Kofi Kingston Comments On Losing WWE Title To Brock Lesnar And Cain Velasquez Debut
Following Brock Lesnar once again becoming WWE Champion on last night's WWE SmackDown FOX premiere, former champion Kofi Kingston spoke in an exclusive video about losing the WWE Championship – in a match which lasted just seconds.
"It's a lot of emotions to be honest," Kingston said. "You know that your championship reign isn't going to last forever. But to have it go out like that, obviously, I knew what kind of man I was up against and maybe I was a little too anxious. I'll go back and watch the tape and see exactly what went wrong. [Laughs] There's not much tape to watch, but it is what it is.
"I said all along that Brock Lesnar was an enormous mountain to try and climb. But I pride myself on being up to the challenge to climb those mountains. And no shame, I feel like I beat a lot of good competitors and dare I say great competitors, from Daniel Bryan to Kevin Owens to Samoa Joe, even Sami Zayn was in there.
"I wrestled AJ Styles, and I came out on top of all of them. So I just bring my all every single night. And tonight that fell a little bit short."
Kingston had been champion since defeating Bryan back at WrestleMania 35 on April 7, when asked about his reign as champion, Kingston points out the belief and support he gained from the WWE Universe.
"There's a lot of people out there that believed in me," Kingston explained. "And unfortunately, I let them down tonight. But I'm still very appreciative of the support I've had since before Mania, since Elimination Chamber. The support from the WWE Universe has been incredible. And I'm just so appreciative for all of the love I've felt over the past few months. It's been a crazy ride, my brothers in The new Day support me the whole way.
"It doesn't feel very good but these trying situations are what make us grow."
After the match was the WWE debut of UFC heavyweight Cain Velasquez. After Lesnar and Paul Heyman stood tall with the WWE Title, Rey Mysterio's music hit and he eventually came out with Velasquez.
Lesnar and Heyman looked on from the ring, shocked. Velasquez entered the ring and ducked a shot from Lesnar, then tackled him. Velasquez pounded on Lesnar on the mat as Lesnar resisted and tried to retreat. He finally escaped the ring and stared Cain down from the ramp. Lesnar teased going back in but finally walked back to the stage as fans booed him. SmackDown went off the air with Velasquez standing tall in the ring with Mysterio while Lesnar and Heyman watched from the stage.
Kingston addressed Velasquez's debut, however, he wasn't surprised that a former UFC star would come over to the WWE Universe.
"Honestly, it doesn't surprise me because," Kingston commented. "The WWE title is the most coveted title in all of sports. Who doesn't want to be adored by all the fans? Who doesn't want to come out and be able to perform in front of a fanbase as energetic as the WWE Universe?
"I've heard rumors and I've seen some things and I know Cain Velasquez is a fan of what we do and that he doesn't like Brock Lesnar so I'm not really surprised.
"It's gonna be interesting to see what happens and I think I'm still trying to process what I've lost before speculating on other people coming in and figuring out how I can get back into that title scene because it took me a long time to get here.
"If that road includes a Cain Velasquez in the middle of it then, so be it. It's definitely interesting to see someone come from a different world to ours. It's a testament to how big WWE has gotten."
As previously reported, Lesnar vs Velasquez will take place at WWE Crown Jewel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 31st.