Kingston On his Title Win: “It is One of the Few times WWE Listened to Its Fans”

Kofi Kingston recently spoke with ComicBook.com while attending Comic-Con. Highlights from the interview are below.

On how the fans demanded that he be in the WrestleMania main event: “There’s a very strong sense of the fact that it wasn’t just me that did this, I always say we are the champion, we did this, because without the fans demanding that I be put in WrestleMania, it doesn’t happen. It’s one of the times that WWE actually listened to what the fans wanted.”

On his biggest influences and if he has met them all: “Almost, and it’s awesome. Shawn Michaels is one, he was my guy for sure. Rey Mysterio, another one, which again is crazy. So yesterday we had a panel for Mattel, and he was on the panel, sometimes it still blows my mind, like I’ve been on the same roster as Rey on and off now for over a decade, but it’s still like, so I was very small in high school, I had to gain weight to get to the 103 pound weight class in wrestling like my freshman year I was really small. I’d tell everyone I wanted to be a WWE superstar, they’d laugh at me because I was so small, but then I’d go home and see Rey Mysterio winning championships and at the time I was like, ‘Oh, I’m bigger than he is.” So he’s a guy that lead by example and provided just a sense of hope for people who were like, he’s the ultimate underdog, that’s very real. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, another one. So there’s a lot of people that definitely influenced me.”

On which wrestlers have styles that he thinks would work well with his: “Aleister Black, off the top of my head, I think he’s awesome. Cesaro, they just had an amazing match, but Cesaro’s always great. Ricochet is awesome, I’d love to be able to test my athleticism versus his, I’m sure he’d probably win in that sense, he’s crazy athletic. There’s a lot of new talent that’s coming up. Even like Heavy Machinery. Seeing Woods and E go up against them with Daniel Bryan was cool too because you have guys who like to have fun out there but who are also, they’re style, they’re legitimate, like nationally ranked amateur wrestlers, like these guys are really, really good. They come out and they dance and everything but they’re legit. There’s just so much talent on the roster right now.”