When you kinda reflect on the movement of KofiMania,
like what does it mean to you to reflect on that moment of your career?
>> Man, okay.
It's crazy.
When I came to the Elimination Chamber, I remember Woods and E,
jumped getting like emotional now, okay.
[MUSIC]
>> Hello, WWE Universe, my name is Byron Saxton and
I'm truly honored to host a very special panel.
Of course all throughout the month of February here in WWE,
we are proudly celebrating Black History Month.
Well, today we decided to place an extra
focus on the topic of modern day Black WWE Champions.
Now there have been a total of six black WWE champions in history and
three of those champions join us right here today.
Starting with the man to my left,
he is a two time WWE Champion, the almighty Bobby Lashley.
Next is a man who successfully cashed in his money in the bank contract,
I won't say on who, to become WWE Champion.
>> Let's keep the peace.
[LAUGH] >> This is awkward you guys.
>> And last, but certainly not least,
the first African born WWE Champion in history, Kofi Kingston.
>> Yeah.
>> So gentlemen, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to
join us and talk about your experiences WWE Champion, but I wanna kinda pose this
question to all three of you, and E, I'll just start with you.
When you were looking at your web career maybe as a young man,
were there any black WWE superstars who kinda made you go, okay, I can do this or
I wanna pursue this path as part of WWE?
>> Ron Simmons was my guy as a kid and for many reasons so I grew up in Florida,
Huge College football and Florida State fan.
And for anyone who doesn't know, Ron Simmons was a nose tackle at
Florida State, and I believe he actually was a Heisman finalist,
which as a defensive tackle, is extremely rare.
In so many different aspects, he was the kind of an athlete that I wanted to be.
And obviously, it's hard to have a discussion about black performers in
wrestling without talking about him beating Vader in WCW for
that World Championship and seeing the locker room clear out and
celebrate him was pretty incredible.
So Ron Simmons was my guy for sure.
>> Bobby.
>> I don't wanna copy his answer but when I first came in,
I copied a lot of his moves.
I loved the style, as I was growing up I used to hit the weights a lot, so
I still like to work out and watching him being a strong black man on TV,
of course I loved that.
Now afterwards when I first got in, and a little bit before when I came in, Booker
was my guy, I enjoyed watching Booker, I liked how he was, I like his personality.
So when I came I had opportunity started working in person and I just fell in love
with Booker ever since then >> And this is a funny one but, K-Kwik or
aka, you know what I'm saying?
I used to watch K-Kwik back in the day, and being like, man,
I think I can do some of those moves and having him be a part of like
the catalyst that drove me towards wanting to be a WWE Superstar.
>> I don't know if I've ever told you this but I thought about Ron Simmons but
I watched probably more Bobby Lashley than anyone.
Of all the current generation,
Bobby was the guy I wanted to work like as far as being explosive,
being just powerful in the ring, like the way you moved, the way you look,
you were the one guy of this era that I watch almost on a daily basis.
So I also have to give a lot of credit to Bobby as well as far as someone who I
just watched a ton of in 2009,
Bobby was the guy that I wanted to most closely resemble.
>> I appreciate that.
Of course then he beats me for the title.
>> That's all out of love, right?
[CROSSTALK] [LAUGH] >> I'm just doing my job, brother.
[LAUGH] >> Big picture wise when
you look at The New Day.
I mean, three black men, come together, form a stable and
become one of the most popular groups in WWE history.
How much did that mean to you from an influential standpoint?
>> I grew up in like, probably like a 99% white town, and in school I got a lot of
you're not really black because of the way that you you speak, or
you don't sound like the black people that I see on TV.
But then what we do as The New Day like we do as us,
to be able to have success as yourself, to us is very important because there's a lot
of people that are in that same position that I was at.
>> That's one of the things that when we have people come up to us and
say thank you so much for being black and wearing unicorn horns on TV or
wearing bright colors or being a nerd or
just showing people that you don't have to be shoved into this box to be accepted.
You can pursue your interest authentically, you can be amongst
the people that you wanna be with and that doesn't discredit your blackness,
that doesn't take away your black card because I think that that's so freeing for
us is to just be able to go out there and do the things that we love doing.
>> When you kinda reflect on the movement of Kofi Mania,
what does it mean to you to reflect on that moment of your career?
>> Man, okay, it's crazy.
When I came to the Elimination Chamber, I remember Woods and E,
jumped getting like emotional now, okay.
I'm sitting on the stairs and they come and they're just right on my sides and
they're just like hey man, you really sought out man, and just like giving me
that love that we that we've had, that it was all of us, it was all of us.
Like I said without them it doesn't happen so
obviously like winning the WWE Championship for me was like,
when the refs hand hit the mat for the third time, I was like,
this is real, and my eyes popped out of my head, this is just genuine shock.
I get a lot of people on social media still talking about how it affected
them and I'm just so grateful to be at the center of all of that.
>> March 1st, 2021, you defeat The Miz, and for
the first time in your career, you become WWE Champion.
Take us through that day, and did you even think that day would even come?
>> You didn't think I could beat The Miz?
[LAUGH] >> I would have put money on that.
It wasn't me, it was the other folks.
[LAUGH] >> I love the man, [INAUDIBLE] [CROSSTALK]
[LAUGH] >> That day was actually
a really cool day in the way that it was because the day that I did it with Miz,
it was like the fans got behind me towards the end because throughout the whole
show is like The Miz was trying to get out of it and trying to get out of it.
And they thought that this might not happen.
So when it finally happened when I beat him up kinda same thing with Kofi, you
really can't imagine how it's gonna feel, but it was for me the next couple of days.
