About a month ago, I did a column in which I pledged not to watch anymore Monday Night Raw. For the most part, I’ve been pretty successful at it. But this past Monday, I must admit I did stop by the USA network for a little while and took a peek. It was just as painful as I remember. But there were a few things that I liked. Chris Master’s boob bouncing to Crazy Train produced legitimate laughter from me, as did Ozzy’s “I’m so sorry†to Big Show (by the way, did anyone else notice Ozzy’s instinctive sing along to the “Ay ay ay†in Crazy Train? It was simultaneously funny and sad). But the main thing I enjoyed seeing was the use of the perennially wasted Kofi Kingston as more than a happy go lucky racial stereotype bouncing his way around the under card.
Naturally, because I haven’t been paying as much attention to Raw as I once did, I had to use this wonderful resource of ours known as the internet to take a look and see just what it was that led us to a Kofi Kingston/Randy Orton feud. Obviously there was the interference of Kofi in the Orton/Cena match at Bragging Rights (which I watched, as I’m boycotting Raw not WWE in general. And no, I did not order it at home) but at the time, I didn’t see at as anything other than in-PPV continuity, perhaps leading to a Cody/Kofi match on Raw (Kofi having fought with Cody Rhodes in a backstage segment earlier in the show). But as the promo packages on this weeks Raw showed, we instead had Randy tossing Kofi off the entrance ramp, leading to Kofi coming back and destroying Randy’s newest prize possession: a customized Randy Orton NASCAR car. Having heard good things, I hunted this promo down. And it was impressive. Not so much the destruction of the car, which I was actually under whelmed by (keying a car doesn’t really telegraph so hot on television, though maybe it was just my lack of HD), but by the delivery from Kofi. Shedding the Jamaican accent has revealed that not only can Kingston fly in the ring, but he can deliver an actual promo. Combine that with his unique look and his fan support, and the WWE really does have a future star on their hands here. And I have, to say I’m blindsided by the apparent push.
Obviously, Kofi has been an underrated talent for some time now. He’s always had the crowd behind him, but he’s also been lost in the Raw under card shuffle, despite the odd championship run and a ready made catchphrase handed to the WWE on a platter by, of all people, Mike Adamle (or at least whoever was writing for Mike Adamle). The under use of Kofi really was Jamaican a lot of fans crazy. And then recently,that lone character trait was stripped away in perhaps the most unceremonious and awkward way possible: they just dropped it. One minute he’s Kofi Kingston the Jamaican, the next he’s being hailed from Ghana South Africa, and speaking plain old American standard English (and then having the loss of accent used as fodder for DX jokes on tv). This is how you prep a guy for a push? Insult to injury, both weeks of his newly improved role featured the mangling of his name by the guest hosts, which either shows how out of touch the guest hosts are or how little an impact any of the young talent has made on the public conscious. Or maybe it’s both.
Never the less, it’s a testament to the connection Kingston shares with the crowd that this has mattered not a lick in their seemingly immediate acceptance of him as a wrestler that can go toe to toe with a former World champion and current main eventer like Randy Orton (though to a lesser extent, it is also a testament to the WWE’s current inability to coherently create a character and maintain continuity. At least they appear to be listening to fan response now).
It remains to be seen if this push of Kofi is for real, or if it will end up like the so called pushes of other up and coming young talent such as the Miz (whose Jericho/Goldberg style feud with Cena ended with a whimper and weeks of floundering before a US title win and renewed push) or MVP (whose cup of coffee “feud†with Orton did nothing for either man). What seems to be most likely is a Survivor Series match up pitting Legacy against Kofi and two partners (judging from Raw, that would most likely be MVP and Mark Henry), but the question is, will the Kofi Kingston push stop there?
I hope not.
