WWE Star Calls Kofi Kingston Booking ‘Disrespectful’

A WWE star has called out WWE’s treatment of former WWE Champion Kofi Kingston as being “disrespectful” following his reign with the title.

Kingston won the WWE Title from Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 35 in April 2019, but lost it in a seven-second match to Brock Lesnar that October. Since then he’s been back in the tag team scene, and fellow New Day member Big E has voiced his displeasure about this.

Speaking on Talking Smack, here’s the exchange between Big E and The Miz:

Big E: “Kofi, I will say, is far too humble, far too ‘do-the-right-thing’ to mention this, but, I’m gonna say this because it’s never been said, really, not publicly, but Kofi’s a guy that had his legs cut out from underneath him. To see what happened with the match with him and Brock, and then to see no title opportunity after that, he just goes back into tag teams and whatnot, that’s disprespectful.”

Miz: “I was WWE Champion and the same thing happened to me. And I needed to rebuild and regroup myself. I wish I could have taken Kofi and said ‘look, you need to make sure that whatever happens after your WWE Championship run that you don’t lose that main event status, that you don’t feel like you are not a top star in WWE’. And honestly, I was a victim of that, I was. There’s no doubt in my mind that I should have been where I was, but now I keep working and keep working and keep working and keep dedicating myself to try to be a WWE Champion once again. That’s why I’m sitting out here telling you, your jokey stuff, it’s fun, it’s great, it’s entertaining, but it’s not gonna work to get you to the Universal Championship.”

Big E: “So, wait, did you wait 11 years to get your first World Title opportunity? I don’t think so.”

Miz: “No. But it’s been a long time since I’ve had another WWE, well, Universal Championship.”

Big E: “You’ve gotten many opportunities and I get you’re very talented, you’re very deserving. Kofi waited 11 years for that one opportunity, then it was gone, poof, just like that. Back to doing tag stuff, back to doing normal stuff.”

Miz: “He allowed it. He could have fought that, couldn’t he have?”

Big E: “How?!”

Miz: “What do you mean how? What is the one thing they tell us when we’re in developmental and we’re trying to build ourselves up? If you have five seconds on a television show, that is your opportunity to make people believe that you deserve better. That you deserve more.”

Big E: “So he failed himself is what you’re saying?”

Miz: “I always blame myself. I don’t blame anybody else. I blame myself for all my failures.”

Big E: “That’s easy to say when you’ve been handed opportunity after opportunity after opportunity.”

Miz: “I haven’t been handed opportunity!”

Big E: “You didn’t wait 11 years to get your first World Title opportunity, did you?”

Miz: “No, because I was a star because people believed in me!”

Big E: “And Kofi wasn’t, right, huh? Kofi wasn’t?”

Miz: “There was no-one at that time more hated, more despised than me in WWE. Nobody. Everyone couldn’t stand me. Whether it was in the locker room or in the WWE Universe, and that is why I propelled myself and utilised myself to be the biggest star there at that time.”

Big E: “You didn’t have to wait 11 years in the midcard. You didn’t have to wait 11 years doing your thing week in week out, showing up, shaking hands, being a professional for 11 years.”

Miz: “I’ve been waiting… I’m waiting right now! Right now! I wasn’t even supposed to be here today! And they were like ‘we need a host so we’re gonna get The Miz’. Because I can do it all. Can you?”

Big E: “Yes. Yes I can, thank you.”