Well, that was a hell of a WrestleMania, huh?
WrestleMania 35 is in the books, and it was a pretty damn good one. For the most part the right people won and the matches were all quality, but there was one moment, one match that the whole show hinged on in my personal opinion.
That was the WWE Championship bout between Kofi Kingston and Daniel Bryan; a match 11 years in the making. A match that hooked me right from the start, as I’ve been a hardcore fan of Kingston when I first started watching wrestling in mid-2009.
I was there for his multiple United States and Intercontinental Championship reigns, his great feud with Randy Orton, the reign of his forgettable tag team Air Boom and the formation of The New Day.
The man always captured my imagination, and I had been hoping he would get a proper shot at the main event for a long time. Much like Kofi himself, I gave up on those hopes quite a while ago.
This is why when he won that first gauntlet match and made it to a great showing in the Elimination Chamber, I was giddy. This was his chance, and they ran with it.
It was truly great to see the crowd one hundred percent behind Kofi, to the point of booing Kevin Owens and Mustafa Ali.
Throughout the whole storyline, Vince McMahon would continually pull the rug out from under Kofi, making him fight in unfair gauntlet matches, which culminated when Xavier Woods and Big E won a tag team gauntlet to finally let Kofi get his chance on the big stage.
It was such a moving and heartfelt journey because of the real life relationship Woods, Big E and Kingston have with each other.
The New Day is really just an exaggeration of the three men’s personalities, and from watching interviews and listening to podcasts it is so clear how close all three men are. To top it off all three of them are fantastic wrestlers and very good promos.
One thing that always stuck with me is the fact that Kingston was contemplating retirement before joining The New Day, especially if the group didn’t work out.
The New Day truly revitalized Kingston’s career, and Woods made clear that the goal of the group was to get Kofi a world championship.
That’s what makes the fact that Kingston stood victorious with the richest prize in WWE all the more emotional; his two best friends were by his side the entire time, through the good and through the bad.
KofiMania will stand as one of those rare moments when WWE capitalized on a fan movement as it was happening, and went all out with the payoff.
This was one of the few times WWE actually did some subtle storytelling and handled it masterfully. There was always the sense that this was bigger than the championship; this was about a performer facing a harder road to WrestleMania because of the color of his skin.
Sure, McMahon talked about it being “box-office,” but there was a point when someone said that line from the Triple H vs Booker T story years ago: “People like you don’t win championships.”
The race angle was there, especially if you keyed in on Byron Saxton’s commentary (which was really well done throughout the whole angle), but it wasn’t in your face if you didn’t want it to be.
Another great wrinkle to the story was Daniel Bryan. One of the biggest crowd favorites ever, now playing the self-absorbed, holier than thou champion. This is the same man that had to fight tooth and nail to bust through the glass ceiling and win the WWE championship against all odds at WrestleMania five years prior to this.
He called Kingston a “B-plus player,” the same stigma attached to him by the authority so long ago. And Kofi later called him out on that very fact.
However, the story would mean nothing if the match didn’t deliver, and my God, it delivered in spades. It was a fast-paced scrap where Kingston looked like he could hang with one of the best ring-technicians of all time.
It was full of great moments, such as Bryan countering a jumping stomp into a Boston crab, Kofi hitting an awesome reverse suplex, Kofi breaking out of the 3rd LeBell lock by just punching Bryan in the face and Bryan hitting his repeated stomps into the mat, only to have Kofi break free and do the exact same thing to him.
Then Big E and Woods give Kingston the original WWE Championship for him to hoist in the air, as his kids storm the ring. It is a beautiful moment because it feels real. Big E looks like the happiest man on Earth and Woods is ugly crying the whole way through.
Three die-hard friends were able to climb the mountain together and achieve a feat that had only been accomplished by one man prior (there is debate on if The Rock counts as the first black WWE Champion, I personally say yes, but there is no debate about Kofi).
The power of positivity became more than a slogan for these men, as they won the WWE Championship together, through sheer respect and hard work.
They didn’t have to backstab and politic their way to the top like Shawn Michaels and the Kliq, which makes their story 20 times more inspirational.
Bryan also deserves credit for selling the Trouble in Paradise like absolute death and quickly leaving the ring after the match to give Kofi his moment. Kudos to Bryan for being the perfect foil and antagonist in this story.
This was the match of the night for me and will stand as one of my favorite wrestling memories. The New Day is the best group going today and I have already written a series of articles on why I love them so much (cheap plug).
To think that nearly five years ago, they started out as a dead-on-arrival stereotypical gospel preacher gimmick and rose from that to the main event scene of Smackdown.
The man showed up ESPN TV with the WWE Championship while wearing a sweatsuit covered with pancakes. That’s money, that’s great, that’s success!
They did it by betting on themselves and putting all of their efforts into their craft. And everything culminated in a cathartic, emotional match at WrestleMania 35. I recommend you watch this match and the build to it if you have any interest in wrestling, and until next time, just remember that… NEW. DAY. ROCKS! KO-FI ROCKS! KO-FI ROCKS!
Henry Wolski
Executive Editor