Kofi Kingston will be sticking around WWE for at least another five years. When his current deal expires, the former WWE Champion will 43 years old.
And while a lot can happen in five years, Kingston could see himself walking away once his latest contract comes to an end.
"I've definitely thought about that," Kingston told Newsweek when asked if he has thought about retiring at the end of his contract. "Five years is such a long time away, but you'd be a fool if you didn't plan ahead. It's really early to say, but at the end of this five years [it] might be the end of my career, not just from an injury or physical perspective, but just not being home. Being away from my kids is very difficult. We had to go an extra day last week and we had a live event and then media day in Minneapolis, and then we had TLC and then I came home Monday and then back on the road Tuesday. I'm doing the WWE holiday party in Stanford. And then I'll go back home and come back to New York early on Friday to do a whole bunch of interviews and the live taping."
He continued, "All of that just to say that it's a lot. And my kids are growing up, and there's a lot of days that we miss. I'm considering hanging them up at the end of this five-year period, but you just don't know. I don't know what's going to happen next week, but it has crossed my mind for sure. I've been doing this for a long time, over a decade. It'll be 12 years on television in January, which is crazy to think about, but that's the reality. You have to be thinking about those things as a family man and as a person in general."
Kingston announced his new five-year deal on the latest New Day: Feel The Power podcast. The announcement came while he was discussing how he felt physically, noting that once he gets in the ring, he feels great, but he has trouble just playing soccer or basketball with his kids and friends.
On Tuesday, it was announced Big E and Xavier Woods also signed new five-year deals for the same money as Kingston. In the Newsweek interview, Kofi revealed why it was so important for the group to show unity in contract talks.
"If you look at the history of factions in our history, there's always [a thought that] someone is going to turn on the other. And we get that all the time on social media. We don't want to do that in any shape or form. We've all been singles competitors before, and we know how strong we are and the special bond that we have. You just don't see the energy we put forth in wrestling, and we want to preserve that for as long as we can. If that's broken even just once you'll become like everyone else," he said. "Also, we actually like each other in real life, so we want to be a unit and push each other to the top. And there are other ways to do that that don't involve breaking up. We can all hold singles titles, we've talked about that. We never looked at ourselves as just a tag team. We look at ourselves as more of a faction where all three can hold singles titles or one of us can go for the King of the Ring while the other two support. Or two holding a tag championship while the other is holding singles. We are just pushing ourselves as a group, and we're not just coasting or resting on our laurels. We don't look at our accolades, as we're still in the process of trying to do great things. Signing that contract together was very important to all of us because without one of us the group doesn't exist. There's something that's missing. All of us as a unit signing a contract for the same amount, we definitely wanted that to be a thing. We're glad it's announced and we're doing alright."
Kofi is currently one-half of the SmackDown Tag Team Champions alongside Big E. The duo successfully defended their titles against The Revival at WWE TLC in a ladder match.
You can keep up with all the contract news in wrestling with Fightful's list of expiring contracts.