Kofi Kingston explains how an injury led to an opportunity for The New Day and Imperium.
Jey Uso and Kofi Kingston faced Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci of Imperium on the January 1 episode of WWE Raw. Vinci suffered an apparent injury in the match, which led to Kofi facing Kaiser in a singles match the following week. They fought to a double count-out, and Kaiser attacked Kingston backstage. The next week, Xavier Woods made his return and showed some aggression by taking the fight to Kaiser. The New Day and Imperium clashed on the January 22 episode of WWE Raw, and they brawled all over the arena. Kingston later highlighted how the storyline gave the New Day an unexpected opportunity.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Kofi Kingston was asked to name his goals. He responded by noting that the wrestling industry can make it hard to have goals, so he instead focused on making the most out of whatever he was given.
"My whole thing with goals is, what I’ve learned about being in this industry is that no matter what goals you set, nothing ever goes that way. It just doesn’t. I really concentrate more on being able to adjust to whatever is thrown at me and be able to take what’s given to me and make it more than it was when it was given to me. So for example, we were just talking about this storyline-wise, me and Wood, we weren’t involved in a storyline for almost a year. Still on TV, doing stuff, having great matches, being able to do all that. But from a storyline-perspective, it wasn’t, it was NXT, when we went there and we had our whole run with the titles and all that, which was great," Kingston said.
Kingston then highlighted his current storyline with Imperium (Giovanni Vinci and Ludwig Kaiser). He noted that Giovanni Vinci's injury was written into the storyline, and it allowed both teams to show a different side. Kingston stated that that would never have happened if not for the injury. He also explained that he took pride in being able to adjust his aggression when the situation called for it.
"The time period between that and what we’re doing now with Imperium, that just happened. Because when me and Giovanni were in there, he ends up getting hurt and getting concussed, and we had to stop the match mid-match. They would have never written that into a storyline, and only because that happened, allowed for me to go in there and go against Ludwig, and then allow him to show a different side that you didn’t think that he had. You always look at Ludwig and Giovanni as Gunther’s side pieces, for lack of a better word [laughs]. That’s what you visualize them as, and now we give them a chance to step up and be their own people and level up. That only happened because me and Gio were in there, and he ended up getting hurt. That happens, and then Woods comes in the next week, and he’s allowed to show a different side, and now all of a sudden, it’s like, oh my god, New Day’ turning up. Then we had this match this past week, and we’re out in the stands and we’re fighting, and we’re going through tables, and all the sudden, people are like, ‘Oh, this is great, this is an aggressive side of New Day that we haven’t seen before.’ You’ve seen it before, but it’s really when the situation warrants for it to happen. I take a lot of pride in being able to do that and be able to adjust based on what the situation demands," Kingston said.
Click here to see what Kofi Kingston had to say about CM Punk's return to WWE.
Kingston is scheduled to challenge Gunther for the WWE Intercontinental Championship on the January 29 episode of WWE Raw.
Fightful will have live coverage of WWE Raw as it airs on January 29.
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