WWE SmackDown Grades: Mr. McMahon Dashes The Dream Of Kofi Kingston

1. Gauntlet Match

The system has been against Kofi Kingston over the past few weeks to the point where he is likely the most over male superstar on the roster heading into WrestleMania.  Mr. McMahon has wanted nothing to do with Kofi in the WWE Championship match at the show of shows, so much so that he stacked the odds against Kofi in the most emphatic way possible.

Mr. McMahon took away Kofi’s WWE Championship opportunity at Fastlane, but that wasn’t enough for the boss when he decided to put Kofi in a gauntlet match last night against five of the best superstars on the blue brand.  He said that if Kofi could win the gauntlet match, he would earn a WWE Championship match at WrestleMania against Daniel Bryan.  However, the odds would not be in Kofi’s favor as he had to take on The Bar, Samoa Joe, Randy Orton, and Rowan.

It started with Sheamus, whose power grounded Kofi at times.  However, Kofi was able to defeat Sheamus before the second half of The Bar joined the match.  Cesaro would do his thing and keep Kofi down, but it wouldn’t be enough when in the end, Kofi knocked him off too.  The New Daniel Bryan’s lackey Rowan was next up and despite getting himself disqualified, he did some serious damage to Kofi by attacking him with a chair and putting him through an announce table.

Kofi was there for the pickings for Samoa Joe, who dominated Kofi throughout.  But the will of Kofi was enough to get a stunning roll-up win before Joe choked him out after the match.  Randy Orton was the final opponent for Kofi to defeat and after being spent and beaten throughout the match, Kofi managed to shock Orton and get the win to seemingly advance to WrestleMania.  However, Mr. McMahon then said Kofi must defeat Bryan, but he was unable to do so.

The fix is in and Mr. McMahon wants no part of Kofi competing for the WWE Championship despite one of the greatest individual performances in a long time in this gauntlet match.

Final Grade: A