Kofi Kingston on Why He Doesn’t Complain About How His Title Loss Went Down, on The New Day’s Philosophy of Pursuing Identical Contract Renewals Together

– The CBS Sports State of Combat podcast recently interviewed former WWE champion Kofi Kingston. During the interview, Kingston spoke about maintaining his positive attitude after losing the title in eight seconds to Brock Lesnar on Smackdown and more. Below are some highlights.

Kofi Kingston on if his title win creates a greater opportunity for other people of color in WWE to someday become world champion: “Of course, yeah. So, I’ve always said too that it’s one thing to say that anything is possible, in theory, right? If it hasn’t happened. But it’s another thing to say that anything is possible because it has happened in fact, you know? So, the fact that I was able to win the WWE championship, and just the social media posts alone was enough confirmation to know how impactful that moment was on people of color, and obviously anybody who has been in that situation, but particularly people of color because it hadn’t really happened before. You hadn’t really had somebody who was born in Africa that was a main title holder, you know, so the fact that I was able to do that and provide that motivation, even people always come up to me all the time, and they’re still talking about it. So yeah, I definitely felt that the impact was true, and that was always the point. I’ve always wanted to inspire people to go out and do positive things. And if you could feel 1/10th of the good vibes that I feel as a WWE Superstar, as a person, as as a person who has gone out and reached for their dreams and achieved that dream, then you’ll be so happy with your own life because I just want people to feel that.”

“And even if you have to hang in there and things look bleak, and you don’t think that you can do it, or it’s never been done before, there’s still a possibility. And the only way that possibility’s going to happen is if you yourself keep on pushing yourself. So yeah, even though the title reign ended, the impact that was felt was not — I feel like no one can ever take that away. And from a creative aspect, I think that people — hopefully, it shines a little bit of light on the way that storylines can be written because this wasn’t the intention. if [Mustafa] Ali doesn’t get hurt, we’re not having this conversation. Period. Point blank. It’s not happening, you know? So, the fact that — I’m just glad creatively that Vince [McMahon] and the company decided to go with what the people wanted because there have been a lot of times where people wanted to go one direction, and clearly by the voices out there, we decided to go in a different direction. But again, just to see the impact that this storyline has had on real life, I think that people who have, ‘the pen,’ realize that and hopefully influences them to write some compelling storylines that really capture that sense of passion and things of that nature.”

Kofi Kingston on staying positive after losing the world title in eight second to Lesnar: “Like I said man, I’m just trying to keep on moving forward. I’ve said it before in a bunch of different interviews as far as the title reign ended. I could sit around and mope and whine and complain and bicker about the way it went down, or I could march forward and continue to make history. And I’ve chosen the latter to do that because that’s really what matters, man. If I’m going on social media and complaining, that’s not what changes anything. I’m just trying to promote change, and like I said, influence people’s lives in a positive way. And you can’t do that when you’re in a negative space. So, it’s all positivity in a very real — beyond a character perspective — just in a real life perspective, and just always pushing forward and climbing the mountain to the top.”

Kofi Kingston on why The New Day opted to sign identical contract renewals rather than looking out for No. 1 to get the biggest deal possible: “Well, that has always been the philosophy of the group, and as far as looking out for No. 1, that’s been the mentality of a lot of different groups or factions, and that’s why you see them fall apart. But for us, we realize how strong we are. The bond that we have is special. We’re not like the other factions that you have out there, and it was important for all of us to get paid and get paid well and to do it as a group because that’s the only way that we want to do it. And that’s not to say that we can’t go off and have different singles runs or someone doing King of the Ring. Woods, that’s of his dreams, to be King of the Ring. So, to have him pursue that, we don’t have to break up to do that. We can all look out for each other. You know what I’m saying? There’s a lot of food to go around, and we can all eat and eat well. So, let’s do that, you know what I mean? You’re stronger in a group than you are by yourself. I never understood the mentality of wanting to go on your own way and look out yourself. This is what’s worked for us.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit the State of Combat podcast, with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.