TORONTO — If Kofi Kingston’s championship run has been a fairy tale, then Randy Orton is the dragon: The foe whose malevolence left its mark on the hero in his youth and continues to cast a shadow that the champion can't quite shake.
From that apocryphal “stupid” moment from 10 years ago to the maiming of Ali that opened the floodgates for Kofi's WWE Title run, Orton's cruelty was certainly a formative presence for Kofi Kingston as we know him today. The champion made no bones about the personal stakes a match with Randy Orton carries for him. Given the chance to put his tormentor in his place at SummerSlam, however, Kofi didn’t close out, accepting a double count-out to repay Orton for some ill-advised taunting of the champion’s family.
Randy Orton counters WWE Champion Kofi Kingston’s top-rope dive with an RKO outta nowhere. Courtesy of WWE Network.
If it wasn’t a “stupid” decision, it was a curious ending. For a champion who made it clear that this was a match he absolutely, 100 percent had to take, why would he take a less-than-decisive outcome? The answer, as always with Orton and Kofi, lies in the psychological warfare that served as the undercurrent of the match. Kingston was more off-the-handle than usual, adopting an atypically aggressive style while Orton was his usual, clinical self, waiting for the champion to play directly into his hands. The Viper’s strategy paid off, as Kingston — seemingly revving up for a match-ending maneuver from the top rope — instead crossbodied himself straight into an RKO outta nowhere.
Here, however, is where Orton’s gameplan failed him. Instead of making the cover, the challenger laughed to himself on the mat, content in the knowledge that Kofi had yet to learn his lesson. It was enough of a breather for Kofi to roll out of the ring, in full view of his family’s seats next to the barricade. Orton followed, with designs on adding insult to injury by humiliating Kofi in front of his wife and children. It proved to be his first — and most — ill-advised maneuver.
Sharing a tumultuous history that spans a decade, WWE Champion Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton throw down for the richest prize in sports-entertainment.
Energized by Orton’s disrespect, Kofi snapped, raining blows on the challenger with both his fists and a Kendo stick. He was so fired up he didn’t even seem to notice (or care) that the referee had called a double count-out just before the mayhem started, but he wasn’t about to let a little thing like the bell stop him either. The champion waited for Orton to stagger to his feet before knocking him to his back with Trouble in Paradise — a final, decisive maneuver that proved two things at once: Kofi Kingston is definitely a different Superstar than the young man Orton admittedly held down 10 years ago. And he’s nowhere near over it, for better or worse.
TORONTO — If Kofi Kingston’s championship run has been a fairy tale, then Randy Orton is the dragon: The foe whose malevolence left its mark on the hero in his youth and continues to cast a shadow that the champion can't quite shake.
From that apocryphal “stupid” moment from 10 years ago to the maiming of Ali that opened the floodgates for Kofi's WWE Title run, Orton's cruelty was certainly a formative presence for Kofi Kingston as we know him today. The champion made no bones about the personal stakes a match with Randy Orton carries for him. Given the chance to put his tormentor in his place at SummerSlam, however, Kofi didn’t close out, accepting a double count-out to repay Orton for some ill-advised taunting of the champion’s family.
Randy Orton counters WWE Champion Kofi Kingston’s top-rope dive with an RKO outta nowhere. Courtesy of WWE Network.
If it wasn’t a “stupid” decision, it was a curious ending. For a champion who made it clear that this was a match he absolutely, 100 percent had to take, why would he take a less-than-decisive outcome? The answer, as always with Orton and Kofi, lies in the psychological warfare that served as the undercurrent of the match. Kingston was more off-the-handle than usual, adopting an atypically aggressive style while Orton was his usual, clinical self, waiting for the champion to play directly into his hands. The Viper’s strategy paid off, as Kingston — seemingly revving up for a match-ending maneuver from the top rope — instead crossbodied himself straight into an RKO outta nowhere.
Here, however, is where Orton’s gameplan failed him. Instead of making the cover, the challenger laughed to himself on the mat, content in the knowledge that Kofi had yet to learn his lesson. It was enough of a breather for Kofi to roll out of the ring, in full view of his family’s seats next to the barricade. Orton followed, with designs on adding insult to injury by humiliating Kofi in front of his wife and children. It proved to be his first — and most — ill-advised maneuver.
Sharing a tumultuous history that spans a decade, WWE Champion Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton throw down for the richest prize in sports-entertainment.
Energized by Orton’s disrespect, Kofi snapped, raining blows on the challenger with both his fists and a Kendo stick. He was so fired up he didn’t even seem to notice (or care) that the referee had called a double count-out just before the mayhem started, but he wasn’t about to let a little thing like the bell stop him either. The champion waited for Orton to stagger to his feet before knocking him to his back with Trouble in Paradise — a final, decisive maneuver that proved two things at once: Kofi Kingston is definitely a different Superstar than the young man Orton admittedly held down 10 years ago. And he’s nowhere near over it, for better or worse.
