WWE: Kofi Kingston vs. Randy Orton is a decade in the making

It looks like Randy Orton will be Kofi Kingston’s opponent for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam, and while fans may be bored with The Viper, this rivalry is a decade in the making and could be one of the event’s most compelling stories.

In the fall of 2009, Kofi Kingston looked like WWE’s next big star. It all started when Kingston tried to save Randy Orton from Ted DiBiase Jr. and Cody Rhodes by using a steel chair, but Orton ended up losing his WWE Championship in the match anyway. Orton blamed Kingston for the loss and started feuding with the second-year main roster star.

Kingston quickly impressed, becoming the sole survivor that year at Survivor Series when Team Orton and Team Kingston squared off in the traditional five-on-five elimination match. Though he lost his first singles bout to Orton thanks to more interference from DiBiase and Rhodes, he tied up the proverbial best-of-three series with an assist from Mark Cuban.

While Kingston lost the match on PPV at TLC, the two continued to feud into 2010. And then on Jan. 11, 2010 THAT incident happened.

Bleacher Report’s Erik Beaston and Pro Wrestling Stories have done an excellent job of chronicling the events that unfolded during a No. 1 Contender’s Triple Threat match between Kofi, Randy, and John Cena. But basically, here’s the gist of it. Kingston kept setting up for an RKO instead of a Punt Kick, which was likely just a simple miscommunication between the two. Orton, who was known for his poor attitude at the time, totally flipped out. He lost his cool on live television, screamed “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!”, and did the RKO finish.

After being the sole survivor and engaging in an entertaining feud with one of WWE’s biggest stars, Kofi Kingston was relegated to the Money in the Bank ladder match. He’d never sniff world championship gold until nearly 10 years later, and he’s now one of the greatest WWE Champions in history.

The journey towards Kingston’s first world title win in 2019 was a decade in the making, and many fans point to that Jan. 11 encounter between Orton and Kingston as the starting point. For their part, WWE haven’t shied away from the often-rehashed events. Kingston even got his revenge on Orton earlier this year in a Gauntlet Match before WrestleMania 35, where he won his first WWE Title.

That said, a Gauntlet victory isn’t sufficient revenge for what Orton did 10 years ago. And maybe more importantly for WWE fans, a renewed rivalry between Orton and Kingston could be one of wrestling’s best stories in 2019.

More from Summerslam

A lot has changed in the last 10 years, but there have been two constants. Firstly, Randy Orton is still one of the world’s best wrestlers when he’s motivated. Secondly, Kofi Kingston is one of the business’s most talented, creative, and hard-working wrestlers.

Kingston has unequivocally shown that he is a Hall of Fame singles wrestler with this latest WWE Title run, elevating the championship to heights it hasn’t seen since the end of 2016 when AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose, and John Cena had their feud. The argument can be made that Kingston’s reign has been the best of the last five years, given the aura he possesses as a bad-ass babyface at a time when WWE is trying to transition to an edgier product. (Shoutout to The New Day’s erection joke on SmackDown this week.)

Kingston vs. Orton is a match between two veteran performers, and most WWE fans would prefer to have a young competitor in a title match at a Pay Per View as big as SummerSlam. That’s generally because matches involving young competitors seem fresher, but there’s NOTHING stale about Kingston vs. Orton in 2019.

When they first feuded, Kingston gave us two of the most memorable moments in WWE: the boom drop on Orton through the table from the rafters and the wonderful paint job of Orton’s car.

So you can only imagine what these two will be capable of in a WWE Title feud at SummerSlam; the WWE Title feud neither wrestler got to have because of Orton’s unacceptable behavior.

It seems like the two have made amends since then, and, judging by the Gauntlet Match earlier this year, they seem to have fantastic chemistry in the ring. That isn’t surprising, given how talented both wrestlers are in the ring and the fact that they are two of the most experienced men in WWE with more than a decade of experience of wrestling in the company each.

Next. Ember Moon vs. Bayley is the perfect pick. dark

With a decade of history, two of the most brilliant minds in wrestling, plenty of in-ring ability, and a renewed respect for each other, Orton and Kingston look like the perfect SummerSlam opponents. Kingston needs a defining victory during his championship reign after putting on a classic with Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania, and as good as that five-star match with Bryan was, there’s actually a chance his match with Orton is even better.

Because it’s hard to top a match that is literally 10 years in the making.

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