5 Reasons why WWE ended Kofi Kingston's 21-match winning streak

Kofi Kingston passed out to Samoa Joe’s Coquina Clutch submission on the July 1 episode of Raw, bringing an end to his 21-match winning streak on WWE television.

The New Day member, who was not originally advertised to compete in a match on the show, came to Big E and Xavier Woods’ rescue after Samoa Joe interrupted their tag team match against The Viking Raiders.

Following a commercial break, the 2-on-2 tag match became a 3-on-3 tag match, with Joe defeating Kingston to gain the upper hand ahead of his match against the WWE champion at Extreme Rules on July 14.

This is not the first time that Kingston has lost via pinfall or submission during his winning streak – Dolph Ziggler pinned him on the June 25 episode of SmackDown Live in a 2-out-of-3 Falls match – but the six-man tag was his first official loss since Daniel Bryan defeated him in a gauntlet match on March 19.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at five reasons why WWE decided to end Kingston’s winning streak on this week's Raw.

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#5 Samoa Joe needed to gain credibility

Samoa Joe has spent the last two summers trying to win a world title on each of WWE’s main-roster brands.

In 2017, he won a Fatal 5-Way match at Extreme Rules to set up a Universal Championship match against Brock Lesnar at Great Balls of Fire, where he put up a good fight but ultimately lost after just one F-5. One month later, he was unable to win the title again in a Fatal 4-Way match at SummerSlam.

In 2018, history repeated itself for “The Samoan Submission Machine” when he faced AJ Styles in four PPV matches – SummerSlam, Hell In A Cell, Super Show-Down and Crown Jewel – but he failed to win the WWE Championship on every occasion.

After two years of unsuccessful world title challenges, Joe desperately needed to make a statement ahead of his match at Extreme Rules against Kofi Kingston – and statements do not get much bigger than defeating the current champion.

#4 Protect The Viking Raiders

Much of the talk following this week’s episode of Raw surrounds Kofi Kingston’s winning streak coming to an end, but it is worth noting that The Viking Raiders had put together a winning streak of their own during their time in NXT and their first few months on the main roster.

In fact, excluding Battle Royals, Erik (fka Rowe) had never lost an official match on WWE television before Samoa Joe caused The Viking Raiders to lose via disqualification in the original 2-on-2 tag team match that was advertised for Raw.

If the resulting 3-on-3 match ended in a loss for the former NXT Tag Team champions, it almost certainly would have meant that Erik or Ivar would have taken the pinfall – something that they cannot afford to do at this early stage in their main-roster careers.

Perhaps the finish to this week’s match was less about Kingston and more about making sure that The Viking Raiders, as well as Joe, remain strong ahead of their future title challenges.

#3 Kofi Kingston’s weekly TV matches became too repetitive

The ‘KofiMania’ phenomenon has been running wild ever since Kofi Kingston lasted over an hour in his impromptu appearance in a gauntlet match on SmackDown Live in February.

From that moment on, the New Day member’s momentum increased to such an extent that he became WWE champion at WrestleMania 35 before putting together a remarkable winning streak of 21 matches.

Short-term, very few fans complained about Kingston’s undefeated run. Long-term, however, sections of the WWE Universe would inevitably have started to question WWE’s decision-makers if he continued to win every televised match with his go-to Trouble In Paradise finisher.

We have seen Kingston defeat almost all of his opponents with Trouble In Paradise over the last three months, which is understandable for PPV events, but the weekly routine of watching him win on Raw and SmackDown Live with the same move was starting to become repetitive.

The manner of Samoa Joe’s triumph on Raw means Kingston’s future matches should be less predictable.

#2 The New Day no longer have to win WWE’s new stop-start matches

Vince McMahon recently enforced a new rule in a Raw production meeting which prevents WWE Superstars from competing in matches during commercial breaks.

As a result, several elimination matches and 2-out-of-3 Falls matches have started to take place on Raw and SmackDown Live, while singles matches often turn into tag matches and 2-on-2 matches turn into 3-on-3 matches.

Given that The New Day are one of the few three-person groups on WWE's main roster, they have been used in these multi-segment matches every week since the new rule regarding commercial breaks was introduced in June.

Moving forward, with Kofi Kingston’s winning run now over, there is no longer any need for the WWE champion and his fellow New Day members to win every one of these stop-start matches that they are involved in on Raw and SmackDown Live.

#1 The winning streak was accidental

It is very unusual for a WWE Superstar to put together a run of wins or losses without the commentators even referring to it on Raw and SmackDown Live.

In Kofi Kingston’s case, he won every match he competed in on WWE television from WrestleMania 35 onwards but Michael Cole, Corey Graves & Co. did not play up the significance of his winning streak during or after any of his victories.

There was even a moment last week on SmackDown Live when Dolph Ziggler gained a fall during his 2-out-of-3 Falls match against Kingston, becoming the first man to pin the New Day member since March, but that detail was also met with little fanfare.

The lack of storytelling involved in this winning run, both from Kingston’s promos and WWE’s commentary team, suggests that the WWE champion was never supposed to have a lengthy run of victories in the first place.