WWE: The door is open for a Kofi Kingston redemption arc

Kofi Kingston has not been in the main event picture since losing the WWE Championship to Brock Lesnar, but the door is open for a big comeback.

These last couple of months has been a frustrating time to be a Kofi Kingston fan following the end of his WWE Championship run. After holding the title on his back for the better part of six months in what some critics called the best run the belt’s seen in years, it came to a shocking conclusion within about 10 seconds after Kofi ran straight into an F5 from Brock Lesnar on the premiere episode of SmackDown on FOX.

Since then, Kofi has completely vanished from the main event picture and picked up a few losses with little to no acknowledgement of his title . Granted, he’s recently bounced back by picking up his seventh Tag Team Championship as a member of New Day, but fans can’t shake the feeling that after 180 days with the WWE Championship, being relegated to the tag team scene again is a step down for Kofi. But alas, all hope is not loss, gentle readers. There is opportunity for a return to prominence and most all, opportunity for a redemption arc.

If there’s one thing that I’ve picked up on in the past month or so since he lost the title, WWE (whether intentionally or unintentionally) have alluded to such a redemption arc. They’ve only done so twice, but they were two key, subtle (albeit tiny and easy to miss) moments worth noting.

A couple weeks after Kofi lost his title and about four weeks ago, Heavy Machinery approached New Day backstage in hopes of “lifting [Kofi’s] spirits” following his loss to Lesnar. Kofi merely laughed it off and said he wasn’t bummed by his loss because he had the Power of Positivity on his side.

On the surface, it’s a weak means to remove Kofi out of the title picture and not address it any further, but I like to think (or at least hope) it’s merely a bit of foreshadowing. Foreshadowing towards Kofi Kingston hiding his anger and sorrow through the Power of Positivity.

The following week, during a tag team match between New Day against Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler, Corey Graves had mentioned on commentary that while Kofi is trying to focus on positivity, “it’s got to be eating at Kofi to have his championship reign cut short.” Moments later, Kofi lost the match for his team after suffering a pinfall. I consider this yet another subtle nod of foreshadowing.

Again, this all could be merely coincidental and WWE have no intentions to bring Kofi back into the World Championship picture (which would be a shame), but since these moments so closely linked together can’t stop me from thinking that there’s more to come, story wise, on the horizon.

If that truly is the case, then I expect more losses (specifically a Tag Title loss) to continue to eat away at Kofi until he suddenly can’t hide his frustrations behind positivity any longer. This sets the stage for a much more determined, possibly aggressive Kofi Kingston to set his sights on one of the World Championships.

Of course, Brock Lesnar is back on Raw with his WWE Championship, but a Royal Rumble win could fix all of that. If these little nods do serve as foreshadowing and successfully set the stage for not only a World Title match for Kofi at WrestleMania 36, but a title win, then a redemption arc could come full circle.