SmackDown Live: Vince McMahon Gives Kofi Kingston a WWE Championship Shot via a Gauntlet Match

Kofi Kingston can challenge Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35, but he'll [...]

By Connor Casey

Kofi Kingston can challenge Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35, but he'll have to go through five other men to do it.

On SmackDown Live this week McMahon was confronted by Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods after McMahon promised the veteran some form of championship opportunity. Kingston said he wasn't out there to complain, demand or beg — he just wanted to know what he had to do in order to get a title shot.

Randy Orton, Samoa Joe, Cesaro, Sheamus and Rowan all made their way out to the top of the ramp. McMahon said Kingston will get his shot if he beats all five men in a gauntlet match on next week's SmackDown Live.

Kingston first inserted himself into the WWE Championship picture in the minds of the fans via a gauntlet match, so it seems that WWE is calling back to that in their build to a title match at their biggest show of the year. A week prior Elimination Chamber pay-per-view in early February, Kingston found himself being inserted into the WWE Championship chamber match after Mustafa Ali was pulled due to injury. He then spent a full hour competing in a gauntlet match against the other competitors in the match, pinning Daniel Bryan, Jeff Hardy and Samoa Joe before finally falling to AJ Styles due to exhaustion. Kingston kept his momentum going at the pay-per-view by surviving all the way to the final elimination, then pinned Bryan again in a tag match two days later on SmackDown Live.

Shane McMahon initially gave Kingston a title shot against Daniel Bryan at Fastlane, only for Vince to take the match from him and give it to Kevin Owens.

McMahon's distaste for Kingston continued at Fastlane when he decided to make the title match a triple threat and told Kingsotn to go out to the ring. But when he arrived the announcer told him he was now in a handicap match against The Bar. Cesaro and Sheamus brutally beat Kingston down for five minutes before pinning him. At one point Woods and Xavier tried to run out and make the save, but were jumped from behind by Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev.

The trio attacked The Bar, Nakamura and Rusev during a tag match on Tuesday night and managed to fend off Kingston's future gauntlet competitors to close out the show.

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