Kofi Kingston On People Who Don’t Consider the Rock a Black WWE Champion, Inspiring People With His Title Win

On the latest episode of Table Talk, Kofi Kingston talked about his WWE Championship win and the way people don’t consider The Rock to be a black WWE Champion. Kingston is often credited as the first African-American person to hold the WWE Champion, though it’s more accurate to call him the first African-born WWE Champion. The Rock is African-American and Samoan and, of course, held the WWE Championship eight times in his career, but he is sometimes given a qualifier by some in that respect because of his heritage being mixed. Kingston pushed back on that idea and talked about what the win meant for him and how he that his win inspired people. You can check out highlights and the full podcast below:

On people considering him the first African-American WWE Champion and not The Rock: “I think it’s sometimes kind of silly that people try to not count The Rock in that category. Because regardless of what you look like, you are what you are, you know what I’m saying? He’s black. Whether he’s half black, he’s black.

“But I definitely take a lot of pride in that sentiment like you said. I think for a long time, people of color, especially African Americans have been waiting for someone who looks exactly like them to hold that championship title. And I mention it all the time but like, on Twitter and social media, the moment that that happened, I got so many different messages and people in tears. There is a video of actually Shad and MVP crying, you know what I’m saying? And he doesn’t like when I bring that up because he doesn’t like it to be known that he cries because he wants to be a tough guy. It just means a lot to be able to — what’s important for me in this business is to be somebody that inspires other people to go out and do great things.”

On his long road to the title: “This was never, like — my goal was to become WWE Champion at some point, but I never sat back and said, ‘You know what? I want to be the first African-American or African-born WWE Champion.’ It just started happening. And again, I think about the fact that if Ali doesn’t get hurt right before Elimination Chamber, does this happen? You know, are we even talking about this moment? Because this wasn’t part of the plan. It’s not like someone came up to me 11 years ago and said, ‘You know what Kofi? For 11 years, we aren’t even going to let you sniff the WWE Championship. We’re not even going to let you have a match. And on the 11th year, we’re going to say that [it’s time].’ This wasn’t written, you know what I’m saying? This just happens organically.

“And I think that was part of why it was so special was because it happened out of nowhere and then the people started demanding it. And it wasn’t just African Americans, it was people of all different races. And I think to me, that’s the best part, because my story is one of struggle, right? Anybody who has been through anything or has wanted something has had a point in that journey where you think, ‘Hey, can I do this? I don’t know. The cards aren’t looking like they’re lining up.’ But then they can look at my story who stuck with it and fought for 11 years and tried to control what he could control, and just gave it his all for 11 hard years. And finally, the opportunity came and I was ready to capitalize on that opportunity because of all the preparation.”

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