothing else, WWE needs to find new ways to tell this story and stop relying on Vince McMahon simply removing someone from a match to create heat. Not only is it becoming extremely ineffective and unsurprising, it's becoming so stale that it's almost easy to predict what's going to happen next.
Vince McMahon walks in, talks a superstar up for a few minutes and then pulls out the rug from them in some nefarious way. Then the crowd either eat it up or act indifferently and McMahon is usually never heard from again on the matter. With that being said, WWE has kept McMahon involved in the Kofi Kingston storyline, which is an interesting move since he's literally dropped out of all others.
And why did he, anyway? Sure, Strowman getting taken out of his title match was written off as a punishment, but McMahon hasn't been involved in the ongoing storyline between Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, which one would think should have the Chairman's full attention between now and WrestleMania 35.
Again, it's obvious why WWE tricked Kofi Kingston out of the title opportunity on Smackdown Live. Anyone could see that it was just a way to anger fans and keep the support for Kingston going strong. The problem however is that Kingston is no longer in need of that storytelling device due to his popularity reaching a fever pitch over the last couple of months.
In all honesty, Vince McMahon's little swerves should have ended on Smackdown Live. He should have given Kingston the match he so rightly deserved after going through five other men and just try to find a more creative way to double cross him over during the actual match.
At least that way, WWE could have finally given him the moment he deserved since Fastlane earlier this year and finally give fans what they have wanted for a long time now. WWE could have simply kept the storyline going by deceiving Kingston over in other ways and could start promoting his big match at WrestleMania in the process.
In the end, WWE must find more effective ways to tell this story or risk losing their audience before the biggest pay per view of the year. Beyond that, they need to stop going to the well too many times on many of their other overused tropes, which would really help to make the product much more unpredictable.