Kofi Kingston talks about the possiblity of “KofiMania 2”

Even without his WWE Championship win in 2019, Kofi Kingston had already put together a tremendous career, but his unexpected quest to capture WWE’s most prestigious title is doubtlessly the moment everyone will remember about his time with the company.

As many fans know, this was a moment that wasn’t originally intended for Kingston, but the combination of an untimely injury (I know; what injury IS timely?) and the organic support the WWE fans provided Kingston propelled to the top of the card.

Sure, WWE enacted their usual tropes as a means to “get Kingston over” despite already being over, but it all worked out at WrestleMania 35, where Kingston beat Daniel Bryan to claim his first — and, thus far, only — WWE Title.

This begs the question: would a repeat of the tale hit the same emotional highs as the original telling? The man himself seems the think it would hit differently.

Kofi Kingston talks about how fans would react to a “KofiMania 2”.

Appearing on Busted Open Radio, Kinston discussed how he thinks fans would respond to a repeat of the “KofiMania” story (h/t to Fightful’s Jeremy Lambert for the transcription):

"“A lot of people have been saying that. A lot of times, when good things happen, they want to make it like a sequel. For me, nothing will ever be the way KofiMania was. I hate when it comes out of my mouth because it doesn’t sound cool when I say it. It was such a unique situation, the way it came about. We talk about storytelling in our industry and for me, that was a decade-plus story, all the chapters and ups and downs. It was like a Marvel series; from Iron Man all the way to Avengers. We had a unique opportunity to build it the way we did because a lot of it was unintentional because I wasn’t supposed to be there. I don’t know if there will be anything quite as impactful as KofiMania. Who knows what is going to happen after last week, getting two solid victories over Randy Orton and Bob Lashley. It was a good night and unexpected in a lot of ways, but here we are. We march forward and figure it out as we go,”"

After winning at WrestleMania, Kingston held the title for 180 days — fending off the likes of Bryan, Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler, Samoa Joe, and Randy Orton — before losing the gold to Brock Lesnar on the October 4, 2019, episode of SmackDown in what was essentially a squash match, as Kingston was pinned in seconds following a Lesnar F-5.

That decision angered much of the fanbase, who felt that WWE undid all the goodwill they built up from putting the title on Kingston and giving him a solid, lengthy reign. Following this Kingston never received another WWE Title match until the 2021 Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.

However, Kingston did pin the current WWE Champion, Bobby Lashley on the May 17, 2021, episode of Raw — albeit thanks to some help from Drew McIntyre — possibly pointing to him returning to the title picture.