Newly-crowned WWE Champion Kofi Kingston joined WFAN Sports Radio’s ‘Boomer & Gio‘ to talk about his WrestleMania 35 win. Kingston was joined by new RAW and SmackDown Live Women’s Champion Becky Lynch. During the interview, Kingston discussed his reaction to the win hours later, the emotional moment he shared with his family inside the ring, and if he had any doubts that this moment would be achievable for him.
Here are the highlights:
How he’s feeling hours after his big win:
I feel great, this is what we signed up for. I’m on cloud nine. Ever since I was a kid this is all I’ve ever wanted to do. You envision yourself as a kid, when you’re pretending to be a WWE Superstar that you’re going to be wrestling in the main event, or wrestling at WrestleMania for the WWE Championship. And, my dream, it came true. It’s just so wild to think about, it hasn’t hit me. It’s just awesome. The support that I’ve received over the past couple months, the past 11 years, really.
It all came to a head at WrestleMania. The energy there was just unbelievable. Speaking about, how long the day was, one of the things I was worried about was, how cold it was going to be. Because, this is New York, we’re outside, I’m out there and I don’t have a shirt on – and you don’t feel any of that. As soon as I stepped out, the energy of the crowd, I was just taken away. It was awesome.
His emotional moment with his kids and family after winning the WWE Title:
Just incredible. I located them really quickly. When I came out, I saw them, they all had blue shirts. My wife was there, my two kids, my brother, my brother-in-law, his girlfriend, my dad was there – first WrestleMania he’s ever been to. To have them there, because they have been such an integral part of this entire story – my wife, she is so supportive. If she isn’t as amazing with the children, if she isn’t supermom, then I don’t get to do this.
So the fact that she was there front row, my dad – I used to be a kid who loved wrestling, and my dad had a big part in supporting me throughout that whole process, so to see them front row was amazing. My kids, they love coming to WWE shows, and the funny thing about it is, we don’t have them watch all that much TV. The only time they see WWE is when they go to a show. So, they were happy to be at WrestleMania, watch their dad wrestle, but they don’t know the whole storyline and everything. So, I’m sitting there, I finally win the WWE Championship, I’m an emotional wreck, my body is doing all types of uncontrollable things, I don’t know what I’m doing with my body, then all of a sudden my family comes in and I see my tag team partners E and Woods, they’re going out to grab my kids.
My oldest son already had one leg over the barrier so he was coming over regardless. So they brought him in, I put him down for one second, I turn around, then all of a sudden he’s on the second rope, he’s holding up the new shirt, just embracing this moment. He throws the shirt out, it was unbelievable. I was worried, he was up there at first and then I was like “Oh, he’s got it, I think he’s okay.” So, it was amazing. Just an amazing experience, to have that and share that with the people who got you there. My family, even the WWE Universe, to be able to have that moment for them because so many people wanted this as much as I did. So it’s so important for me to be able to pay it off the right way and fight hard and win. And so many people loved it.
If he had any doubt that his WrestleMania moment would be achievable:
So I’m real superstitious. I don’t count the chickens before they hatch. I’ve been saying this in interviews a lot, but that was one of my slogans in college. Don’t count ’em, talking about chickens before they hatch. And, so many things are supposed to happen in our industry, and then get changed last minute. So, even up until yesterday during the day, I still didn’t believe what was going to happen was going to happen. I just, I don’t even think about – two or three steps ahead.
I’m just really trying to focus on the one step ahead and take it one step at a time. So, obviously, there’s always the possibility. You always feel like you’re ready for the opportunity if it comes. But I’ve been doing this for 11 years, and up until yesterday I never had a singles match for a major championship title. I don’t believe anything until it actually happens, and lucky for me, it actually happened last night.
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