Kofi Kingston talks The Usos' record breaking WWE Tag Team Championship reign.
Back on November 14, 2022, The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) officially became the longest reigning WWE Tag Team Champions ever. At that time, the Bloodline team passed the 484 day mark as the SmackDown Tag Team Champions. Previously, The New Day had held the record, as they were the Raw Tag Team Champions for 483 days between 2015 and 2016.
To officially pass the record, The Usos fittingly had to defeat The New Day in a title match on the November 11, 2022 episode of SmackDown.
While appearing on the latest edition of Out Of Character with Ryan Satin, Kofi Kingston noted that if anyone was ever going to break their record, it almost had to be The New Day.
“It was something that we held dear to our hearts, especially when you think about Demolition. They held that record for what, 30 years? We’re like ‘Oh cool, we’ll have this record for at least twenty. I mean, can we get ten? Can we get a decade?’ Here are The Usos right on our tails and [then they break the record) less than five years later? C’mon man, we can’t have nothing around here [laughs]. It’s all good man, I joke about that but The Usos are such incredible people, they’re incredible athletes, they’re incredible talent. Their journey has just been so amazing to watch when you think about the lineage and their Samoan heritage and their dad being in this and their uncles and their cousins and everybody that has come through and made their mark in the industry. Now, they’re doing the exact same and they’re doing it in a way that hasn’t been done before. They are probably the best opponents that we have gone up against, and we’ve had a lot of matches with them, but every single one of them has been different. Every single one of them kind of outdoes the last one. It’s always just a pleasure and a honor and a privilege to be able to mix it up with them in any way, shape, or form in the ring. Part of me is kinda like records are made to be broken, so I’m not really losing any sleep over the record being broken, but we wanted it to last until the end of time. But, if there was anybody that was gonna break it, we’re glad that it could have been The Usos and then for us to have that match for them to actually break the record, it just means a lot. I’ve said it in a few interviews now too, but the history of the industry is such so important, [especially] when you get to chance to bring elements from early on in a timeframe and combine them and tell a long term story. Obviously, the history we have with The Usos, it’s been a long term storytelling journey. It almost had to be The Usos that broke that record, it just felt right for us to be the ones that they beat to cross that finish line and actually take that record. It’s always an honor and pleasure to be going up against them, and it was an honor and a pleasure to [reluctantly] hand it to them.”
As of the publish date of this article, The Usos are still both SmackDown and Raw Tag Team Champions. Jimmy and Jey have held the SmackDown belts for 557 days and the Raw belts for 251 days.
The Usos were recently named Pro Wrestling Illustrated's number one tag team of 2022. To learn more, click here.
Earlier this week, Fightful aired an exclusive interview with Kofi Kingston where he discussed Jay Briscoe, his CLICK foundation, and many other topics. Fans can watch that interview by clicking here.
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