WWE's Kofi Kingston Looks Back On Kofi Mania

At Elimination Chamber 2019, Kofi Kingston replaced Mustafa Ali in the Men's Chamber match for the WWE Championship after Ali was pulled from the match due to injury. This led to Kingston being one of the last two competitors in the match, just barely losing to Bryan for the title, leading to the birth of "KofiMania." In a new interview with "Battleground Podcast," Kingston reflected on the movement and explained how he tried to remain humble as the movement continued to grow. 

"I purposely omitted Kofi Mania out to try and be humble you know," Kofi said, "it was a very real story you know, because the 11 year journey that I had to take to have a World Championship title match you know what I'm saying? It was a legit journey and everybody was with me on that journey there's a lot of people that have been impacted by that moment, even to this day it's over five years right, like over five years ago I still get messages on social media from people talking about how much that moment meant to them." Kingston's win made him the first-ever African-born WWE Champion, which is an accomplishment Kingston doesn't take lightly. 

"I think it's really cool man, I think that you know, as far as representation is concerned, I've always said that it's one thing to say that anything is possible but it's another thing entirely to see something happen and know that it's possible because it happened," Kingston reflected. "So for me, to be the first African born WWE Champion, you know there's a lot of people that never thought that they would see an African born champion on TV so seeing videos and hearing people's stories about like them watching their kids watch that Kofi Mania moment and just see their eyes light up, it's so humbling."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Battleground Podcast" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.