via WWE.com
A couple weeks ago, Kofi Kingston broke the record for being the longest reigning Tag Team Champion in WWE history.
Over the course of 10 years in the WWE and five different tag team partners – CM Punk, Evan Bourne, R-Truth, Big E, and Xavier Woods – Kingston has topped the list of men who have been Tag Team Champion by holding a Tag Championship for 954 days in total.
To paraphrase Kofi Kingston’s response to breaking such a momentous record, it is a “strange” record to accomplish, and it is not exactly the first thing that any aspiring WWE Superstar wishes to accomplish at the top of their bucket list. However, in light of this accomplishment, it did force us to at least take a step back and look at Kofi Kingston’s WWE career thus far.
Kofi Kingston has spent over a decade inside of a WWE ring, and that’s saying something. More than just a Tag Team Champion, Kofi has been an Intercontinental Champion, a United States Champion, and a human Royal Rumble highlight reel. Let’s not forget that his schtick with The New Day remains one of the most entertaining and popular acts on the main roster today. Kofi Kingston has managed to stay not only active, but relevant in WWE for just over 10 years, and that is an achievement in itself.
As much as 1/3 of the Smackdown Tag Team Champions has broken ground as a tag team competitor, let’s not forget that he was a singles star once upon a time ago. While he never reached the very top of the mountain, he has had considerable success in singles competition, and has also had some tremendous singles matches along the way.
via WWE.com
10. VS Chris Jericho – Night of Champions 2008
Heading into Night of Champions 2008 – where every match was a title match – Chris Jericho did not have an opponent. To his surprise, his mystery opponent for the night was the debuting Kofi Kingston, who had just been drafted from ECW to Raw during the online supplemental WWE Draft the past Wednesday.
Few – if any – members of the crowd knew who he was, but The *formerly* Jamaican Buzzsaw was looking to make a quick impression with his first night on the main roster. A newly heel Jericho tried to keep the rookie grounded, but Kingston would continue to counter using his high flying offense.
The climax of the match would see Shawn Michaels make his triumphant return nearly a month after Jericho slammed his face into the Jeritron 6000. HBK’s appearance would distract Jericho long enough to allow Kingston to hit a Trouble in Paradise to win the title.
The win is significant for being Kingston’s first of four Intercontinental Championship reigns. Some may think that his win was tainted by the fact he needed Michael’s help to win, but that could never take away from the incredible chemistry that Kingston and Jericho displayed beforehand.
via WWE.com
9. VS Christian – SmackDown, May 14th 2010
On the May 7th episode of SmackDown, after mercilessly attacking Matt Hardy, Intercontinental Champion Drew McIntyre was fired by Smackdown General Manager Teddy Long and his title was vacated. This would give birth to an IC Tournament, and the finals took place the following week between Christian and Kofi Kingston.
The pairing between Christian and Kofi Kingston is an interesting one to say the least, as the careers of both men run direct parallels with one another. Both men are defined by their milestones achieved as tag team competitors, and their many runs as Intercontinental Champion helped add prestige to the belt. It only makes sense that the Intercontinental Championship Tournament would end in a bout between them.
The bout itself was an excellent one, and Kofi Kingston won his second Intercontinental Championship… or so we thought.
Granted, the post-match left a bad taste in our mouths when Kofi’s win was immediately stripped from the history books by Mr. McMahon and the title was rewarded back to The Chosen One, but the match itself was solid.
via WWE.com
8. VS MVP – Raw, June 1st, 2009
Until he departed from the company in 2010, Montel Vontavius Porter was a staple of the WWE’s midcard division. Once the longest reigning United States Champion in WWE history, MVP reigned supreme over the midcard scene. A year prior to his exit, MVP would pass his torch on to a young upstart in Kofi Kingston.
A week prior to their match, Kingston won a #1 contenders Triple Threat match against Matt Hardy and William Regal, winning the chance to take on MVP for his United States Championship. Neither man was a heel and Kingston’s newfound contendership did not springboard into a feud between them. This was all about nothing but respect, and the right to put that beautiful red, white, and blue piece of gold around their waist.
