WWE’s Kofi Kingston soars to stand out

Standing six foot tall and weighing 212lbs, Kofi Kingston, a ring veteran known for his aerial acrobatics, thinks he’s better than the rest. The leader of the ‘Boom Squad’ makes a case by winning championships from different categories.

“If you don’t think that you’re the best, you probably shouldn’t be in the WWE,” the champ told tabloid! ahead of his appearance at WWE Live, October 10-12, at Zayed Sports City, Abu Dhabi.

“Anytime I step in the ring in my mind I’m the best. And having said that, we have the best competition from around the world. You don’t go to WWE unless you’re the cream of the crop. We’re the best entertainers in the world.”

He has been Intercontinental Champion, World Tag Team Champion, United States Champion and WWE Tag Team Champion. Whether he’s flying solo or teaming up with other WWE superstars, he’s always eager to cause ‘trouble in paradise’.

By that, we mean hitting opponents with a spinning roundhouse kick and pinning the competition for a 1, 2, and 3! See Kofi Kingston do just that in the captial this weekend.

Q: You’ve been Intercontinental Champion, Tag Champion and US Champion. Which belt would you consider your most treasured?

A: It’s really hard to answer that question. All those belts have so much prestige behind them. But I would have to say the Intercontinental Championship because it’s the first championship that I ever won and it’s one of the titles that I used to love watching growing up, with guys like Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Owen Hart. They were all Intercontinental Champions, they were all my favourites so holding that championship, I was having a flashback to my childhood. 

Q: Name three of your most memorable matches.

A: Going back to the Intercontinental Championship versus Chris Jericho in 2008 ‘Night of Champions’. That’s the first time I won the Intercontinental Championship. Then probably ‘Money in the Bank’ in 2009 at Wrestlemania. Which was great because it was my first Wrestlemania match, it was awesome. And then I’d have to say facing Randy Orton at Madison Square Garden. He and I brawled throughout the Garden and I ended up putting him through a table and the crowd went nuts, so it was great. 

Q: Name your fiercest competitor to date.

A: Probably The Big Show. Big Show’s 7 feet, 500lbs, so anytime a guy like me has to go up against a guy like that it’s always a challenge. A big mountain to climb. 

Q: How did your finishing move ‘Trouble in Paradise’ come about?

A: Basically, it’s a spinning roundhouse kick. I call it ‘Trouble in Paradise’ because we’ve all been to the beach where we’re hanging out having a good time and you have some guy who’s obnoxious, he’s loud and he’s playing loud music and kicking sand on your towel and basically bringing trouble to your paradise, which nobody likes. When I hit my spinning roundhouse kick in the mat, no one else likes it because I’m the one who wins the match. So that’s kind of where it came from. 

Q: How do you keep your energy levels up?

A: The main thing is that we have a great fan base. The WWE Universe is awesome no matter how tired we are from travelling, once we get into the ring or even beforehand when our music hits and the crowd goes wild it’s an adrenaline rush unlike any other. It’s really something that keeps us going. We’re glad to perform in front of the WWE Universe. 

Q: Special matches like MITB or HIAC are very entertaining. Do you think WWE should be doing more of them?

A: I think that for me I would get beat up a lot, so maybe not. The fact that we have them a couple of times a year makes them that much more special. You have to wait a year before you see ‘Money in the Bank’. You see one of them and there’s not going to be another ladder match until a year later so I don’t think that we should have more. The fact that we don’t have them every week makes them very special for people to watch. 

Q: Who is the strongest guy in the locker room?

A: Next to myself, I would probably say either Ryback or Big E. And it depends on the exercise. For bench press I’d probably say Big E, even deadlift I’d say Big E. Maybe squats would go to Ryback. It depends on what the exercise is but those two guys are powerhouses. 

Q: Who do you think currently has the best gimmick?

A: Right now I do like Fandango because it’s so ridiculous. You have a ballroom dancer fight in a WWE ring. The entire crowd loves it too. He comes out and they’re humming his song for the whole match so very entertaining, very ridiculous but it’s great and he pulls it off quite well. 

Q: Name your coolest move.

A: It would probably be the ‘Boomdrop’ because I like to shake around, hit the ropes and say ‘boom! boom!’ and everybody in the crowd says it with me. It’s one of the moves that everyone gets to participate in and everyone kind of looks forward to me doing. 

Q: Who would you want to square off from the 80s to 90s legends?

A: Easily Shawn Michaels. Shawn Michaels to me is the greatest of all time and definitely one of the people who I looked up to a lot in terms of getting into this business. Shawn Michaels has always had great matches and if he and I got into the ring it would be awesome for me because he was one of my idols growing up.