Kofi Kingston Fails In WWE SmackDown Gauntlet

Man, oh man, does WWE love building up and then dashing the hopes of its audience or what?

In the much-anticipated gauntlet match that took up over half of SmackDown, Kofi Kingston beat the odds to overcome Sheamus, Cesaro, Rowan (via DQ, because, y’know, gotta protect the big dude!), Samoa Joe and then Randy Orton to seemingly book his place in the WrestleMania main event.

Only, he hadn’t. Vince McMahon came out and with five minutes or so left on the broadcast, congratulated Kofi and said he was going to WrestleMania . . . IF he could defeat one final opponent: Daniel Bryan.

.@TrueKofi DID IT!!!!! After beating five others Superstars, @TrueKofi survives the Gauntlet to go to #WrestleMania! #SDLive #GauntletMatch pic.twitter.com/HchksmIZgX

— WWE (@WWE) March 20, 2019

Exhausted from the previous five matches, Kofi was unable to overcome the WWE Champion, who put him away with the running knee to end Kingston’s WrestleMania dreams.

So, as of right now, Kofi Kingston will not meet Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania and the latter is still without an opponent with just under three weeks (and two episode of SmackDown) to go until the show.

While I appreciate that WWE is doing an underdog-fighting-against-authority storyline with Kofi in an attempt to get fans to rally behind him (the same play as they have just done with Becky Lynch for months), fans were gearing up for a celebration and WWE has instead delivered yet another booking move that takes the wind out of people’s sails.

.@TrueKofi DID IT!!!!! After beating five others Superstars, @TrueKofi survives the Gauntlet to go to #WrestleMania! #SDLive #GauntletMatch pic.twitter.com/HchksmIZgX

— WWE (@WWE) March 20, 2019

This was not the time for WWE to build yet more heat. The meandering build to the women’s three way has been bad enough, going way off the rails and confusing what should have been (and was) a very simple story to tell. In addition, fans were deflated by the Kurt Angle-Baron Corbin announcement on Monday and some of the other new bouts announced have hardly set the world alight, leaving WWE in very real danger of turning fans off WrestleMania at a time when they should be buzzing about it.

Yes, Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston is still likely to happen, but did we really need another spanner in the works? Can’t the fans get a happy ending for once on television? It’s little wonder the ratings are the lowest they have ever been over WrestleMania season.

What did you think of the way the gauntlet was booked on SmackDown? Let us know in the comments below.

• Gauntlet
• kofi kingston
• WrestleMania
• Vince McMahon

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