Bryan gets back on the topic of WWE Champion Kofi Kingston.
It was at WrestleMania 35 at MetLife Stadium where Kofi Kingston realized his dream and became WWE Champion for the first time in his career by defeating Daniel Bryan in the middle of the ring. The fans inside of MetLife Stadium went ballistic when the referee's hand hit the mat for the third time and Kofi's children were able to join him in the ring to celebrate along with Big E and Xavier Woods. Kofi Kingston defeated Daniel Bryan once again on an episode of RAW to retain the WWE Title but Daniel Bryan, who is one-half of the current SmackDown Tag Team Champions refocused his attention on Kofi during an interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated.
Bryan spoke about Kofi saying that he waited eleven years for the opportunity to become World Champion and feels that Kofi was just content for that period time. Bryan expressed that he came into WWE with the mindset that he was going to become a top guy and main event WrestleMania.
“The amount of time I spent on the independent scene before coming to WWE dwarfs the amount of time he spent on the independent scene,” said Bryan. “Kofi talked about, in a negative connotation, that I don’t know what he’s been through because it took him 11 years in WWE to get a WWE Championship match while I won my first WWE Championship two years after being on TV. The difference is I spent the 10 years before that wrestling at high school gyms, wrestling in flea markets, sometimes wrestling in front of seven people, sometimes wrestling in front of thousands of people. That’s how I built up my experience. A difference between Kofi and me is that Kofi has been content for 11 years to sit there and then wait to be given opportunities. From the second I came into WWE, my mission statement was, ‘I am here to main-event WrestleMania, I am here to become WWE Champion, and I am here to be the best.’ You never heard Kofi Kingston say that.”
Bryan's focus right now is taking charge of the SmackDown tag team division. He feels that the division has put on some of the best matches in years and wants to know why everyone is talking about women main eventing WrestleMania but not the idea of a tag team match main eventing WrestleMania.
“The WWE tag team division is the best that it’s ever been as far as the matches,” said Bryan. “The matches between the New Day and the Usos, The Bar, The Revival, they’re all fantastic. But there’s all this big hullabaloo about the women main-eventing WrestleMania. How come no one is talking about tag teams main-eventing WrestleMania?" Bryan questioned. "It’s because Kofi Kingston has become tag team champion with so many different partners that people see him as one of the leaders of the tag team division,” said Bryan. “Especially his work in the New Day, being a five-time champion, people in the tag division have looked up to Kofi. But because Kofi is not someone who knocked down the door and said, ‘Hey, we as the tag team division are putting on the most exciting matches, we’re going out there and doing incredible promo work and incredible segments, we should be in the main event of at least one pay-per-view, we should be in the main event of the SmackDown TV show, we should be aiming to main-event WrestleMania. That’s my goal, but none of them say that because they’ve followed Kofi’s lead. So people just sit here and wait to be handed main-event opportunities. That is not how the WWE works.”
Last night on SmackDown Live, Bryan and Rowan were confronted by Heavy Machinery and were scheduled to have a match against Otis and Tucker but Bryan and Rowan walked off before the referee rang the bell.
