WWE Originally Had Plans to Dethrone Kofi Kingston Shortly After Winning WWE Title

A few years ago, Kofimania was the biggest thing in WWE as fans rallied behind Kofi Kingston. It led to him winning the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35 in 2019 and he held the title for around six months. It all came crashing down eventually and now it appears WWE decided on Kingston’s loss many months in advance.

On the debut episode of WWE Smackdown on FOX back in 2019, Brock Lesnar challenged Kofi Kingston for the title. In a move that still has fans questioning the booking decision, Brock Lesnar squashed Kofi Kingston in seven seconds and became the new WWE Champion.

Even a few years on, many people still feel it was a horrible booking decision, as fans felt Kofi Kingston deserved better than to get squashed in such a humiliating manner at the hands of The Beast Incarnate.

While speaking on Fightful Overbooked’s In The Weeds, former WWE writer Dave Schilling revealed that Brock Lesnar squashing Kofi Kingston was planned mere weeks after Kingston won the WWE Championship.

“I was there in 2019, I was on the home team on SmackDown. The thing that we were the most concerned with and most involved with was KofiMania. That was a storyline that traded on a lot of attitudes about race and ideas about who should or shouldn’t be the champion. I never felt like that storyline was disrespectful. I never felt that storyline was treated in a way where Kofi came off as a ‘token champion.’

That was a great storyline and I’m very proud of the small part I had to play in that. We can debate how it turned out in the end, when he lost to Brock Lesnar, which I found out about in April. We were talking about, ‘the plan is first SmackDown on FOX, Brock is going to come in and win the title and it’s going to be a quick match.’ That’s exactly what happened after I left. That’s the way it turned out. The writers in the room with me, were always incredibly aware of what we were doing and why it was important.”

That squash match was used as a way to introduce Cain Velasquez during SmackDown’s FOX debut. In the end, it only resulted in one Saudi Arabian match for Cain and Brock Lesnar, as WWE released Velasquez a short time later. Ever since his shocking loss, Kofi Kingston has never been back in the main event title scene, and it is unlikely he will ever win a main event title again. 

What’s your take on this Brock Lesnar story? Are you still shocked WWE booked Kofi Kingston that way? Sound off in the comments!