10 Wrestling Careers Damaged By WWE Backstage Politics

9. Kofi Kingston

Kofi Kingston's punishment for upsetting a wrestler higher up on the food chain goes to show how expendable mid-card talent is in the world of backstage wrestling politics. From his initial debut, Kingston was on a gradual, steady push, winning the Tag-Team Championship with CM Punk, the Intercontinental Championship from none other than Y2J, but a simple, innocent mistake would cost Kofi his push, his momentum and his position in the pecking order for years to come. As part of his feud with Randy Orton in 2010, the two men had a match on Raw, in which Kofi missed the finish spot, causing Orton to shout 'Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!', very publicly. Wrestlers botch all the time, but clearly Orton had used his swing to express his anger at Kofi's mistake. As a result, Kofi was doomed to wander around the mid-card for the years ahead, which is particularly sad considering the dirt-sheets imply he was set to win the Money in the Bank ladder match at Wrestlemania 26, a match which he never even participated for, as he was relegated to wrestling on WWE Superstars. Kofi's career is still going nowhere to this very day, all because of a simple mistake he made way back in 2010.