I was getting calls from people that I ain't heard have heard from me years,
from Panama, my uncle, he's over there jumping down from Panama,
they bring the flag over to me, you gotta take a picture with the flag,
with the Panamanian flag, everybody's so proud of you.
And then the biggest thing for me is like a lot of the people that I regarded as
peers, they were saying, you know what?
I'm happy for you and I really believe you deserve it.
So the next couple of days I really didn't sleep,
I was just kinda holding that time I was looking at, I was like,
damn, this is more than just a title, this is more than just the WWE Championship.
There's way more to it.
My kids.
He went to school and he had a bet with his PE teacher and
the PE teacher told him that no, your dad is not gonna win, [INAUDIBLE] [LAUGH]
>> I'm the champ.
[LAUGH] >> So another pivotal date in WWE History
also that year, September 13th, 2021, at the time Mr.
Money in the Bank, Big E, you become WWE Champion.
What was that day like for you?
>> For me, it was one of those things where a lot of that territory was new,
being at that opposition, but I felt like I was ready for all of it.
So beating Bobby, the 123, and like I didn't necessarily, it's like all right,
I kinda briefly thought, what am I gonna do afterwards, but
it's one of those things were the moment like swept me away,
I felt like I had no control of my body, I don't know.
I did like a half split like a, I don't know, like a fist bump, I don't know,
I was fist pumping, I'm not a golfer but in that moment,
I felt like I just hit a hole in one.
So it was bizarre.
But that was one of the coolest things, is being able to look out and seeing so
many people who are genuinely excited for me.
And thank you for that moment because, and one of the reasons I think there's so
many reasons that KofiMania is special and I think one of the reasons is
because of the opponent, because of Daniel Bryan being an all time great.
And I think one of the reasons that moment was so special for me, is because I beat
you the way that you had dominated people, the run you had, man, like I said,
I was watching you in 2009 trying to pattern my eventual style after you,
that meant a lot for me.
Cuz beating any WWE Champion means something, but for me, because it was you,
that meant it was even more special for me.
>> This question is for all of you, but Kofi, I wanna start with you.
You all went through this, you put in your time on the road,
all the hardships that come with your career, you dream about finally reaching
that milestone moment of becoming WWE Champion and then you achieve it.
Was it what you expected when you finally reached that pinnacle?
>> For all the talk about not having a chance in 11 years or whatever,
I don't know if I was ready to be champion when I first came to WWE,
all of everything had to happen the way that it did.
So as soon as you become champ, business picks up.
It was exactly what I expected it to be but at the same time I think I was
very prepared to shoulder that burden and this is what you want.
>> And even beyond that, I obviously knew by by watching Kofi that things were gonna
pick up and they'd be busier, but one of the things that I am really grateful for,
is I got to do so many things that I never even fathomed.
Even just going through DMs, the reason I got to do the Fury, Wilder fight,
I did the intros for that, was because and thankfully I didn't delete it, but
I randomly see a DM from Tyson Fury, congratulating me on winning the title.
And that's one of the things that I appreciate with having
the WWE Championship is it felt like a cosign.
I kinda described it in many ways as a passport because it opened so
many doors for me and just kinda changed my mindset, my mentality.
>> When I came into the business when you first got one of these things, the big
thing that everybody told us is, it's not a belt, it's not a belt, it's a title.
And now that when I wanted, I understood that, the same thing that he said,
it's not about this leather and trinkets and everything and
it really doesn't mean anything but what's behind it is what's important.
When I was at the business before, just at the level that I was at,
I was able to live for the night next 10 years off of that name,
that I got from being an ECW Champion and being a United States Champion.
But as a WWE Champion, it puts you on such a whole another level.
>> So as we wind down gentlemen, and this has been a terrific conversation.
Speak to the importance of not only being a WWE champion, but
having had the opportunity to be a black WWE Champion.
>> I think that obviously being a Black WWE Champion, being that it is so
rare, seeing is believing, that phrase to me is so important,
and it just makes it tangible to be able to achieve that.
So for African American kids out there and
even adults that never thought that they would see an African born champion,
it definitely holds a lot of weight for me.
>> I think my hope is that the conversation with Black WWE Champions is
similar to the conversation around like Black Quarterbacks in the NFL.
I remember being a kid and that was a thing, you'd hear like,
this is Warren Moon, and maybe a couple others, if that, but now you see so
many black quarterbacks in the league and it's not even really a conversation.
And that's my hope, is that the Montes of the world don't have to wait 11 years for
their first WWE Championship that for the best reasons it's no
longer a conversation the way it is now, because those doors open.
And I'm hopeful man, I look around at our industry and within our company and
outside of our company, I see so many incredibly talented men and
women black performers, I think it's a great time for black wrestlers and
I hope those doors just continue to open.
And my hope is that performers of all races, colors, sizes, whatever,
if you have the ability, you're good enough, you get an opportunity at this.
>> Both of these guys kinda summed it up a little bit, but I think it's the whole
point of making this a norm, like we wanna make it, we don't need to have
Black WWE Champion or Asian WWE Champion, we just wanna be able to eliminate that.
And I think that was a big thing for me is to be a another Black WWE Champion so
that kids coming up can say, you know what, I can be too.
We are WWE champions, the three of us are WWE champions.
We happen to be black, but we're WWE Champions.
>> Well, that concludes our panel, Kofi, E, Bobby, thank you so
much for taking the time to share your experiences with us, and
I have no doubt you will continue to inspire and
motivate millions of people with your actions both in and out of the ring.
And for all of you, thank you so much for joining us and taking the time
to listen to the stories of three of WWE modern day Black WWE Champions.