Kofi Kingston Recalls Famous WWE Champions Photo After TLC 2011 Being CM Punk’s Idea

– The Battleground Podcast recently interviewed WWE Superstar Kofi Kingston ahead of this weekend’s Royal Rumble event. He discussed the photo from WWE TLC 2011 showing all of the company’s champions at the time. At the time, Kofi Kingston was one half of the WWE tag team champions along with Matt Sydal. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

Kofi Kingston on the champion photo from WWE TLC 2011 being CM Punk’s idea: “So I think that one was just really unique in a lot of ways right because so this was actually Punk’s idea, I don’t know if we’ve ever talked about the history of this picture. Punk was the one who orchestrated the whole thing and wanted everyone to get together and take a picture and he was just like, ‘We’re gonna take a picture at this time…’ But we all go up there, and we all take the picture, and that was the first time that everybody who was champion was, I think, 210 pounds and under,” Kofi recalled. “That just didn’t happen, right? Like even when I tell people I’m a WWE superstar — when I told them I was going to become one everyone was like, ‘Well no, you’re not big enough. You’re not 6’3, you’re not 220 pounds.’ It’s just not prototypical for you to be in the WWE and not weigh 225 pounds, you know? At least that’s kind of what it used to be. The trend has kind of changed a little bit now. But especially at that point, you know, to be in the WWE and to be like a prominent superstar, to be like under 215 [pounds] was rare, let alone champions. ‘Now you’re the champions, the faces of the company. Now, you guys are the ones who are at the top of the mountain.’ So it was really just a unique time for a lot of different reasons.”

On the current group of WWE champions: “I guess in comparison to now, you do have more of your prototypical champions but even still, you have very unique characters. I feel like the evolution of the character work has changed so much. I mean, you look at Roman Reigns, right? Where he came from and where he is, leaps and bounds, right? Like Skip Bayless says a lot of times, he’s feeling himself, you know, he’s feeling himself, right? You can tell that Roman believes in this character, with every grain and fiber of his body to the point where it’s like man, ‘Is that a character?’ It’s just an extension of himself and that’s what really works best when you have characters who identify with the crowd.

“Brock Lesnar right as WWE Champion right now. He’s is kind of like your prototypical like, a strapping, 275 pounds freak of nature type athlete and wrestler that you would see. At the same time, the stuff that he’s doing right now is a lot different than Brock Lesnar of old. Like, he’s out, you know, he’s wearing like suspenders, he’s got his hair in a ponytail, like, what? But it works. Even like Shinsuke [Nakamura] right now. You never thought you would see Shinsuke getting a WWE ring. Now, here he is a champion, right?”

Kofi Kingston on the evolution of the business: “So it’s just different and the evolution of the business, it’s cool in that way because you see a lot of things that you wouldn’t expect to see. Roman doing his thing, Brock doing his thing the way he’s doing it, you know, Shinsuke doing his thing, right? Even Damian Priest, right? He’s a guy who’s like so new but like, so good. Yeah. He shouldn’t be as good as he is for the experience that he has in this business. I could go on about like the differences, but I think we’re in a good spot right now. We’re in a spot where we can look at our champions, and everybody is completely different, which I think is great.”