The match itself continually went back and forth for the entire duration of the match-up, without the match ever swinging in one man’s favor for too long. This gave us the feeling that this really could go either way, and it made more a fun little contest.
The finish came when the two continued to go back and forth with a series of roll ups until Kingston came on top and won his first United States Championship. The respect and admiration shown during the match lasted through to the end as MVP passed the title to Kingston, and raised his hand in solidarity.
via WWE.com
7. VS The Miz – Survivor Series 2013
The Miz and Kofi Kingston have squared off against each other a good chunk of times, including in a criminally underseen Intercontinental Championship match from Breaking Point 2009. More often than not, their matches are incredibly entertaining and – in hindsight – incredibly underrated. Their best match yet came at Survivor Series 2013.
On the night of Survivor Series 2013, there was no title on the line between these two rivals. In fact, they weren’t even on the main card, as they were relegated to the Kickoff Show.
Surely, for these two veterans, they had to feel more than a little miffed to have been pushed off the main show.
Rather than complaining or taking their balls and going home, they took it as a challenge it seems. Much like The New Day have done whenever the Champs get moved to the Kickoff Show, Kofi and The Miz made it their mission statement to try to have the best match of the night and make WWE wish they put them on the main show and, to be perfectly honest, they came pretty close to doing just that.
A lot of fans missed out on this match – as a lot of us tend to skip the pre-show – but we think this Kickoff deserves a second look by the masses.
6. VS Randy Orton – TLC 2009
As many of us would remember, Kofi Kingston was on the course of getting a major push in 2009. The first step towards that main event push was a feud with Randy Orton. Shockingly enough, every time the two crossed paths, Kofi had Orton’s number. He pinned Orton as the sole survivor of a 5-on-5 elimination match, he destroyed Orton’s customized car, and he Boom Dropped The Viper through a table in Madison Square Garden.
Considering how hot Kingston’s popularity and momentum was near the end of 2009, it is kind of bittersweet to look back on it knowing that the push went nowhere and fizzled out unceremoniously. It is even more disappointing when we look at how stellar Kofi Kingston’s performance was in his biggest pay-per-view match at TLC that year.
Seeing him square off against the second biggest star in the company at the time, Kofi looked like he belonged in the main event picture. He held his own against the veteran, had a good match, and looked like a star in the process. Makes us wonder what his career would look like today if WWE actually continued on and pulled the trigger on his push when they should’ve.
via WWE.com
5. VS Dolph Ziggler – Raw, September 24th 2012
If we had to choose one superstar who was Kofi Kingston’s best opponent, it would have to be Dolph Ziggler. Over the course of a decade, these two have had a countless array of matches against each other – one on one matches like the ones they had at Capitol Punishment and Night of Champions 2010 hold up as understated classics – and every time, they somehow found a way to top the match they had before.
Arguably their most notable and best match came on the 1009th episode of Monday Night Raw. While these two have fought over high stakes such as the United States Championship and the Intercontinental Championship, on this match in particular, there were no stakes. Not even Dolph Ziggler’s Money in the Bank briefcase was on the line. Despite there being nothing on the line, these two duked it out as if they were headlining a pay-per-view.
These two went back and forth at each other at lightning fast speed like a pinball machine. Each man had a seamless counter for every counter, and it was dazzling to watch the spectacle. Like poetry in motion. It’s been years since these two have had a one on one against each other, but after revisiting this match, we want to see it happen again sooner rather than later.
via WWE’s Youtube Page
4. VS Shelton Benjamin – ECW, June 24th, 2008
Kofi Kingston made his debut for WWE as a member of the ECW roster in early 2008. He maintained an undefeated streak for a couple months, until he crossed paths with The Gold Standard Shelton Benjamin, the first man to defeat Kofi Kingston in a singles match.
From there, the feud continued, and as things got more heated between the two, Benjamin would have Kingston’s number more often than not. Things would reach a crescendo in the final match of their feud that would take place on the June 24th episode of ECW, but a feud of this magnitude could not just end with a regular match. No, these two closed out the final chapter of their feud with an Extreme Rules Match.
