Blackside Story: A Michael Hayes Joint

[Little Jerry Lawler]

I think we would all agree that Mark Henry was a good world heavyweight champion. He upped his game and surprised everyone including myself who always was a fan but could have been better. I remember what he was doing the couple of years prior to that- smiling.

He turned face in 2009 and smiled. He and MVP continuously came up on the losing end against Big Show and Jericho and he still smiled. He was slapped around by a heel Batista and continued to smile. And this happened....

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And you guessed it, he smiled. Until that stopped.

I believe he referenced that in a promo somewhere last year that he always smiled and was happy and that got him nowhere and once he stopped, he became serious and became dominant. Where does this lead me to? One Kofi Kingston.

Earlier in 2011, I thought Kofi must have called Booker T's wife a bad name with the way Booker was constantly dogging Kingston about how he always danced and smiled. I loved it how Booker said he cut that stuff out and became a world champion when that didn't happen for a couple of year and had to develop a British accent.

So what do we know about Kofi? He's from West Africa. He can jump. He still comes out to Jamaican music. That's all I got. Well, Mark Henry is the solution to all your problems.

Mark can prod and prod Kofi to drop the smiling and be more aggressive which can get you places. Kofi can be content on what he is until Mark beats the shit out of him and then he snaps. We can see that spark and fire from Kofi that was there when he was feuding with Randy Orton. Bring up some painful memories from Kofi's childhood living in Africa even though it may be false. It wouldn't be the first time WWE insulted our intelligence. I believe Kofi can elevate up to what Ziggler has been. A midcarder who occasionally sticks his toe into the main event waters.

I would put down some bucks for this. How about you?

 

[The Dragon Saga]

I'd not seen Henry racing Nexus in a long time. It was nice to see it again.

Mark Henry these days is a beast. The guy can't do anything wrong, when he lost the World Heavyweight Championship, if it had ended up being anybody but Daniel Bryan I'd have been disappointed by the decision. This entire "Hall of Pain" thing has done Mark the world of good and if WWE push him hard as a monster heel that is what he should become. When he turned heel early last year I thought it was just another pointless transition but it has done nothing but good for Mark Henry, its reinvented the former Mizzark from a Kool-Aid man to a cool man -- I had no witty pun there.

In-terms of Kofi Kingston, I can see where you're coming from and the hypothetical angle could do him good, but Kofi Kingston doesn't strike me as someone who would just become a bad ass, angry person. I'm not a big Kingston supporter to begin with so it may be a biased opinion, but I can never see Kofi Kingston being taken seriously in a Main Event match. He has the charisma of a shoe. Sure, if Kofi Kingston were to drop all the smiles, change his personality a bit as you referenced, like Booker T once did, maybe he could improve his ranking in WWE. But isn't that the same as saying, "We should turn Kofi heel because we know that whenever someone isn't doing to well, we just gotta change their alignment!"

Good thread and your idea could work, but I don't take Kingston all that seriously. Even leading into Elimination Chamber, did anyone believe he had a genuine chance of walking out Champion? Or even last until the final two? I doubt it.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

There is a much easier way of getting Kofi to Dolph Ziggler's position without him turning heel. Put him in matches with heel champions that he comes very close to winning but in the end have the heel champion pull through. If this goes on for a while, Kofi will gain some legitimacy and in the end become the face counterpart of Dolph.

Your idea can work but I do not really like the end result because I feel that the position Kofi is in at this point isn't hugely inferior from the position Dolph is in. The story will elevate Kofi just that slight bit and I would not invest so much time behind such a small gain and I really doubt if Kofi can go beyond becoming another Dolph Ziggler.

 

[Cats Pajamas]

Had I not just read your post for free, Little Jerry Lawler, then from the beginning of your plot to the end I would take no issue if asked to

put down some bucks for this.

In these WrestleMania charged months of WWE programming, Kofi's character development has unfortunately seemed to take a back seat in order to fuel the hype for Mania. He could come out and "Boom boom boom" til he's blue in the face, but until things get more personal for Kofi he's bound to look content chasing a Tag Title reign with "plan B", er, Truth.

Hopefully after Mania they'll put more Kofi on television screens. Until then, however, I'll have to enjoy the Great Kofi Epic through online booking suggestions. As with your idea, however, I say "why buy a hamburg when you can get the steak for free."

Great idea, thanks again. Best regards, fellow wrestling fans.

 

[zwbruno]

I don't think Kofi needs to turn heel in order for this idea to work. Kofi was face when he was aggressive against Orton and he could stay face after an angle with Henry.

Two ideas come to mind after reading this, one is that Kofi and Henry have a short feud, Kofi gets his ass kicked until he steps up his intensity and beats Henry. The other is pretty much the same except he sides with Henry and turns heel, which I think would be a waste. The WWE has 4 heel champions and 1 face champion.

An aggressive, talkative (we've seen that he can do it) Kofi Kingston would be a great challenger for Cody Rhodes after WM28, and if he was coming off the heels of beating Henry would be a great way to show the importance and caliber of the IC title.

 

[Champ1432]

I second zwbruno, I don't think we need to go to a Kofi heel turn right away.

Just give him some things to work with, something to develop his character a little, some reason to get a little more agressive. That coupled with some good matches against top heels should do the trick.

 

[Cena Is A Punk Rocker]

So here is maybe the dumbest idea ever brought to a WZ forum. How about grouping Henry and Kingston? It seems to me that Vince really has nothing relevant for these two. Let's have Henry and Kingston go straight up with Swagger and Ziggler. I have no idea what type of storyline this matchup could possibly provide, nor am I trying to make a racial typecast statement. I just think it would be an interesting program. I will leave this up to the fantasy bookers on here.