Kofi Kingston Comments On WWE Title Loss To Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez's Debut

Following his WWE Championship loss to Brock Lesnar on the premiere of SmackDown on FOX, WWE cameras caught up with Kofi Kingston to comment on the match.

"It's a lot of emotions to be honest," Kingston said. "You know that your championship reign isn't going to last forever. But to have it go out like that, obviously, I knew what kind of man I was up against and maybe I was a little too anxious. I'll go back and watch the tape and see exactly what went wrong. [Laughs] There's not much tape to watch, but it is what it is.

"I said all along that Brock Lesnar was an enormous mountain to try and climb. But I pride myself on being up to the challenge to climb those mountains. And no shame, I feel like I beat a lot of good competitors and dare I say great competitors, from Daniel Bryan to Kevin Owens to Samoa Joe, even Sami Zayn was in there.

"I wrestled AJ Styles, and I came out on top of all of them. So I just bring my all every single night. And tonight that fell a little bit short."

The loss shocked and angered WWE fans across the globe, who watched Kingston hold the title for approximately six months. He won the championship from Daniel Bryan last spring at WrestleMania 35.

Looking back at his first run with the world championship, Kingston was reflective about what he accomplished.

"There's a lot of people out there that believed in me," Kingston explained. "And unfortunately, I let them down tonight. But I'm still very appreciative of the support I've had since before Mania, since Elimination Chamber. The support from the WWE Universe has been incredible. And I'm just so appreciative for all of the love I've felt over the past few months. It's been a crazy ride, my brothers in The New Day support me the whole way.

"It doesn't feel very good but these trying situations are what make us grow."

Kingston then shifted his attention to Cain Velasquez, who debuted with WWE following the main event of SmackDown.

"Honestly, it doesn't surprise me because the WWE title is the most coveted title in all of sports," Kingston said. "Who doesn't want to be adored by all the fans? Who doesn't want to come out and be able to perform in front of a fan base as energetic as the WWE Universe?

"I've heard rumors and I've seen some things and I know Cain Velasquez is a fan of what we do and that he doesn't like Brock Lesnar so I'm not really surprised. It's gonna be interesting to see what happens and I think I'm still trying to process what I've lost before speculating on other people coming in and figuring out how I can get back into that title scene because it took me a long time to get here. If that road includes a Cain Velasquez in the middle of it then, so be it. It's definitely interesting to see someone come from a different world to ours. It's a testament to how big WWE has gotten."

[H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcript.]