WWE: A match against Brock Lesnar is exactly what Kofi Kingston needs

A WWE Title defense against Brock Lesnar on the first SmackDown on Fox represents a massive opportunity to elevate Kofi Kingston once again.

There’s no denying that Kofi Kingston has had a solid WWE Championship run. He’s faced off against some well-known names, and defeated each of them in some quality matches.

Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens, and Randy Orton highlight Kingston’s run of opponents who have impressive resumes, and more than enough in-ring skills to back up those resumes.

Nevertheless, Kofi Kingston is still missing something from his title reign.

He’s missing that signature win. That win that you look back upon years from now as one of the highlights of that era of WWE.

Sure, Kingston is already having a run for the record books by simple virtue of his inspirational run to get to this position, and by carving out a sizable reign to follow. He also already has what will likely go down as one of the best moments in WrestleMania history when he actually won the WWE Championship against Daniel Bryan.

He’s just missing that marquee match as WWE Champion that fans will never be able to forget.

His upcoming bout against Brock Lesnar represents an opportunity for WWE to rectify that.

In my opinion, you could have easily made the case for Lesnar being the only elite heel in WWE right now if it weren’t for Bray Wyatt’s recent title push. He’s simply the only superstar with the track record and reputation that makes him seem like an instantaneous threat to any champion, even one as popular as Kingston.

You just can’t say that about anyone else who Kingston’s fought thus far. I suppose, if you really stretched, you could potentially make the argument for Randy Orton being a real threat. With the point that Orton is at in his career though, combined with the storyline that was told, it would feel like a bit of a reach.

At the most, that match certainty never had the same feel as this match against Brock Lesnar has. Already, there are fans who are more than willing to declare this the end of Kofi Kingston’s reign as we know it.

That would just make Kingston’s win against Lesnar that much better too. It would be a legitimately surprising moment for some, happening under the biggest spotlight possible, in a match that surely won’t disappoint given the stakes.

Let’s not forget where this match is taking place. The premier of SmackDown on Fox is a show that’s guaranteed to be remembered for a long time to come. Even without knowing what the impact this newly gained exposure for pro wrestling is going to have yet, I feel confident in saying that this first episode will be one forever etched in the record books.

That’s important to think about because this match makes Kofi Kingston the star of the whole show basically. He’s the one everybody’s going to be focused on throughout the night. He’s the one who’s likely going to be closing the show in the massive main event match.

That alone makes this another moment that bolster’s the impact of Kingston’s title reign.

Now, at this point, I think it’s probably best to interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to address the elephant in the room. All of this is fine and dandy in theory, but it seemingly relies on Kofi Kingston winning against “The Beast Incarnate.”

To be honest, I can understand the concern. We’ve seen Lesnar walk away with gold in these kinds of situations before. Nonetheless, I think he’s far from a safe bet to win in this instance.

Take that simple fact that this is the first SmackDown episode on Fox for example. With all these excited people likely tuning in, wouldn’t you think there would be some desire from both WWE and Fox to send them away happy?

Based on his past track record, I’m fairly certain that wouldn’t happen if Brock Lesnar became champion. The end of the show might very well be met with some boos from fans, and some angry tweets being fired off about WWE making us suffer through another part-time reign from Lesnar.

Now, I’m not saying that doesn’t mean Lesnar is guaranteed to lose, far from it in fact. All that I’m saying is that there is a legitimate case for Kofi Kingston to walk away with the WWE Title.

Back to business though, even if Kofi Kingston didn’t win, it honestly wouldn’t even be that bad. I would imagine all of the above would still happen as far as the initial reaction goes, but it would be sort of moot if WWE let Kingston turn around and beat Lesnar at Survivor Series.

That would still give Kingston another signature win, while simultaneously providing an amount of reassurance that WWE won’t have him fall off the face of the Earth once he loses his title for the first time.

To me, that would make a quick, and only quick, Lesnar run worthwhile. It gives WWE presumably what fans assume they would want in an extremely well-known champion who takes the title in shocking fashion, while still using that win to eventually elevate Kingston.

When all is said and done, I think that provides for quite a few opportunities for WWE to use this match against Brock Lesnar to ensure that Kofi Kingston has another big moment that ensures he goes down as one of the best champions of the era.

In the end, that just might make it worth ignoring the risk that WWE sticks us with yet another extended Brock Lesnar title reign.