WWE: Kofi Kingston Gave The Heart-Wrenching Promo of His Career Tonight

On a night where WrestleMania matches were either set or intensified, tonight’s episode of SmackDown Live was highlighted by a main event angle featuring Vince McMahon and The New Day.

Before SmackDown Live went off the air tonight, The New Day vouched on behalf of Kofi Kingston one last time to convince Vince McMahon that he should give Kofi his title match at WrestleMania. While Vince teased earlier that he would pitch a WrestleMania challenge to Kofi, in the same vain, The Chairman said he didn’t think Kofi deserved a reign with the title, yet alone a WWE Championship. Interestingly enough, Vince echoed WWE Champion Daniel Bryan’s words that Kofi was merely “a B-plus player.”

That’s when Kofi Kingston proceeded to cut the very best promo of his WWE career. I’ll even go as far as to say the promo of his life.

The main thesis behind The New Day’s pitch was that Kofi Kingston deserves his WWE Championship shot because he’s earned it over the last 11 years. Kofi, on the other hand, took a slightly different route. Rather than talk about what he’s earned, he reminded Vince of what he’s done for the company. He’s missed quality time with his family, he never trick or treating with his kids and he missed his child’s first encounter with the Tooth Fairy. All because Kofi chose to remain loyal to the WWE and spend his nights on the road.

He never even ever so much complained about his draining schedule or unfulfilling place on the totem pole. He simply played his part, did it well with a smile on his face and did so every day for 11 years. For me personally, the most notable part of that promo was when Kofi admitted that he never complained about Vince never giving major opportunities to “people who look like [him].” We should all be able to read between the lines on that one.

Kofi Kingston made it clear that while he was grateful for everything the company gave for him over the past decade to help provide for his family, he feels like he’s owed at least one fair shot at the WWE Championship.

We always knew that Kofi was a good promo, but it’s easy to forget that when he never gets the chance to test his chops in main event angles like this. Even in that regard, few of us knew he could pull out such raw emotion like he displayed tonight. It felt like rather than Kofi Kingston on the mic, we got to hear from the man behind the character – Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie-Mensah – speak his mind in the ring for the first time in his long and illustrious career. The result was not only the most heart-wrenching promo Kofi’s ever cut, but one of the purest, most powerful emotionally driven promos to ever take place in a WWE ring.

Now, after all that, we must look forward to next week’s show where Kofi must defeat Randy Orton, Samoa Joe, The Bar and Erick Rowan to earn himself a WWE Championship at WrestleMania. Kofi is noteworthy for being an Iron Man, but can he endure five other men back to back to realize his dream? We’ll have to wait and see.