During a recent interview with Newsweek, WWE Champion Kofi Kingston opened up about a series of topics as he continues to thrive in his first run with the WWE Championship. Kofi is set to face off against Dolph Ziggler once again this weekend, as he defends the title at Stomping Grounds.
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You and Ziggler have squared off many times in your careers. You would even say that they’ve paralleled each other in a way. What’s different about this match?
Ziggler has been around a little longer than I have, but from 2010-12, he and I went at it almost every single week in pay-per-views, tv, live events. We know each other very well.
We are two guys who are not your prototypical WWE superstars. We are “undersized,” we are not 6’8″ or 300 pounds, but we go out there and give everything we have every single night. We try to steal the show. Our careers both went off in different trajectories and now they have come back after we both have had success in the company. Now we do it this time for the WWE Championship. Before it was for the Intercontinental Championship, the U.S. championship, the Tag Team Championships and now we are doing it for the WWE championship. In a cage. That’s what it’s all about.
Since you’ve become WWE Champion, you’ve been on quite a winning streak. It seems like there’s nothing that can go wrong. Do you think about those sorts of things?
I don’t think about wins and losses. I take everything one step at a time, even to become WWE Champion. Getting there was a one match at a time type of solution. I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, I don’t know what’s going to happen down the line only what I can do tonight. So you go out there and try to not lose and have a good performance. Becoming WWE Champion gives a little extra confidence and I feel that my goal is to become one of the greatest WWE Champions of all time. And I really try to make that happen and take steps towards that goal every single match that I have.
How’s it having Big E back in the fold?
Everything feels right. Everything feels whole again and pick up right where we left off. Even from the perspective of hearing his voice on our intro. We need that, that’s our call to war, our battle cry. It was very strange to just hear our music happen without the intro. We get used to it, but something about it doesn’t feel right. So when he’s there and lets his voice be heard, it puts us in the right state of mind to go out there have fun with each other. It really sets the tone for where we want to be. It’s great to see him up and running and I know the WWE universe is happy.
Shane McMahon is also someone who is moving between shows as arguably the biggest heel in the company. See yourself taking him down a peg?
It’s cool to see somebody, I guess, from a positive aspect being the boss’s son and being able to do this after all these years. We’ll see. Luckily we haven’t had our paths cross yet, but if they do it’s going to be a war as well. We’ll cross that bridge if and when that comes. Roman has a pretty good handle on him right now and hopefully he’ll keep on doing that.
