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Kofi Kingston Talks Overcoming the Starts and Stops of His WWE Career, Not Getting Booked on TV the Night After WrestleMania 25

July 26, 2019 | Posted by Jeffrey Harris
Kofi Kingston Smackdown Image Credit: WWE

On the latest Chasing Glory, WWE World champion Kofi Kingston discussed how he overcame the stops and starts for his career and how he dealt with the times where he wouldn’t even get booked on TV. Highlights and the full podcast are below:

Kofi Kingston on the starts and stops he’s had to overcome for his career: “I think there’s a lot like you say, a lot of people who think that like I’m happy all the time and what not. I think I go through it just like anybody else. I’ve had a lot of different challenges, like you were saying, a lot of stop and starts as far as the career is concerned. But I think what I’m able to do is kind of put things into perspective, No. 1, having this job to me is this is all I’ve ever wanted to do. Out of college, I was working for Staples at the corporate headquarters talking about office supplies, and like 700-page bind guides that went out, I’d have to proofread those. I didn’t need to go to college to do this. And I’d have to sit there, and you would have to make sure — the chair section, you have to make sure all the chairs face in — just like little, stupid things like I couldn’t believe this was going to be the rest of my life. So, I’ve been on the other side where I know that a bad day in WWE beats the best day at Staples, know what I’m saying? It works for some people as far as having that corporate lifestyle and being in that cubicle and having that predictability of knowing what you’re going to do. Awesome. Works for so many people. For me, it did not. I needed to be outdoors. I always had that in the back of my mind.”

Kingston on not getting booked on Raw the night after a great performance at WrestleMania 25 in MITB: “Like I said before, I know and I learned a long time ago, you can’t control everything. You talk about the stops and the starts. Well, I think it was my first — well I guess technically second — WrestleMania. I was in the Money in the Bank match at the 25th anniversary of WrestleMania, and I was able to do some incredible things that have never been done before, which as crazy as it is to say having guys like Edge and Christian and The Hardyz and The Dudleys that set the bar so high, to be able to go into that match and do things that have never been seen before was awesome. I came through gorilla, you know, standing ovation. Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, that was amazing!’ Cloud 9. WrestleMania party. Everybody’s coming up and hand shaking. And then, Monday Night Raw, the very night next, I wasn’t booked. So, it was, oh my god, I thought I did a good job. Did I do something wrong? Like with the whole rivalry with Randy Orton. I thought that was going to be like what was going to propel me to the next level. We had an amazing ordeal at Madison Square Garden that people still talk about to this day. And then, over time, it just started to go away. And then all of the sudden, I just wasn’t on TV.”

Kofi Kingston on realizing some things are just out of his control: “So, I’ve gone through all these things, but what I realized is I don’t have control over where I’m put on the card. The only thing I can control is go out there and do the best that I possibly can. I’ve always said that once this begins to not be fun, I’ll just walk away because like you were saying, I’ve seen people just coming to work and be discouraged and rightfully so. You put your life into this. It’s supposed to be the dream, and then all the sudden, you’re asked to do something that you know that you’re above. You know what I mean? You know you can do better. You’re not getting the opportunities you think that you deserve. Like I said, I think it really helped to realize that you literally have no control. A lot of times, things don’t make sense, but it’s not for you to make sense out of them. It’s up to us to go out and do the best that we possibly can with what it is that we are given. And that’s all that you can do. You literally can’t do anymore than your best. So, that was always my attitude, and that still is my attitude, just to be able to go out there and give it everything that I have every single night. That’s it. Let the cards kind of fall as they do. If I ended up getting released or fired or whatever, it wasn’t going to be because of something that I did. It wasn’t going to be because of a choice that I made or because I didn’t work hard enough or I didn’t do a good enough job. That wasn’t going to be the reason, so that I would have no regrets being here and doing this. That’s just the attitude that I have. Definitely happy to be out there and try to steal the show every night.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Chasing Glory with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.

Listen to “Kofi Kingston – HUGE 100th Episode Celebration!!” on Spreaker.

article topics :

Kofi Kingston, WWE, Jeffrey Harris