Kofi Kingston’s sudden loss to Brock Lesnar back in early October brought an unfortunate end to his six-month reign as WWE Champion. Kingston had won the title back at WrestleMania 35 after a massive wave of fan support catapulted him to a world championship match, but that was suddenly being tossed aside in favor of giving “The Beast” yet another world championship run (his fifth since returning to the company in 2012). And while Kingston has shown nothing but patience and understanding since the loss, his New Day tag partner Big E admitted he was furious when he first learned how WWE planned to take the title away from Kingston.
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“Kofi Kingston is a lot more level-headed than maybe anyone else that I have met in the business because everyone else would have reacted,” E said while with Kingston and Xavier Woods on this week’s After The Bell podcast. “I was irate when I found out about it and that is a testament to Kofi.”
During the same interview Kingston talked about the fans being upset about not only his loss to Lesnar, but the lack of follow-up since then. He pointed out that he has no control over the booking decisions, and the anger fans want him to reflect doesn’t match his onscreen persona.
“This is weird too, a lot of people will be on my social media like, ‘Well Kofi, you’re acting like you don’t care, man. Did you forget that you were the champion? Well look, you’re asking my onscreen character to be angry like he’s my real character,” Kingston said. “I just feel like it’s one of those things where it just is what it is. And the reality [is] onscreen I’m a good guy who lost in eight seconds so as far as making a case for a rematch, what would my character have to say? ‘Give me another shot, Brock! I lost in eight seconds but I’ll get you next [time]!’ You want my real-life character to take on this anger and be mad with the way what happened onscreen. It’s this weird conundrum.
“I appreciate the passion people have, but I’m puzzled by the anger people have towards me because I’m not the one making all those decisions,” he added.
Since dropping the title Kingston has turned his attention back to the tag team division. He and E recently picked up the New Day’s seventh tag title reign by winning the SmackDown Tag Team Championships from The Revival.
