Speculating the career of Kofi Kingston
This would be Kingston’s last match on ECW because that following weekend he was drafted to Raw in the supplemental draft. Following in the footsteps of John Cena and Randy Orton, Kingston impressed the creative team enough to deserve a move to the WWE’s flagship show.
Kingston’s first match as a Raw superstar took place the day after he was drafted, when he took on Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental title at Night of Champions. Kingston found himself holding the gold before he even took his first step on a Raw stage. Shawn Michaels had Jericho distracted to enhance their storyline, but the fact the WWE felt confident enough to let Kingston hold the IC title this early in his career shows the confidence they held in him.
Kingston was good back then and was beginning to become one of the most popular wrestlers the WWE had to offer. That February, Kofi Kingston defeated Kane, surprisingly taking a spot in the World Heavyweight Title Elimination Chamber Match at No Way Out. Unfortunately, Kingston never made it into the match thanks to an ambush from Edge, who had lost his title already that night. Kingston had the skill in the ring to be in the match, but he never had enough mic skills to really make a difference in the build up to his feuds.
Kingston would push on, but with a little less momentum However, the writers didn’t have a real storyline for Kingston and he was forced to wrestle the mid-card for the next couple of years.
In 2009 and 2010, he held the mid-card titles of United States Championship and Intercontinental Championship on numerous occasions before moving further down the card. His loss to the Miz meant a steeper downfall for the high flying talent.
However, Kofi was again thrown into the mix after a few months through an interesting feud with Randy Orton. At survivor series, we even saw Team Kofi beat team Orton. With the end of the feud, Kofi was drafted to Smackdown reportedly after some problems he had with Orton.
On Smackdown, he then went on to the tag team division, partnering Evan Bourne in a very entertaining tag team. This was followed by a team with R Truth. From there on, Kofi has been booked indifferently and has not been given a major break ever since. He has been on the mid card of the roster and has had the united states title in 2013. He has also competed for the mid card titles on more than one occasions.
The fact that Kofi is arguably the most athletic talent on the roster has been verified in the Royal Rumble in the past few years. His amazing spots are easily the highlights of the most coveted match of the year.
Some of these moves he is able to do on a consistent basis in every match (his crossbody from the top rope or the running leap from the turnbuckle). It is appalling that Kofi has not had a big push in such his career spanning more than 5 years as we have seen in the article. His feud with Orton was simply the highlight till now of his career. And even that feud was not properly highlighted.
Kingston’s a very talented wrestler and an all round performer. He is popular among WWE Fans and pretty solid on the mic. So arguments against a Main Event Push can be countered by his strengths. He has already held all of the championships, with the exception of WWE’s two premier titles. It is only a matter of time until Kofi Kingston competes for the higher tier titles. And Kofi more than deserves those chances. He has done his share of putting over talents on the roster.
It would certainly be interesting to see if Kofi can break the glass ceiling and rise to the top or would he be condemned to the mid card for the remainder of his stay in the WWE?