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| Truth hurts, don't it, Kofi? Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Every single thing The Miz said about Kofi Kingston last night during Miz TV was true. Kingston has been spinning tires in WWE since 2009. He hasn't main evented WrestleMania or won the WWE Championship. He doesn't star in movies nor does he show any emotion instead of "BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!" It was supposed to get the crowd behind Kingston, and let's face it, that's never been hard to do even with the deficiencies his character has shown, whether self-inflicted or caused by management. In return, we saw the first real show of emotion from Kingston since he feuded with Randy Orton. It was really effective, but therein lies the problem.
For all the criticism folks like myself have about Kingston's wrestling ability (or lack thereof), the man has bona fide charisma when he's allowed to show it. WWE has never put the faith in him to be able to do more than just slap his hands and do a spin kick with a secondary title on the line because it would have taken away from John Cena or Orton (or more recently, CM Punk) playing the Harlem Globetrotters to the heel of the moment's Washington Generals. Would it have killed WWE to have had Kingston fight alongside Cena against Nexus in a role more than smiling and kicking, for example?
The major argument, which I get totally, is that he's too sloppy in the ring. Given that doesn't stop WWE from pushing people (Uh, Ken Anderson?), that SHOULDN'T have stopped them, but at the same time, who's to say whether Kingston wouldn't have improved if he was asked to take on heavier roles in the ring. Right now, he wrestles the same match over and over, but that's because he's a midcard guy. They don't have to switch it up, especially if they're not going anywhere. It's nice if they did, like say a Dolph Ziggler, but how much of his inertia is on him and how much is on WWE?
With the uptick in stories being told for guys below the main event and quality matches getting time on RAW (and Smackdown/Main Event, can't forget those shows), maybe now Kingston's elevation is happening. Then again, if he legit knocked out The Miz on RAW last night, maybe that would be in jeopardy. Still, I can't speculate on in-house punishments for things I'm not even sure they punish for. It would be long overdue for Kingston to get started somewhere aside from smiling and kicking, but if we're here next year, and people are still cutting the same promos about him, then we know WWE Creative hasn't learned its lesson.
