Kofi Kingston on Having an Amazing Year for His Career, Why His WrestleMania Movement Was So Big, Working Hard to Achieve Your Dreams

– News18.com recently interviewed WWE World champion Kofi Kingston ahead of tonight’s Extreme Rules event. Kingston defends his title against Samoa Joe later tonight. Below are some highlights.

Kingston on how this year has been for him so far: “It has been amazing so far. A lot of times, with WWE, we are always on the move. Even the day after WrestleMania – the day after the best moment of my career, myself and Becky Lynch – we both had to do media at 4 am. So, we only got 2-3 hours of sleep. And then we were right back to work. So, I never really had a whole lot of time to take everything in. I feel like I’m still working hard and trying to make this an amazing title reign. So, I haven’t had a chance to sit down and think about it. The journey has been going very well, it has been an amazing 2019. Initially, 2009 was my best year in WWE, this year has certainly surpassed that.”

“I’m just trying to keep this going and do right by the people that wanted this so badly. I was very fortunate to have people demand that I had that title match at WrestleMania against Daniel Bryan, and now I want to make sure that the fans had taken the right decision by choosing me to be their champion. This means a lot to me. I consciously make sure to put out the best performance that I possibly can for the people who got me here.”

Kofi Kingston on his effort to connect to the WWE Universe: “100 percent! The reason why my WrestleMania movement was so big was because my story was so relatable. Everybody has had some kind of struggle. At some point in your life, you’ve been told you can’t do something, that you’re too small to do something, you’re not good enough. You have a choice to make – you can either listen to what people have to say and prove them right or go out there and prove them wrong by going all out and doing what you want to do. I love being that example for people that are going through that struggle. They can look up to you, relate to you. They can look to be and my story, take motivation and go out and achieve what they want to. Even if I wasn’t a champion, I would make sure that people understand that you have to work as hard as you possibly can to achieve your dreams.”

Kofi Kingston the night New Day beat Cesaro and Tyson Kidd for the tag titles in 2015 and looking back at how far they’ve come: “Any time we get to wrestle Cesaro and Tyson Kidd, it is an honour. They are so good in the ring. You can feel how special a match is when you’re in there. “We actually just watched that match back all together. Big E weighed 40 pounds more that he does now. It is funny to look back and see all of us, trying to figure it out. We’re still in a stage we didn’t know what our characters were. The chemistry was definitely there but we didn’t have it fine-tuned. But people knew there was something special. At that time, we were able to get under the people’s skin.”

“It is interesting to go back and look and that match and look at where we are now. It is a testament to our development and how far we have come. A lot of times, when we are trying to tell people about the New Day and the story behind it, where we came from, about the Booty O’s, pancakes, the ice-creams, rainbows and unicorn horns, a lot of people don’t understand and rightfully so. It is hard to truly understand what we have been through unless you were actually there. But nonetheless, we are now doing great things now. At Extreme Rules, (Xavier) Woods and Big E are going up against Daniel Bryan and Rowan for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship. So by the end of that, you might see the New Day carrying all the gold.”