Kofi losing popularity, can he still get to a World Title at this point?

[Carolina dude]

Anyone else realize Kofi hasn't been over as of late?

This week he got NO REACTION coming out.Then the crowd ignored him in the ring and chanted "Cena sucks" and "Randy".He also got no pop when he came out for the triple threat match.

Last week was the same thing.He wasn't over against Orton and actually got
audible boos.

Also at the TLC PPV he wasn't over and the crowd popped for Orton winning.

Do you think he's suffering from losing to Orton constantly?

 

[redcorleone]

It's maybe because he's wrestling against bigger personalities now. Also he's in more important matches, where perhaps the more hardcore fans are vocally stronger, and they drown out the noise made by kids.

Personally, I'll find it hard to take him serious while he's still wearing his Jamaican trunks and coming out to Jamaican themed music. If he's lost the accent, why can't he lose these? It just looks corny, and fake.

 

[Cubed]

Yeah, I believe --like a lot of people-- that making him lose so many times to Orton actually hurt his popularity. He was super-over for a while, and WWE seems to be forcing him down our throats (using him every week), but without the big clean wins he won't get the recognition that he deserves.

As far as the TLC goes, I was there live and I feel like he got a pretty decent pop and a lot of people where wearing his merch.

I believe Kofi would make an amazing and not to mention FRESH main-eventer but not even the most ignorant of fans will buy it if he doesn't get some big wins soon. This easily has potential to be another half-assed failed push just because the WWE is to stuck in it's boring routine.

 

[Macca]

Maybe if they gave him ONE clean win over Orton in their three month feud, people would see him as less of a choker and someone you can actually believe can win. See tonight for example.

 

[Jappa121]

My honest opinion is it has nothing to do with winning or losing against Orton, he shouldn't fight Orton period, they should have him fight Sheamus, him and sheamus both cant believably beat Orton or Cena in my opinion, Sheamus and Kofi would be an even match, and i believe a feud between the two could easily make both of them more believable, I don't think a new comer to the WWE could believably beat any of the main eventers without first fighting people lower on the ladder. Its really hard to cheer for Kofi when he is fighting the people we've been cheering for years such as Orton.

 

[The Deadly Viper]

I think that not beating Orton clean is really damaging his reputation like most of you guys said. Kofi is my favourite wrestler in WWE but he really needs to lose the shorts and the music if people will take him seriously. I can imagine after he beats Orton cleanly the cheers he will get.

 

[KKarvox]

It isn't that he is suffering from his loses to Orton, he is suffering from lack of an actual character. What is Kofi's character? There isn't one, and it's sad, because he is a great performer, and not awful on the mic, yet he was given ONE decent promo during his fued with Orton, and he gets no reaction from the crowd, because no one cares about him. WWE can't seem to generate characters, and Kofi is a prime example. I think they need to let performers get on the mic and connect with the crowd more, otherwise we will not have any new stars in the near future. Look how long it took before CM Punk took off, because of lack of character up until his heel turn.

 

[bringitback]

Personally, I'll find it hard to take him serious while he's still wearing his Jamaican trunks and coming out to Jamaican themed music. If he's lost the accent, why can't he lose these? It just looks corny, and fake.

Not trying to be pedantic, but his trunks aren't Jamaican, they represent the colours of his African home nation, Ghana.

As for Kingstons lack of reaction, his push has been handled poorly by creative, but not because of his music or trunks... it's because of terrible booking. Just another now typical case of the WWE creative team NOT knowing how to get a wrestller over.

 

[GetsHeat]

He should have never been in Orton's league. It's much harder to build a babyface main eventer then it is a heel. Maybe if it was the opposite and Kofi could use heel tactics to win matches they would have had a better chance to create a legit star.

Secondly, he really doesn't have a lot going for him in my books. He's talented, but he's still very raw. He doesn't sell very well IMO, he doesn't have a huge move pool (which is really quite the opposite of most budding main eventers, they tend to have a lot and dwindle it down) and honestly it really showed when he was facing one of the top in the biz in Orton.

