When Kofi Kingston lost the WWE Championship to Brock Lesnar in an 8-second match on the Fox TV premiere of Smackdown, a lot of fans were pretty upset. When Brock Lesnar then left for Raw with the belt, it became clear that Kofi wasn’t getting anywhere near it anytime soon. Over time, we all just had to accept that the story of Kofi’s WWE Championship run is over, no matter how abrupt was its ending.
In an appearance on Cory Graves’ WWE Podcast After the Bell, Kofi does his best to put a positive spin on the whole thing, making it pretty clear that he’s just had to accept it as well (transcript via WrestlingInc):
It wasn’t up to me but I have said this on a few different interviews, it kind of is what it is. You show up to work and find out what you are doing and you kind of do it, so, this is weird too. A lot of people will be on my social media and saying, “Well, Kofi, you are out there and you are acting like you don’t care. Did you forget that you were the world champion?” I’m like, well, look, you are asking my on-screen character to be angry as if it’s my real character. I think it’s one of those things where it kind of is what it is.
He goes on to point out that between the nature of his character and how badly he lost, WWE hasn’t given him the storytelling tools he’d need to keep the rivalry going:
In reality, I am on screen, I am a good guy. I lost in eight seconds, so as far as making a case for a rematch what would my character have to say? Give me another shot Brock, I lost in eight seconds but I’ll get you next time! You’re asking my real-life character to take on this anger and be mad with the way it happened on-screen, but for me personally, I have always approached this business as somebody who is always trying to move forward. You can’t dwell on one day. There have been a lot of days where they have been negative for a lack of a better term but if you dwell on those you are miserable and you don’t want to come to work, but I’m just trying to push forward.
It’s pretty clear that however disrespected he might feel by WWE’s handling of the end of his Championship run, he’s not the kind of guy who’s going to get too vitriolic toward his employers, and certainly not on an official WWE podcast. He’d rather focus on the positive and move toward the future:
I think it’s more important to always try to put a foot forward; always try climbing mountains and keep on setting records and keep on doing positive things in this industry because it doesn’t last forever. I feel like it is a waste of time to dwell on the negative aspects of things so that is where I am at with that whole situation. I appreciate the passion that people have, but I am puzzled at some of the anger people have towards me because I am not the one who is making those decisions. It is what it is.
