10 Times Wrestlers Got Over With ONE Match
1. Kofi Kingston
Kofi Kingston was already over - fans would not have cast him in the role of WWE Heavyweight Title challenger if they didn't give a sh*t about him - but there are levels to this.
Trust the genius of Stone Cold Steve Austin to deliver the perfect wording. In describing Seth Rollins' struggles to adjust to the babyface role, he said that Rollins wasn't "all the way over". Rollins fell somewhere between popular and unmissable. As did Kofi before his awesome exploits in that first, inspired Gauntlet match of February 12, 2019.
It was inspired because it doubled as a test of Kofi's credentials and a conditioning exercise to the audience. They needed to see him navigate the epic to truly take him seriously as a main event-level star. His transitioning from 12-minute tags to a WrestleMania-sized match against a Daniel Bryan in career form without this match may have been difficult to accept, but this acted as an abridged version of a committed, sustained push - ideal, really, given how WWE struggles with precisely that.
Kingston showed a range of selling ability and in the best moment fired up with profound conviction in the face of AJ Styles - shedding the remnants of his midcard New Day persona with clinical timing.