Kofi Kingston Says WWE Wanted To Make Him “Black Jeff Hardy”

That might not have gone well. One of the more interesting and also frustrating aspects of wrestling is seeing someone referred to as the “next” someone. It can become a problem as the idea rarely works, mainly because the expectations are too high. Oftentimes it just makes the new version feel inferior as they either aren’t as good or just make the fans want to see the original. That was almost the case again, but in a rather odd way.

Last year at WrestleMania 35, Kofi Kingston won the WWE Championship in a pretty awesome moment, becoming the first African American wrestler to win the title. Kingston’s title win came after an eleven year journey to the top of the company, during which he underwent several major changes. It turns out that he almost had another change which would have drastically altered his career.

During the latest episode of New Day’s Feel The Power podcast, Kingston told a story about a merchandise pitch made to him in 2010. The idea would have seen Kingston wearing black light body paint in a style similar to Jeff hardy. Kingston would then pose during his entrances, which the member of the merchandising department described as being “like the black version of Jeff Hardy”. Kingston shot the idea down immediately and it was never brought up again.

It could have been worse. Check out what Kingston became, and someone who wound up using a similar idea:

Opinion: Well at least Kingston had some sense to him on this one. This would have been one of the worst ideas imaginable for his career and would have turned him into little more than a gimmick performer with nothing else to his name. Kingston did is far more talented than someone getting stuck in a warmed up Hardy repeat and thankfully he did something else instead. I’m thinking his career is very thankful for his decision.

What do you think of the idea? How would it have affected Kingston’s career? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books. Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. Thank you for reading!