WWE kicked off SmackDown's debut on FOX with a huge WWE Championship match. After what had proved to be a great run with the title, The New Day's Kofi Kingston put the title on the line against Brock Lesnar, but lost the title in a matter of seconds (and never got a rematch).
Fans were livid, and Kingston has never shied away from expressing his disappointment with the decision.
During a recent interview with the Battleground Podcast, Kingston talked more about the match and how he feels about that a few years removed from it happening.
"It was just so quick. I don’t get paid by the hour, and It was a short amount of work for me," he admitted. "I didn’t really have a lot of bumps and bruises, just one, so that was cool. If it was up to me, I would have had the match go a little bit different than the way that it did, but that’s not up to me. The only thing I can really control is my performance and my ability to do what I’m asked to do to the best of my ability, and that’s what I’ve made a career of doing over the last decade-plus."
"It kind of was what it was," Kingston continued. "I think the positive is that I realized how much people are behind me. Even still, people are mad about the way that the title reign ended, especially being that it came about so magically and organically, but it happened to be the direction that the company wanted it to go. What are you going to do? You go to your job and you either do it or you don’t."
"I don’t really have much of a choice, but I just try to focus on the future, and cement my legacy by the actions that I can control," he continued.
Kingston challenged Bobby Lashley for the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank earlier this month, but ended up being squashed by his as well (in a slightly longer match). Clearly, WWE has no plans to put the title on the former Tag Team Champion again, but they could definitely book him better!
Here's that "match" if you need a reminder: