After the Superstar Shake-Up, there are many potential candidates to head to the front of the line for a shot at Kofi Kingston’s WWE Championship.
His first feud will be so important because it will show so much, from how the company sees him as their face, to what sort of champion he could be.
Kingston is so widely popular within the WWE Universe at the moment, but the wrong sort of clash could see him fall back to the mid-card within the blink of an eye. We’ve seen it happen so many times – the likes of Jinder Mahal, Dean Ambrose, Sheamus and Bray Wyatt have all seen their stock plummet in recent times after they had their opportunity and it fell away for one reason or another.
This shows how important that first feud can be to a superstar’s overall legacy. If it doesn’t go over with the bosses, they can easily replace you as they have a long list of hungry employees waiting for their chance to grab that brass ring.
So here are the top five people that we believe will be the
best feuds possible to ensure Kofi has a good start to his life as WWE
Champion:
1. Kevin Owens
So, we all expected it, right? When Kevin Owens said he wanted to replace Big E and be part of The New Day under his new moniker – Big O – we all thought he was going to end the match by turning on Kofi and making his intentions clear. However, it didn’t happen.
We had a nice, feel-good episode of SmackDown Live, and Kofi ended the episode still without a clear contender for his title at the Money In The Bank PPV in May.
The writers on SmackDown are smart, though, and they know that the WWE Universe will have been expecting Owens to turn in that match, so why not wait a bit longer? Have them interact more, build a bond, build that trust, before breaking it all to pieces.
Owens has the means – he’s shown he’s willing to do anything to gain gold, just ask Sami Zayn. He has the motive – KO was chosen by Vince McMahon as challenger to Daniel Bryan’s WWE Championship, only to then not feature on the WrestleMania card at all. He will have the opportunity as well after building trust with Kofi and Xavier Woods.
All of this is pointing to a fantastic opportunity – and
whether KO prizes the gold away from Kingston’s grasp, or Kofi manages to keep
it – this could be a back and forth feud that takes us through the summer.
2. Roman Reigns
Nobody wants it right now, but imagine the furore after Kofi heads into Money in the Bank against “The Big Dog” and comes out victorious.
Kofi has shown that he can hang with the biggest superstars – he’s beaten the likes of Randy Orton, Samoa Joe, Rowan and Daniel Bryan in recent months. He’s gone from being largely used as a mid-card spot guy, to a credible champion in the space of two months of great booking by WWE. So to see him up against the guy who WWE have pushed to the moon, could be a fantastic rivalry.
However, in order for Kofi to come out of this feud intact, they would have to make sure Kofi isn’t done a disservice here. If he did come out with a loss against Reigns, it would need to be a back and forth match, which I’m not sure WWE would pull off. Reigns has been facing the likes of Strowman, Lesnar and McIntyre over the past few years – all of whom are much, much bigger in stature that our current WWE Champion.
Kofi needs to make sure he’s not going to be an underdog
champion, but if he were able to come out of a feud with Roman with the WWE
Championship still in his grasp, then this could be the biggest step in his
career.
3. Randy Orton
What better person to kick off Kingston’s reign as WWE Champion than the person who killed his push dead back in 2009?
Orton and Kingston have been both allies and enemies over the past decade, but Orton has always been classed as a top tier talent in WWE, yet as we’ve seen in the gauntlet match Kofi had, he is still beatable. It would be great for Kofi to cement his legacy instead of being a transitional champion, as he has earned his current position with eleven years of hard work.
They’ve touched on the fact that Orton was the one to halt his last push, with Kingston even yelling “stupid!” at Randy in recent times, referring to a time when Kofi missed a spot and Orton, visibly frustrated, chastised the current champion by loudly shouting “stupid!” at him.
Both of these superstars can put on a high quality match. With Orton being the slithering Viper he is, trying to pick his spot to nail Kofi with an RKO, while still technically being at a disadvantage in the numbers game could be an entertaining clash.
4. Ali
Unlikely as it is, but Ali vs. Kingston could be a great contender for feud of the year if they built it right.
Ali was scheduled to have a spot in the Elimination Chamber, but due to injury, Kingston replaced him. If they turned Ali heel, stating that it was his right to be next in line and attacking Kingston whenever he got the chance, this could be something special.
Both men are known for their high-flying antics – Kingston less so than Ali these days, but if Ali brought on a cocky persona to match those skills he has in the ring, it could be just right for both superstars. It would definitely be a contender for a five-star match if built right, but as Ali looks set to go to war with Finn Balor for the Intercontinental Championship, it might be one for further down the line.
5. Big E
Again, a highly unlikely option, but one that the internet has bandied about for the last few months. Obviously, E is out with an injury at the moment, but if Kofi had a one-time match against somebody at Money In The Bank, Big E could be back after that to set this up.
Many people suspected that E would be the person to cost Kingston the title match against Bryan, if they were to go that route, so now they’re taking it one step further.
They could build it as E becomes jealous of Kofi’s time in the sun, or maybe he hated Kofi bringing in Big O as his replacement in The New Day – we all saw the picture he tweeted after last week’s SmackDown. There’s a lot of speculation WWE are going to break up The New Day, but after Xavier Woods saw half of his Up Up Down Down roster head to Monday Night Raw in the Superstar Shake-Up, we think that this is unlikely, as breaking up the trio would push Xavier over the edge.
New Day have said they have clauses in their contracts stating if they were to ever be broken up, they could terminate their agreements, but we aren’t sure if this is for real, or just an exaggeration.
Turning a stable against one another presents an opportunity for the hottest kind of feud – betrayal. It would feel so raw to watch these two battle against one another, brothers for more than five years, going to war over the WWE Championship.
Do you think anybody else would make a better first feud for Kofi Kingston’s start to life as WWE Champion? Let us know in the comments section below.
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