WWE: 5 Prime Challengers to Kofi Kingston’s WWE Championship
By John Brown
1. Buddy Murphy or Chad Gable.
Flip a coin on this one. In 2002, Brock Lesnar entered into a program with a relative newcomer you may have heard of: John Cena. The result was a feud that ignited Cena’s legendary run, even inspiring a finishing maneuver that is a spin-off of Lesnar’s F-5 called the “F-U”, a move you PG-era fans know as the “Attitude Adjustment”. He garnered the attention of a world champion, and world champions do not have time to waste on knives in the midst of a gunfight.
Kofi Kingston’s entire case for a shot at the WWE Championship was based on his lack of opportunities despite possessing a brutally obvious smorgasbord of talent. One has to believe that he wants to use his reign as a potential launching pad for wrestlers so they can avoid the same obstacles that he encountered.
Buddy Murphy and Chad Gable represent a potentially very bright future for the WWE. One of them (not both, for that would begin to drag Kofi through martyr territory) should be allowed the make their bones by challenging Kofi Kingston for his WWE Championship. Whomever should step up, they already have the built-in challenge by reminding Kofi that he could be a hypocrite if he would allow another up-and-coming talent to go through a plight similar to Kofi’s.
SmackDown Live is truly proving to be the land of opportunity, a tradition continued from the Paul Heyman-run revolutionary show that made the likes of Eddie Guerrero, Edge, and Rey Mysterio main event players. Chad Gable and Buddy Murphy are in prime position to be cut from a similar cloth, and capitalizing on a Kofi Kingston title reign would be perfect time for either performer to make his name.