Kofi Kingston says Brock Lesnar doesn’t get credit for his wrestling mind and wanted to ‘write the end’ of his title reign differently

Kofi Kingston enjoyed one of the more magical rises to the top of the WWE mountain in recent history last year.

The New Day man, who had been working for WWE for 11 years at the time without a single world title shot to his name, rode a wave of momentum built from love and appreciation of the WWE universe that led him all the way to WrestleMania 35 where he would dethrone Daniel Bryan for the WWE title.

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Months later, after a decent title reign, Kingston would face Brock Lesnar on SmackDown's debut episode on FOX.

After eight seconds, he would lose his belt and would never get a rematch.

Understandably, fans were not happy; Kingston himself admitted to talkSPORT he was less than thrilled with what went down.

Fast forward to the 2020 men's Royal Rumble match, when Kingston and Lesnar would meet again.

Drew McIntyre, the man who would eliminate Lesnar, told talkSPORT that Lesnar personally put together his Rumble appearance and all the spots in it.

We were lucky enough to chat to Kingston last week thanks to the NSPCC at a time when children are stuck at home due to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, we did also chat wrestling and we had to ask if Lesnar was responsible for his moment with the Beast alongside Rey Mysterio and Big E.

"Definitely," began Kingston. "I think a lot of people don't understand... you know, you see Brock Lesnar on TV and you see The Beast. He's physically daunting, physically dominating, but he has an awesome mind for the business and I feel he will never get the credit he deserves for that.

"Someone doesn't get to be in WWE for decades without having a great mind. A lot of times you see Paul Heyman being the mouthpiece, and you think Brock has a very small part in that role, but he has a very big part. He has a very intelligent wrestling mind and understands what wrestling 'business' is in terms of building stuff.

"If Brock and I had more of a match at the debut of Smackdown on FOX, then the moment at the Rumble, people wouldn't have gotten up as much as they did for it. It was great.

"It was a really big piece of a story having myself in there trying to fight. Then here comes my partner and now here comes Rey who had history with his son. I'm getting goosebumps just talking about it.

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"It was a lot of great storytelling coming together. Everything is important as minuscule as it may be. It's definitely a big part of the Rumble seeing me, Rey and E, all of us on the outside banding together and going in there doing what we did."
Kingston went on to explain how Brock's mind helped make McIntyre a main eventer, too.

He continued: "It was great, and on top of that, the whole first half of the Rumble, Brock was throwing everybody out only for Drew McIntyre to throw him out at the end.

"If it wasn't built like that, it wouldn't have meant as much for Drew. You think about, 'why did that happen?' Oh, Brock did this to elevate Drew to build credibility as a champion. Drew beats Brock at WrestleMania.

"The pieces of the story were told in the right way for Drew to be considered a credible champion, somebody who had to earn it by beating The Beast who has beaten so many people before. It's all about storytelling, man. That's like the greatest part of our business, to tell that story.

"And like I said, Brock, despite the credit that he gets, is very good at telling that story."

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Kingston also opened up on how he would have written the end of his title reign differently, but he was grateful that Lesnar took the time to revisit their story.

He finished: "Obviously, the way things ended for my title run - and people say five seconds, it was eight, OK! Don't short-change me! Don't short-change me on my time, that's almost double! - but it was good to revisit the story.

"One of the things I think we don't have control over is the way that things are laid out on a show. I can fight for what I want to happen, and I can pitch for what I want to happen, but at the end of the day, it's not up to me.

"It's up to me to go out and deliver the request that I'm given - that's my job. I would have written the end of my title reign a little differently, but, unfortunately, if we all had control or wrote ourselves into the show, then everybody would be champion - I'd have been a 100-time champion!

"I was glad to get even just a slice of retribution in that Rumble, for sure. It kind of just is what it is and you work with what you got. And you tell great stories when you get the chance."

The NSPCC is urging the public to visit its website and donate £10 to help fund vital services like Childline, so the charity can continue to answer calls and be here for the young people who desperately need someone to talk to. NSPCC has lots of advice for parents on their website, from talking to children worried about coronavirus to taking care of their mental health: