Kofi Kingston and Mustafa Ali will be linked together in history when looking back at Kingston’s famous KofiMania run and WWE Championship victory.
Kingston replaced Al in the Elimination Chamber match in 2019. Although Kingston didn’t win the title at this show, it set up his match with Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania where he won the title and held it until dropping it to Brock Lesnar later that year on the premiere episode of SmackDown on FOX.
Kingston revealed in an interview with Alistair McGeorge of Metro that plans were in place for the two stars to work together at WrestleMania 37. However, plans changed.
“It was perfect! It was written, you didn’t even have to go out of your way to creatively write anything else, it was perfect! But alas, that’s not the direction that ‘the office,’ I guess, wanted to go in. That’s just kinda the way that it goes! Maybe down the line we’ll get a change to revisit that opportunity. I was told a few things, and we start working towards those things that we’re told, and then all of a sudden it’s not those things. But that’s really kind of standard fare for us. It was really disappointing, man, because I think he’s so amazing in the ring and such an innovator. He finds ways to do the littlest things in such a different way, but he puts his own spin on it. He has a great mind for the business and a great mind for storytelling.”
He added that he wasn’t surprised plans changed because that’s the nature of the beast. Ali wasn’t featured on the card while Kingston and Xavier Woods dropped the Raw Tag Team Titles to AJ Styles and Omos. As previously noted, Ali has requested his release from WWE.
