WWE Raw tag team icon, 43, backs sons to follow in his footsteps

WWE superstar Kofi Kingston thinks his two sons ‘have the potential’ to follow in his footsteps.

The New Day legend, who will team up with Xavier Woods tonight on Monday Night Raw to challenge War Raiders for the World Tag Team Championships, was blown away after seeing his boys showing off their self-taught wrestling skills.

Reflecting on a sweet moment from his injury recovery in 2023, Kofi exclusively told Metro: ‘I brought my kids to the PC, and I’m sitting there on the table just getting ice after doing all the rehab exercises, and my son comes around the corner and said, “Daddy, I just did a springboard.”‘

The former world champion wasn’t necessarily expecting much from his sons, and he was ready to put on an excited face no matter what.

‘So then he hops on the bottom rope, and he jumps from the bottom to the top, and the dude springboards,’ he said.

‘I’m like, “Oh my God!” And then my other son does the same thing. And at the time, they were like, what, seven and 10, and they doing front flips and all this.’

Kofi was blown away by their natural talent, especially as he’d never actually taught them the moves.

‘I’ve never tried to teach them how to do it, but they definitely have it in their blood,’ he admitted. ‘So we’ll see how it all plays out. But yeah, they definitely have the potential and possibility!’

Kofi and Xavier are currently loving life on screen, having turned on real life best friend and former teammate Big E after years as fan favourites.

Now, they can really go toe-to-toe with fans in a way they haven’t been able to for a long time.

He said: ‘You bought a ticket to come and watch the show. But if you give us that energy, we give it back to you, like, you know what I mean?

‘I feel it’s very cathartic for us to be able to express our true emotions on how we feel about what you said.

‘And a lot of times it’s not us just saying mean things to you. We’re not insulting people. We’ll just have the debate and we’ll talk about the truth.’

Hollywood star John Cena is another longterm fan favourite who has turned to the dark side in recent weeks.

Kofi is hoping their fellow on-screen villain can make history and become a 17-time world champion when he faces Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Title at WrestleMania 41.

‘One of my favorite shots of John Cena is him with the “Spinner Title”, and he’s walking and he’s got his head down, everybody just booing him, and they’re so close to him,’ Kofi recalled.

He added: ‘Imagine if [Cena] wins the title at WrestleMania and then comes back the next day on Raw, the reaction, and him walking down doing the same thing with the title just to a spattering of booze.

‘I almost need to see that. And if he doesn’t do it, then we’ll do it when we win the titles, we’re gonna do the same thing!’

This year’s WrestleMania in Las Vegas will be the first time the annual extravaganza has been available to stream on Netflix, and Kofi’s grateful for a practical benefit of the move.

‘For us as students of the game, when we have an interview or we have matches, usually we have to wait at least 24 hours to see them,’ he explained.

‘Now we can literally just open it up directly after our match and watch it in high definition.’

There’s also the pride at being a huge part of Netflix’s push into live streaming, with WWE at the heart of it all.

He said: ”For Netflix to have faith is us to be their first live action sporting endeavour, for us to be at the forefront for that – when people look back at it, it’s going to be quite historical.

‘This is the future! So, it’s cool to be part of that move.’

WWE is available to watch on Netflix in the UK & Ireland, including RAW, Smackdown, NXT, all Premium Live Events, and the WWE Archive. WrestleMania 41 is the next Premium Live Event you can watch live on Netflix, April 19 and 20.

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