Kofi Kingston Upsets Bobby Lashley in WWE Raw Main Event

This week’s Monday Night Raw opened with MVP and Bobby Lashley declaring there would be an open challenge to anyone in the locker room (other than Drew McIntyre and Braun Strowman) during the main event later in the night. After numerous wrestlers teased challenging “The All Mighty” it was former WWE Champion Kofi Kingston who stepped forward, only for MVP to reveal that the match wasn’t actually for Lashley’s WWE Championship.

Yet despite being in a match with Randy Orton earlier in the night, Kingston wound up victorious. Lashley dominated for most of the bout, but McIntyre appeared in the final moments and whacked Lashley across the face with MVP’s cane, giving Kingston the chance to roll up the champ for the win.

Kingston famously rode a wave of momentum in early 2019 (dubbed KofiMania), culminating in him challenging Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 35 and winning the WWE Championship for the first time in his career. And while the six-month reign that followed was hampered by weak challengers, Kingston maintained his status as a fan-favorite while dominating SmackDown’s main event scene. However, Kingston’s time in the spotlight was brought to a screeching halt when he dropped the title in Brock Lesnar in mere seconds when SmackDown premiered on FOX back in October 2019. To make matters worse he was immediately pushed back down into the tag team scene, never given the chance for a rematch and wasn’t even able to voice his anger about the loss on television.

“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 on After The Bell in December 2019. “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.

Could this be Kingston’s shot at redemption? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments!