KofiMania was as real as it got in the months of February, March and April 2019.
Kofi Kingston's time had come, and a fanbase getting to feel that out and realise just how much they loved it over a period of several gruelling gauntlet matches received it with all the emotional heft it deserved.
It was hard not to moved to tears - tears for the overdue history, tears for the site of Kingston's children sharing the ring with him, tears for Xavier Woods' own floods as he elevated one of his best friends along with his other one.
Some praise of the match itself must also be saved for Bryan here too. The outgoing WWE Champion did absolutely everything to ramp up the tension in a truly beautiful match in order to do the most he could to make Kofi's moment as big as it deserved to be. A wicked, wicked heel, his deliberately condescending pace and pointedly timed cutoffs fooled the entire world that the nicest guy in the whole company was the one responsible for holding him back all along.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
