MVP Discusses How Kofi Kingston’s WWE Title Win Was Huge For Black Representation

In an interview with Sean Waltman for X-Pac 12360, MVP spoke about why representation matters and how Kofi Kingston’s WWE title win was a big deal for African-Americans, especially kids who need black role models to look up to. Here are highlights:

On why representation matters: “Something that blew me away, it resonated…while we were watching [Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse], my son, who at the time, I don’t think he was four yet, or maybe…yeah I think he was four. He looks at me and says, ‘Daddy, I want to be black Spider-Man.’ And I thought because Miles Morales wears a black and red Spider-Man outfit, at first that’s what I thought, you know? Oh yeah, not blue Spider-Man. But then he said, ‘Daddy, he looks like me. He looks like me. I wanna be him.’ And it dawned on me like, ‘Oh shit, yeah, you do look like Miles Morales.’ So the importance of having role models that you can immediately relate to, is right now in our society sadly, there’s a huge issue of race and this rift, and I remember when Black Panther came out, people were like, ‘Oh what’s the big deal, you guys already had Blade, so what?’ No, you don’t understand. Growing up, I remember the first time I saw Tony Atlas and Rocky Johnson. I went, ‘Oh shit, I wanna be like them.’ Because when we went outside to play wrestling, I was always Dusty Rhodes or Ric Flair or something like that, but to see somebody that looked like me, I went ‘Oh yeah, I wanna be like them!’ And then to see my four-year-old son, who I’ve never had a conversation about race or any of the social issues that plague us today, just to see him see a superhero that looks like him that he can relate to, that was absolutely huge.”

On how that relates to Kofi’s title win: “Bringing this all together with Kofi, winning the WWE Championship, the company title. That was huge because you had Booker T and Mark Henry win the World title, but no one that looks like Kofi had ever had ever held the WWE title before. And you have people say, ‘Oh why make it about race?’ Because it is! In this case. You have a literal African-American holding the WWE Championship for the first time. So there are kids who for years have loved WWE, but all the guys that held the title, you know there’s a whole segment of WWE fans that there was no one that looked like them. And it’s pretty cool that’s finally happened and the importance of that, just giving kids role models that they came immediately relate to.”

On the match with Daniel Bryan: “That should have been the main event. I know people will get mad about that but there is no question in my mind. That should have been the main event.”

If you use any of the quotes, please credit X-Pac 12360 with an h/t to 411mania.com.