Kofi Kingston was interviewed by USA Today’s For The Win following his huge WrestleMania week and during the ongoing Superstar Shake-Up as he gets ready for SmackDown tonight. Kingston had a lot to talk about including his pre-match state of mind, what it means to him being the first African-born WWE Champion and how it feels to lose locker room friends as WWE shakes things up. Quotes are below:
Kofi Kingston on his pre-match feelings before WrestleMania:
On Sunday we got there so early, I think we were at the building by like nine o’clock in the morning. So we still had all day, I had a bunch of things I had to do. I didn’t really give myself a whole lot of time to sit there and think about what was coming. It really wasn’t until maybe 15, 20, a half-hour before the match that I really started to be like ‘OK, now we’re in the red zone. The countdown is really on.’ It wasn’t a feeling of nervousness, it was more excited to get the ball rolling and get out there and make history.
On what it means to him being the first African-born WWE Champion:
It means a lot, especially from a representation standpoint. It’s always important for people to be able to watch WWE, especially because it’s a global product, it’s important for people all over the world to be able to look at the screen and see somebody who looks like them doing great things. And in turn, that inspires them to do great things. For me to inspire people who look like me to do awesome things, and they can look at the screen and say ‘hey, I can do this because I can see someone that looks like me and he’s doing it.’
It’s equally as important too that people who don’t necessarily look like me and can also look to my story for inspiration, because the main thing is I struggled, you know? To get here it’s been a long, hard struggle to make it to this point, and anybody out there, whether you’re black, white, Asian, South American, whatever, you can look to my story and see I struggled to get here but I kept fighting through. I didn’t give up, I didn’t take no for an answer, and I did it. It took me a long time to do it, but I did it. Anything is possible for anybody if they work hard enough.
On losing locker room pals during the Superstar Shake-Up:
It gets hard because you form some really good bonds. For us, the Usos have been instrumental in our happiness on the roster. Every time we come it’s always jokes and laughs and whatnot, and I know if we were to be in separate locker rooms, their presence would be definitely missed. I think it’s hard when you form such tight bonds with people, and that SmackDown locker room is real tight. We’ll see, but there’s a lot of people on the red side we’re cool with too, and you just kind of let it be what it is.
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