Kofi Kingston discusses potentially winding down his wrestling career.
In December 2019, Kofi signed a new five-year deal with WWE, indicating that his contract would run to December 2024. Kingston, 41, joined WWE, signing with their developmental territory, in 2006 and has been part of the company ever since.
Speaking to Peter Rosenberg on Cheap Heat, Kofi was asked how much longer he will keep coming.
"I don't know. I have a couple of years left on my contract. I never say, 'In two years I'm going to be done.' We always get on Mark Henry about this because he said he was going to retire for 12 years. 'I'm gonna be done after this year,' and all of a sudden he comes out in his stuff, 'Vince (McMahon) told me that they needed me, so I signed for another five years.' Mark, come on man, you ain't never retiring! We get on him about that. This industry is so unique and so fun and such a short period of time in our lives, and I know it's very hard to walk away. What a lot of people miss about it, and from being on the roster and what I've been told, they miss the camaraderie in the locker room. Even now, I see the transition happening where myself, Dolph (Ziggler), Miz, Randy (Orton), we're kind of the elder statesmen. Everyone else has gone through NXT, people who I didn't come up with, so you see the natural transition happening, but the camaraderie in the locker room, it's still there. Once that's gone, you don't really get it back. I've always said, as long as I'm having fun, I don't want to be the guy who comes to work every day and is complaining about being there, 'I'm not happy with a storyline, I'm pissed off about this.' This job is so amazing that you should be feeling elated about it every single day. Obviously, there are ups and downs, we all know that, but overall, you shouldn't be coming to work and having it weigh on yourself and you take it home and you're mad about what's going on at work and now the quality of your life isn't what it should be," he said.
Kingston is currently one-half of the NXT Tag Team Champions alongside his New Day partner Xavier Woods. The third member of their trio, Big E, is currently sidelined with a neck injury.
Asked if Big E and Woods ever say things like, "You can't retire and break up the group," Kingston replied, "I told them this, and they're starting to come around, once you get past 30, it's all the same age bracket. Are they younger than me or are we all the same age? They might even be older than me. Woods has been working has been working in the industry for a very long time. He's got like 27 years in the business. He's the real veteran of the group. Am I older than him or not? Who is to say? When it's all said and done, we definitely want to continue to work with each other on an entertainment platform, whatever that looks like, we're figuring that out. We take it one day at a time. We'll see what happened when the contract expires and we'll cross that bridge when it comes."
It is unknown when Big E will return to WWE television. He is scheduled for his one-year follow-up on his neck injury in March.
Kingston & Woods will defend their NXT Tag Team Championships against Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince & Kit Wilson) and Gallus (Mark Coffey & Wolfgang) at NXT Vengeance Day.
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