 

[AMH]

I think you need to take Kofi's fan reaction last night with a grain of salt. Fans vary from place to place. Last night Raw emanated from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The fans there always tend to cheer the bad guy and boo the good guy. I know this, because I am from Minnesota and have been to a show and heard it myself. It's just like when the WWE is in Canada and King calls it "Bizzaroland." Minnesota is sort of that way. Heck, we practically are a part of Canada. We even talk the same.

 

[JBK2008]

If Kofi can string some wins, especially a clean win or two over Orton, I think he'll get some attention again, but all those loses are hurting him and it's shown over the past few weeks. He does need a music and attire change as well, but it starts win the legit solid wins. Hell have him take Cody and Ted out then come for Orton and have them really finish this feud.

 

[Toroc102]

I think its a combination of him not getting any wins over Orton, and him not having any real promo time since he destroyed Orton's car. Destryoing that car is what made him seem next level in the first place, but ever since then, I think last night was the last time he had a real lengthy promo on air. Basically any momentum has slowly died down in between him losing to Orton and the fans forgetting what he sounds like.

His gimmick is fine though, that is pretty much the only thing he does at the moment that gets the crowd riled up, why drop it? He just needs more mic time, and to be more badass. He would probably benefit from being traded to Smackdown so he could feud with someone like Jericho who's more ready to put him over than Orton is at the height of his career.

 

[BladeRunner]

Here's the thing: He got over on the whole Jamaican gimmick.

The song, the Bop! bop! , the speaking Jamaican. He was something different, and also he could wrestle pretty well. And the crowd eventually warmed up to him.

And right when the biggest part of the crowd had gotten behind him the most, they more or less took his gimmick away.

It's kinda like if Steve Austin had just gotten popular from being the badass 3:16 version, and then WWE turned him back into "the ringmaster".

They cut Kofi's legs out from under him by taking away one of the biggest reasons people liked him, his persona.

He used to be a happy Jamaican pothead . Now he's just an angry wrestler. That's why he's losing popularity.

 

[D-Man]

I think that everyone needs to stop jumping to conclusions. One episode of Raw and one crowd reaction is not the consensus of an entire universe of fans. If that were the case, we'd think that John Cena was losing popularity every time he came to New Jersey.

Minnesota was the most smarky crowd the WWE has encountered since theie recent shows on the East Coast. The majority of their wrestling fans were big time smarks and went into business for themselves by attempting to ruin every quiet aspect of the show where they had a chance for their voices to be heard. Granted, Kofi Kingston was a bit of a surprise to come out and meddle into the main event picture, but I'm going to take Minnesota's quiet reaction with a grain of salt and consider it to be a surprise, rather than unpopularity.

Let's face it... Kofi's is DISGUSTINGLY over in every city that he performs in. Every once in a while, a wrestler is going to have to perform in front of a smarky crowd. This is where they put their skills to the test. They must stay in character at ALL times. Kofi (although he stumbled a tad and paused for too long in between his thoughts) appeared to stay in character the whole time and didn't allow the crowd to get the best of him. John Cena does this on a weekly basis. So, until you all start saying that John Cena is losing momentum, none of your arguments here hold any water.

Let's all stop jumping to conclusions and start analyzing Kofi Kingston after one episode of Raw just for the sake of making ourselves sound smark... I mean smart.

 

[BladeRunner]

I think that everyone needs to stop jumping to conclusions. One episode of Raw and one crowd reaction is not the consensus of an entire universe of fans. If that were the case, we'd think that John Cena was losing popularity every time he came to New Jersey.

Minnesota was the most smarky crowd the WWE has encountered since theie recent shows on the East Coast. The majority of their wrestling fans were big time smarks and went into business for themselves by attempting to ruin every quiet aspect of the show where they had a chance for their voices to be heard. Granted, Kofi Kingston was a bit of a surprise to come out and meddle into the main event picture, but I'm going to take Minnesota's quiet reaction with a grain of salt and consider it to be a surprise, rather than unpopularity.