For a hardcore match on a televised episode of a watered down ECW, this match was surprisingly brutal. Don’t expect any innovative uses of weapons that we haven’t seen before, but expect two guys to clobber each other with trash cans, trash can lids, and even a microphone as hard as they possibly can. This match would take place almost exactly a month before WWE officially became a PG rated product and while it isn’t the most violent pre-PG match anyone could come across, there’s a lot here in this match that you wouldn’t see happening nowadays.
via WWE.com
3. VS Drew Mcintyre – Fatal 4 Way 2010
After Kofi Kingston won the aforementioned Intercontinental Championship Tournament only for the title to be returned back to Drew McIntyre moments after his win, he entered a feud with The Chosen One. Kingston and McIntyre squared off for the title at Over the Limit, where Kingston defeated McIntyre and officially became a 2-time IC Champion.
The feud continued with Teddy Long in the thick of it all, and a rematch was set for the first (and only) Fatal 4 Way pay-per-view. Due to the heat simmering during this rivalry, this match forced Kingston to display far more aggression than we’ve seen from him up until this point, and probably since. The new aggressive wrestling style not only added a new layer to Kingston’s character, but it helped improve the match. Not only compared to their previous ppv match, but compared to the rest of Kingston’s catalog of matches.
Some audiences may be turned away by the amount of chaos that takes place in this match, but considering this as an amalgamation of months worth of storylines going into this, it’s fitting for the match as one big finale to everything that’s taken place. As one big story driven crescendo putting an end to one big storyline, it’s nearly perfect.
via WWE.com
2. VS Dolph Ziggler VS Jack Swagger – TLC 2010
Ok, some may think this is cheating since this is the only multi-man entry on a list filled with one on one contests, but this match is so impressive and underrated that it deserves a spot on the list. In all honesty, this Triple Threat Ladder Match should be ranked among some of the better Ladder Matches to take place during the last decade.
Kofi Kingston is notorious for pulling his weight in Money in the Bank matches, and often steals the show in those contests, but when Dolph Ziggler’s Intercontinental Championship was on the line with Jack Swagger in as a third party on the night of TLC 2010, Kingston gave probably his best Ladder Match performance. That isn’t to say Swagger and Ziggler don’t pull their weight as well. All three men provided some jaw dropping, death defying leaps of faith.
With stakes as high as the title that hovered above their heads, there were no friends or brief alliances in this match. Just every man for himself with the title on the line, and some ladder driven chaos wedged between them.
We won’t dare spoil the ending of the match here as it was quite a shocker and – at the time – was the reason for heated debate and controversy. The ending – along with the match itself – is one heck of a barn burner.
via WWE.com
1. VS Cesaro – Main Event, May 1st 2013
With Main Event being, well, Main Event, not enough people watch it to know about the sleeper hits that pop up on there from time to time. On the May 1st, 2013 episode, they featured one whopper of a match between Cesaro and Kofi Kingston, with the United States Championship on the line.
Admittedly, Main Event is considered as WWE’s D-level show, and calling it “D-level” is being generous to be honest. As of now, the WWE Network does not even feature all of the show’s 2013 episodes, including this one, and that probably tells you everything you need to know about what people think of Main Event. Despite their spot on a show practically nobody watches, Kofi Kingston and Cesaro set out to put on an in-ring clinic for the fans in attendance.
A month beforehand, Kofi ended Cesaro’s 239 day reign as United States Champion, and this was Cesaro’s rematch. Cesaro’s freakish displays of strength versus Kofi’s superhuman feats of speed and agility made for one heck of combo, and what preceded in the ring was magic that more people deserve to witness.
They would have another Main Event match a few months later on September 11th – this time with Zeb Colter in Cesaro’s corner – and have had several matches since then in the last few years. However, never have they been able to re-capture the same magic from the Spring of 2013. It can easily be argued as the best WWE singles match of either man’s career.