Controversial WWE Booking Decision Planned ‘Months’ Ahead Of Time

WWE

One of the most controversial WWE booking decisions in recent years came in October of 2019, when Brock Lesnar dethroned WWE Champion Kofi Kingston.

Kofi famously captured the title from Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 35 in the climax of the KofiMania story, before holding the title for six months.

Kofi dropped the title to Lesnar on the first episode of SmackDown on FOX in October 2019, with Lesnar squashing Kofi in 10 seconds to capture the title, and bringing a crushing end to Kingston’s reign.

Former WWE writer Dave Schilling spoke to Fightful’s In The Weeds podcast, where he discussed the recent lawsuit filed against WWE regarding ‘racist’ pitches for storylines.

Schilling discussed the KofiMania story, when he revealed that the pitch was made to have Lesnar squash Kofi just weeks after KofiMania.

He said:

“I was there in 2019, I was on the home team on SmackDown. The thing that we were the most concerned with and most involved with was KofiMania. That was a storyline that traded on a lot of attitudes about race and ideas about who should or shouldn’t be the champion. I never felt like that storyline was disrespectful. I never felt that storyline was treated in a way where Kofi came off as a ‘token champion.’ That was a great storyline and I’m very proud of the small part I had to play in that.

“We can debate how it turned out in the end, when he lost to Brock Lesnar, which I found out about in April. We were talking about, ‘the plan is first SmackDown on Fox, Brock is going to come in and win the title and it’s going to be a quick match.’ That’s exactly what happened after I left. That’s the way it turned out.

“The writers in the room with me, were always incredibly aware of what we were doing and why it was important.”

Brock went on to drop the title to Drew McIntyre in the main event of WrestleMania 36 inside the WWE Performance Center.

quote via Fightful Select (subscription required)

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