So many superstars made a profound impact on WWE in the 2010’s, but Kofi Kingston’s consistency through the last 10 years makes him the best pick for this distinction.
There are a number of wrestlers in WWE who deserve consideration as the best superstar of the 2010’s. Roman Reigns, Sasha Banks, Daniel Bryan, John Cena, and Becky Lynch are a handful of wrestlers who changed the landscape of professional wrestling’s most powerful company with their individual brilliance.
But Kofi Kingston should stand alone at the top.
Here are five reasons why The New Day’s most experienced wrestler should be recognized as the best wrestler of the 2010’s.
1. He was the best tag team wrestler
There’s a case to be made that Kofi Kingston is the greatest tag team wrestler in WWE history. He’s won the tag titles nine times since 2010, which averages to nearly one tag title reign per year! Kofi has picked up tag belts with The New Day, CM Punk, Evan Bourne, and even R-Truth during his career, which means he can have great chemistry with just about anyone.
But, of course, his best tag team work has come with Big E and Xavier Woods in his corner. Together, The New Day have become one of the greatest factions in wrestling history, right up there with the Four Horsemen and The Shield. The Power of Positivity sells merch, gets fans out of their seats, and puts on Match of the Year candidates, such as their all-out battles in 2017 with The Usos.
Kingston has mastered the art of tag team wrestling, and he uses his ring IQ, crowd awareness, and ability to pace matches perfectly to help elevate everyone else in the ring with him. If you want to get a tag team over, put them in a match with The New Day.
WWE tends to underrate tag team wrestling, but let’s not make that same mistake when evaluating Kingston’s decade. He’s been in a class of his own when it comes to making sure tag team wrestling in WWE is taken seriously, even if his old rival Daniel Bryan was the one cutting the most promos about this very topic.
2. He showed he can be a great champion
Kofi Kingston’s WWE Championship reign was one of the best runs of the decade with that title, and it came at a time when the belt needed to entrench itself as an important world title in WWE. He and the previous holder of the championship, Daniel Bryan, did plenty to rescue the WWE Title’s value after AJ Styles’ one-dimensional reign for nearly a year.
For most of the 2010’s, Kingston was pushed down by the likes of Randy Orton and Vince McMahon into the “good hand” role. And while he was a GREAT mid-card wrestler and tag team wrestler, everyone who has watched Kingston understood he has always been destined for the main event.
In 2019, Kingston seized his opportunity with one of the greatest four-month runs of this decade, which ended in an all-time classic at WrestleMania 35. When he had his hand raised with the championship, Black wrestling fans cried tears of joy at witnessing Kingston ascend to the top of WWE.
And as champion, he was excellent. His programs with Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, and Orton were tremendous. Don’t let the trolls on Twitter try to fool you; Kingston had a great title run that confirmed he’s one of the best all-around wrestlers on this roster. He’s an “A+” player, even if WWE tried to make you think he wasn’t one for nine out of the decade’s ten years.
3. Kingston is insanely consistent
Kofi Kingston’s had some truly memorable moments in WWE, and, if you don’t believe me, go back and watch his WrestleMania 35 victory. Or pretty much any Royal Rumble match.
But Kingston’s most admirable quality as a performer is his consistency. He never has a bad match. I cannot think of a time where I have sat there and felt short-changed by a performance from Kingston, whether it was a singles match, tag match, or a multi-man match like a Rumble or Money in the Bank ladder match.
To remain consistent, healthy, and unremittingly innovative for 10 years is an incredible achievement, especially since we hear so much about wrestlers feeling burned out in the mid-card. How many wrestlers in Kofi’s situation have been able to stay interesting, effective, and loved by fans for so long? The answer is “extremely few”, and I think we severely underrated this when evaluating a performer holistically,
Kingston is the most well-rounded wrestler in WWE and the one who truly encompassed a decade of excellence, even if the company itself didn’t always spotlight it. And sometimes, it’s easy to get a little bit lost in the shuffle as a tag team wrestler.
4. Dominance in the mid card scene
In addition to winning the tag titles nine times in the last decade and a WWE Championship, Kingston dominated WWE’s mid card scene. He won the United States Championship twice and the Intercontinental Title three times in the last 10 years, which is pretty insane considering he pretty much stopped competing for mid card titles when The New Day formed in 2014.
So basically, despite primarily not competing for singles titles for more than half the decade, Kingston ended up with six singles titles. Not bad, right?
He had some gems for the US and IC Title, too, putting in the hard work to maintain the prestige of both mid-card titles. Kingston had some great matches with Dolph Ziggler and The Miz in the early 2010’s. And if you REALLY want to watch a hidden gem, go look up his Apr. 30, 2013 US Title match against Cesaro on Main Event. Don’t hold me to this, but it might be the greatest match in Main Event history. It’s absolutely fantastic from a story-telling and athletic standpoint. (Because it’s Kofi and Cesaro…duh!)
And yeah, if you want to go on a mid-card nostalgia trip, go watch back some of those Kofi and Dolph matches in 2011 and 2012. That’s called “stealing the show” in the mid card.
Again, it’s super easy to overlook the mid card, but that’s where all the hard work is done in keeping a show together. Kingston was a flat-out workhorse in WWE’s mid card scene from 2011 to 2014, and it’s really too bad WWE didn’t give as much of a spotlight to those guys at the time. Otherwise, there’d be even more buzz for Kingston’s singles work.
5. A babyface who stands for something
It’s always funny to me how wrestling fans lament there being a shortage of great babyfaces in WWE when Kofi Kingston was sitting in front of fans this whole freaking time. It’s been a rarity to see Kofi as a heel, and in a landscape where we’ve seen so many wrestlers in Kofi’s position, such as old feud partners Dolph and Cesaro, flip flop alignments frequently, Kofi’s ability to consistently get over as a face is incredible.
It’s one of the most difficult things to do in wrestling, right? Consistently cut it as a face. It helps that Kingston was with E and Woods in The New Day as part of an all-time likable stable , but even before their rise to popularity as a stable, Kingston was everyone’s favorite babyface as a singles competitor.
And it’s easy to see why. There’s something undeniably wholesome about Kingston. He’s all smiles, but in a genuine way. Nothing he says on the mic or does in the ring has ever felt forced. Kingston is soft-spoken, so when he cracks a joke or speaks passionately, as he did in the run-up to WrestleMania 35 when going face-to-face with the gatekeeping Daniel Bryan, his words carry 10 times the impact of everybody else’s.
Kingston is the kind of wrestler who transports you to a “happy place” when you watch him wrestle. He’s so effortlessly good at what he does that you don’t even notice his close attention to detail, creativity, and understanding of in-ring psychology. You know, the kind of understanding of the business that makes someone last for 10 years as a viable babyface in WWE.
If you aren’t sold on Kingston’s status as one of wrestling’s best babyfaces of this era (as in, his old matches don’t give you the same joyful nostalgia), again, I implore you to rewatch his Gauntlet Match performances and his promos before WrestleMania 35. I get chills just thinking about them. If his work in the first half of 2019 doesn’t give you goosebumps or invigorate your love for pro wrestling, then you may be Cruella de Vil. Because Kingston’s babyface work was of the highest possible quality.