Let's all stop jumping to conclusions and start analyzing Kofi Kingston after one episode of Raw just for the sake of making ourselves sound smark... I mean smart.

I agree that the Minnesota crowd was horrible. They yelled "what!?" and "boring!" to about everything that was put in front of them. And yeah, some of it was boring. The whole "what" thing just is god awfully annoying and they used it on about every goddamn speech. It just got ridiculous and it felt like the audience was made up of a bunch of 5 year olds.

But nevertheless, I still don't think Kofi's as over as he was when he was still completely using his Jamaican persona. That's a big part of why he got over in the first place.

 

[Toroc102]

Kofi is definately not DISGUSTINGLY over, and his pops are not anything compared to what he was getting when he first started feuding with Orton. I don't think its innaccurate to say that his momentum has slowed. He's still over but he could be more over, if anything you have to agree that he hasn't been getting the exposure lately that he had been laate last year, for him to just pop into the Title race off of a few single losses is out of place.

Also, the crowd went into business for themselves? Since when do the crowds work for the WWE lol, they can do whatever they want.

 

[Razor]

Anyone else realize Kofi hasn't been over as of late?

This week he got NO REACTION coming out.Then the crowd ignored him in the ring and chanted "Cena sucks" and "Randy".He also got no pop when he came out for the triple threat match.

That crowd was a smarky as they come. They didn't cheer Kofi because they were too busy being douchebags and booing Cena because it's cool to do.

Last week was the same thing.He wasn't over against Orton and actually got
audible boos.

That's what happens when you go up against a bigger star than you are.

Also at the TLC PPV he wasn't over and the crowd popped for Orton winning.

Do you think he's suffering from losing to Orton constantly?

He's not getting booed because he's losing ground, he's getting no reaction because no one cares. He's going up against Orton. I mean fuck. He's the top heel on Raw. Kofi's reaction is exactly what I would expect. Nothing. They have to get him some traction. A few wins would be nice, but a couple great promos would do wonders. The crowd won't care until they see him as a legit comparison to Orton, or if Kofi and Orton make them care. Sadly, I don't know if Kofi is good enough to do that.

 

[D-Man]

Also, the crowd went into business for themselves? Since when do the crowds work for the WWE lol, they can do whatever they want.

Ok, well if it makes you feel better to act asenine and nit-pick at my words, then so be it. But when I say "The crowd went into business for themselves", I was referring to the fact that they cared more about making the television show about them than the wrestlers doing their parts in the ring. None of their chants and outcries were anything of substance, nor were there any causes for them to begin those particular chants. Basically, they ruined the show.

 

[VintageWWE]

It doesn't surprise me that Kofi isn't getting a big pop anymore. It was inevitable that this would happen. I still don't understand why they would try to build a new face by having go against the company's top heel. I never for a second thought that Kofi would come out on top of that feud. The feud actually made me dislike Kofi because of his one clean win against Orton. I still don't think he deserved that push and I'm glad Orton has beat him clean for the past couple weeks. I think it would have been a better idea to have him feud with DiBiase or Rhodes than Orton. For one thing it would be more believable for Kofi to go over Legacy than Orton.

 

[jayteeERA]

Well if you think about it. The Kofi/Orton feud has left Orton & Kofi hurt. More so Kofi then Orton. I didn't wanna believe it but two clean wins over Kofi could kill Kofi's momentum. And for Orton he is suddenly getting cheered this why i think he is not a good heel. He should of cheated in one of the matches. But I hope he Kofi is a great athlete hopefully he will learn and progress as time moves on.

Final Note: The crowd at raw was stupid and pissed me off, especially when kofi came out. This is one of the reasons we have same boring main event cause they cant give good athlete like Kofi a chance.

 

[GetsHeat]

Wow "disgustingly over" I mean the guy gets a decent pop and depending on the night he was decently over but not much more then most of the midcarders like Miz.. and none of these midcarders (at least recently) haven't had the opportunity to face a guy like Orton and be there right in the picture.

