WrestleMania 35: What if Kofi Kingston wins the WWE title at the PPV?

One of the most compelling stories taking shape in the build to WrestleMania 35 is Kofi Kingston chasing the WWE Championship. As WWE has emphasized time and again, Kingston has been a part of the company for eleven years. While he has captured his share of tag team and mid-card championship gold, he has had strikingly few world title opportunities, and pretty much all in multi-man match scenarios like Elimination Chamber Matches.

With a groundswell of support behind him, and a pair of great performances at Elimination Chamber and the go home SmackDown before it, Kingston looks to challenge Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championsihp at WrestleMania. With two world titles in play and the Raw Women’s Championship match expected to close the show, there is a real question as to whether Kingston might win. The set up of the show means that WWE won’t necessarily feel compelled to honor the tradition of a face going over in a world title match at ‘Mania, but it also means that WWE might feel more free to experiment with giving Kingston the big win over the much better established Bryan.

So what if Kingston does win? This article takes a look at how it might happen and what it would mean.

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5. New Day renews its issue with Erick Rowan

New Day's role for WrestleMania may be to neutralize Erick Rowan.

Daniel Bryan has Erick Rowan for a heater—the big man to interfere on his behalf and reinforce his credibility as a heel champion, while he gives Rowan a bit of the rub to further his own career. You can add Rowan to the list of advantages Bryan would have against Kofi Kingston. Of course, Kingston has his own back up.

Kingston has gotten over to the highest degree of his career based on his partnership with New Day teammates Xavier Woods and Big E. There’s little doubt New Day would be in Kingston’s corner for the biggest match of his career, and they’d likely as not play a role in incapacitating Rowan in this match after he gets involved. There’s some poeticism to this arrangement given Rowan and Luke Harper had feuded with New Day more than once over the years, not least of all including New Day putting over The Bludgeon Brothers at WrestleMania 34. It would be fun to see this issue continue at this highest level, and potentially lead to further tag team or singles interactions down the road.

4. A win from underneath

Kofi Kingston would have to weather a lot of punishment to come from behind and win.

One of the key dynamics that WWE has capitalized on with Kofi Kingston in recent weeks is casting him as an underdog and building from the organic crowd support behind him to give fans more reasons to side with him. Vince McMahon taking away his title opportunity for Fastlane was a start, and tricking him into a handicap match with The Bar at that same show moved the needle further.

If Kingston can get his WrestleMania, and particularly if he wins, we can expect that match to represent a microcosm of the story up to this point, with Daniel Bryan largely dominating before Kingston hits Trouble in Paradise or scores a flash pin to steal the win. It wouldn’t fit Kingston’s identity to run roughshod over Bryan the whole match or win quickly. Working from underneath only to rise up and defeat the arrogant champ fit nicely.

3. A huge response from the stadium crowd

Kofi Kingston winning the title could make the live crowd explode.

There’s very little to suggest that positioning Kofi Kingston in the WWE Championship picture was a long term plan for WWE. Rather, his tremendous gauntlet match performance on the SmackDown before Elimination Chamber, before his inspired run in the Chamber itself won over fans to the point that he became the undeniable best choice to chase the title going into the biggest show of the year.

It's tough to say whether WWE would go all the way with Kingston—delivering on the feel good moment, or treating him more as an upper mid-card guy like he has been for most of his career, and making his challenge a footnote in Bryan’s larger WWE Championship story. We can’t know just yet what would be right in the long term, either, without the benefit of historical hindsight. Nonetheless, one thing is for sure. Kingston is as hot as anyone on the WWE roster in this moment, and if he were to beat Bryan for the world title at WrestleMania, it would garner a huge reaction from the stadium crowd, offering a pop WWE could replay for years to come.

2. A short title reign

Even if Kingston does win, he may not be champion for long.

While Kofi Kingston winning the WWE Championship would set up a tremendous moment, it’s difficult to imagine him actually enjoying a long reign as world champion. A big part of his appeal seems to come down to being such a staple part of the WWE landscape for so long, but if fans actually got what they wanted and saw him crowned a world champ for the first time at WrestleMania, how would they react? Once the initial joy of the moment wore off, it seems fair to think that they’d balk at him hanging on in the role. All the more so, it doesn’t seem all that likely Vince McMahon and company would want to see this non-chosen one reign over a brand for months on end.

No, if Kingston wins the big one, the odds are he’ll drop it by SummerSlam. That’s a fair enough accomplishment for him, though—more than anyone would have expected even a month ago—and a cherry on top of a more than respectable WWE career.

1. Kingston in the main event mix

Kofi Kingston may not be a long term WWE Champion, but winning the title would position has a a guy in the main event mix moving forward.

Even if Kofi Kingston wins the WWE Championship at WrestleMania and drops it on the next episode of SmackDown a la Zack Ryder with the Intercontinental Championship in 2016, his status as a former world champion will elevate him from that point forward. Not unlike Rey Mysterio’s lackluster first world title reign, the fact that he won the strap at all—and particularly at the biggest show of the year—was enough to take his career up to the next level and make him the kind of guy who could be plugged into the main event picture as WWE needed him from that point forward.

Indeed, Kingston could expect to challenge for world titles more regularly after an initial reign, and possibly even capture a top title again if the need arises, he stays hot, or the original reign gets over more than anyone would expect. Regardless, we’d be looking at a changed WWE legacy for Kingston, going from a mid-card and tag team guy to the sort of Superstar who could garner a solo induction into the WWE Hall of Fame without anyone batting an eye.