5 Things Kofi Kingston has accomplished in WWE that Brock Lesnar hasn't

Kofi Kingston will face his toughest test yet as WWE Champion when he defends his title against Brock Lesnar on the first episode of SmackDown on FOX on October 4.

Since defeating Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35, Kingston has retained the company's most prestigious title against Superstars including Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler, Samoa Joe and Randy Orton.

Now, as WWE enters into a new era on SmackDown, he will go head-to-head with one of the most decorated Superstars of the last two decades.

On paper, it is clear that Lesnar – a three-time WrestleMania main-eventer and seven-time World Champion – has accomplished more in his WWE career than Kingston, but an alternative look at the tale of the tape for Friday’s match shows that the New Day member’s past achievements should not be taken lightly.

In this article, let’s take a look at five things Kingston has accomplished in WWE that Lesnar hasn’t.

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#5 Four-time Intercontinental Champion

Three months after debuting on WWE’s main roster in March 2002, Brock Lesnar became involved in an Intercontinental Championship rivalry with Rob Van Dam.

At the time, it seemed like the next natural step in the direction of his up-and-coming “Next Big Thing” character would be for him to win a secondary title in WWE. However, as everyone would soon realise, the company had much bigger plans for Lesnar and he would go on to win the Undisputed Championship just a few months later.

There is an argument to be had that Lesnar is above the Intercontinental Championship, as he has only targeted World Championships since August 2002, but it is still worth noting that he has never won the title in either of his two spells with WWE.

Kofi Kingston, meanwhile, has won the Intercontinental Championship four times in his 11-year career, while he has also held the United States Championship – another title Lesnar has never had – on three occasions.

#4 Number of televised victories in a row (21)

In Brock Lesnar’s first run as a full-time Superstar with WWE, he would often build a sequence of up to 10 televised victories in a row before losing in a tag match or via disqualification to bring an end to his winning run.

Since returning in 2012, the former UFC star’s longest winning run (eight matches) began in April 2017 at WrestleMania 33, where he won the Universal Championship from Goldberg, and ended when he lost against Roman Reigns at SummerSlam in August 2018.

In contrast, Kofi Kingston had an inconsistent win/loss record for the majority of his first 11 years in WWE before putting together an unprecedented winning run of 21 matches between April 2019 and July 2019.

The run began with the New Day member defeating Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35 and ended with him losing a six-man tag team match with Big E and Xavier Woods against Samoa Joe and The Viking Raiders on RAW.

Just to highlight the overwhelming difference between part-time and full-time Superstars, Lesnar’s sequence of eight straight wins came over the course of 16 months, while Kingston won 21 matches in a row in under three months.

#3 Successful Tag Team Championship run

In Brock Lesnar’s early days in OVW, he was part of a tag team called The Minnesota Stretching Crew with one of his real-life best friends, Shelton Benjamin.

However, once he began competing as a member of the main roster, “The Next Big Thing” was sky-rocketed to the top of the card and, with the exception of short-lived alliances with Superstars who had mutual enemies (e.g. Big Show and Matt Morgan), the majority of his WWE career has revolved around singles matches.

Needless to say, his tag team exploits with Benjamin – three-time OVW Southern Tag Team Champions – pale in comparison to Kofi Kingston’s record-breaking partnerships with CM Punk, Evan Bourne, R-Truth, Big E and Xavier Woods.

In total, Kingston has held nine Tag Team titles in WWE, including six as a member of The New Day, and he surpassed Billy Gunn’s long-standing record of combined days as a Tag Team Champion (953 days) when he hit the 954-day tally in September 2018 during New Day’s reign as SmackDown Tag Team Champions.

Kingston’s most famous tag team accomplishment came in December 2016 when he, Big E and Woods broke Demolition’s record as the longest reigning Tag Team Champions of all time (483 days).

#2 Recording a victory over Bobby Lashley

When Bobby Lashley returned to WWE in April 2018, it was widely reported that the company could build towards a match between the former ECW Champion and Brock Lesnar.

This dream match looked as though it could become a reality heading into the SummerSlam pay-per-view in 2018, as Lashley faced Roman Reigns on RAW in a #1 contender match for the opportunity to take on Lesnar for the Universal Championship. However, Reigns ended up recording the victory, meaning Lesnar vs. Lashley never happened.

It has now been 18 months since “The Dominator” stepped foot back in a WWE ring, yet there have been no signs of late that we could potentially see a match between the former mixed martial artists at any stage in the near future.

Lashley vs. Kofi Kingston is another match that has never happened on WWE programming, but the two men have at least squared off in a televised tag team match.

The unlikely duo of Kingston & Seth Rollins joined forces to pick up a victory over Lashley & Baron Corbin in a No Disqualification match on RAW in May 2019, with Kingston pinning Corbin to get the 1-2-3.

#1 Consecutive Royal Rumble match appearances (12)

When it comes to Royal Rumble records, Kane is usually at the top of most lists.

“The Big Red Machine” has racked up the most cumulative eliminations (44) and competed in the most Royal Rumble matches (19) in the event’s history, while he held the record for the most number of eliminations in a single match (11) for 13 years before Roman Reigns (12) broke it in 2014.

Another record that he currently holds is the most consecutive appearances in a Royal Rumble match (13), which he set between 1999 and 2011.

So, where do Brock Lesnar and Kofi Kingston fit into this? Well, Kingston and Dolph Ziggler have both competed in the last 12 Rumble matches (2009-2019) and they are currently on course to equal Kane’s record if they participate in next year’s match.

Lesnar is nowhere near this record, of course, as he has only ever competed in three Rumble matches in his WWE career (2003, 2016 and 2017).

This is not necessarily a bad thing – Lesnar, the 2003 Rumble winner, is often involved in title matches instead of the Rumble itself – but it is still interesting to note that Kingston is three months away from making history again, while his upcoming opponent’s Rumble history could hardly be any more different.

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