This wasn't just a case of a smarky crowd, it's slowly happened since the initial start of the feud. I mean the guy pinned CM Punk and Randy Orton.. two of the top heels on their respective shows in about 8 seconds.

My biggest problem with Kofi is he is totally raw. Trouble in Paradise seems to be 50/50 if it hits square on or is hitting somewhere near the chest which really makes it seem like a weak move. The SOS (I think it's called, it's fairly rare) is a decent move but nothing amazing.. and the boom drop is just meh (I honestly can't stand long downed opponent moves with taunts like that). Then the rest of his moveset isn't exactly memorable or special. He's athletic but he's not really that high flying.

This push probably came too soon for Kofi and I hate to say it but unless he's moved away from Orton and really Raw he's not going to be able to recover anytime soon from it.

 

[rko102]

I think the problem in general is that WWE is trying to push too many superstars at once, and then they get stuck. Remember Jack Swagger was getting a huge push as recent as a few months back, and this past on RAW he was on the receiving end of a lame-ass waste of time promo/match with Santino Marella.

Basically Kofi has a few problems: as shown by the botch on RAW that got Orton super pissed, Kofi folds under pressure, and you can't do that if you want to be a constant main-eventer. Not only that but Kofi is now billed from South Africa, and he speaks in a regular North American accent, yet he still comes out to Jamaican theme music and does his 'BOOM BOOM BOOM' hand thing? To me his character as a whole seems a little lost...they've gotta come up with new theme music for him, and he has to drop finishing names like the 'Boom Drop' and 'Trouble In Paradise'. That doesn't sound South African at all.

Anyway overall I think WWE realizes now that maybe they pushed Kofi too quickly, and he's just gonna become another jobber to Santino Marella on lame promos eventually. On a personal note I never liked Kofi or his character, whether he was Jamaican or South African. But I'm a big fan of heels so go figure.

 

[Mr. Dejan]

I think what went wrong was his push. When he trashed that car that was all that people were talking about. Then the brawl at Madison Square Garden. But after that nothing. He hasn't been pushed the right way if WWE continued with the bad ass Kofi he would be so much more over with the crowd right now because now that he's lost his accent hes not really Jamaican and having the Jamaican tights and Jamaican music isn't really working.

 

[SpoodBeest]

Ok for the record let's go on to say we fix the problems that Kingston has going for him right now.

For instance we give him more mic time to connect with the crowd to show the side of Kofi that everyone wants to see. Like when he destroyed Orton's car that was his defining promo, and I expected to see more since it was impressive. But he hasn't been given any mic time to have a promo outshine that one. If they let him connect with the crowd more on a weekly basis I think the crowd would care about him more.

Get rid of the Jamaican remains that still latch on to him. He needs new music, he is no longer using the Jamaican gimmick, so get rid of the reggae. Also for his ring attire, just let it be the "Kofi smiley" which is his logo, don't surround with flags. Its fine as is.

So lets say they do all these things. Which is way more than just wishful thinking in my opinion. Could you see Kofi ever becoming either WWE champion or World Heavyweight champion? It could happen.

To be honest since his move to RAW in the 2008 draft, Kofi has not done to badly, and his career has done nothing but progress. His push is regressing because WWE wont fix the small problems that end up having a major side effects if you will.

Anyway if they fix these problems Kofi has, and the crowd is into him completely I don't see why they wouldn't put a major strap on him.

However if they don't fix the problems, they will shoot down so much of "what could have been".

This is a discussion/debate on if problems are fixed could Kofi be brought up to this major level in his WWE career, and if not what will become of him?

 

[johnnyblaze3:16]

well first off i think that if sheamus (are u fn kiddin me) could be wwe champ, then anyone can. kofi has major potential and his push is developing nicely at least with kofi there building up too ME status instead of being thrown in there like sheamus. im almost positive he will win either the rumble or mitb this year and by xmas he'll be champ. maybe not the rumble because i believe that taker will tell micheals the same as vince did "earn it" by winning the rumble and challenging taker for the whc. they should move sheamus to sd and taker to raw.