It only took 11 years and one, one-on-one WWE title shot, but it finally happened! Kofi Kingston is your new WWE champion.
Kingston hit the Trouble in Paradise on Daniel Bryan to secure the victory and then celebrated with his team mates Xavier Woods and Big E along with his two young sons. The 24-minute match had some near falls, great action and was slowly building up to the excellent finale. And as you can imagine, the fans went completely bananas after Kingston got the victory.
WWE Shop jumped the gun a little bit before by uploading The New Day’s new shirt online which featured Kofi as the champion. The shirt was later shown in public for the first time after the match when Big E opened the present he got for Kofi…which was that very same t-shirt.
Just two months ago, Kingston wasn’t even supposed to be in this position as he was just a substitute to Ali, whose unfortunate health issues prevented him from being part of the Elimination Chamber match. Kingston had a five-star performance on the gauntlet match on the Smackdown prior to the pay-per-view, had an outstanding match at the Chamber going all the way to the end, and had another massive gauntlet match on Smackdown a few weeks ago. While already popular with the fans, the underdog story – just like Daniel Bryan five years ago – catapulted him to the very top of the chain, earning him a WWE title shot at WrestleMania.
Kingston becomes the second black WWE champion in history following The Rock and the first-ever African-born (originally from Ghana) WWE champion.
