Armchair Booking: Kofi Kingston vs Randy Orton

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last two months, you already know that Kofi Kingston toppled the egocentric, self-proclaimed “Planet’s Champion”, Daniel Bryan, in his first one-on-one WWE Championship match at WrestleMania 35. Now that Kofi has bested Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler, he is looking to continue to defend his WWE title against some of WWE’s fiercest competition. There is one opponent that come to mind: The Viper Randy Orton, a thirteen-time WWE champion, as dangerous as ever since his heel turn at 2018 Extreme Rules pay-per-view.

Randy Orton and Kofi crossed paths in 2009-2010, when Orton was the leader of the faction Legacy alongside the young Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase. Fast forward ten years and many things have evolved since their previous encounter, so this would be a blockbuster contest at WWE SummerSlam and another tough test to solidify Kofi’s WWE Championship title reign.

In order to understand why this match should take place, we need to go back and relive their rivalry from 2009. In June 2008, after a great first year on the ECW brand, Kofi debuted on Monday Night Raw as a last pick for the supplemental draft. At the 2008 Unforgiven pay per view, his two-year long back and forth feud with Orton and Legacy would begin after saving the World Heavyweight Champion, CM Punk, from a vicious backstage attack from Orton, Manu and the World Tag Team Champions, Rhodes and Dibiase.

Over the next few months, Kofi and Punk would be paired up as a tag-team. They would win the World Tag-Team Championships from Legacy on the October 27th edition of Raw. Kofi also joined Team Batista in the ten-on-ten traditional Survivor Series elimination match, and would eventually lose at the hands of Orton. Orton and Kofi wouldn’t cross paths again until the October 2009 Bragging Rights event, as Team Raw lost after Big Show double-crossed them by delivering a devastating chokeslam to Kofi, allowing Chris Jericho to pick up the victory for Team SmackDown.

Rhodes and Kofi would get in a backstage dispute over the incident and he blamed Kofi for the loss; Kofi would seek retribution during Orton’s 60-minute Iron Man match against John Cena for the WWE Championship, as Rhodes and Dibiase tried to interfere on their leader’s behalf. This drove Legacy out of the arena and ultimately cost Orton his championship. Kofi’s actions twenty-four hours prior would jump-start their stagnant feud.

The highlight of their rivalry took place on November 16th Raw inside Madison Square Garden. As Orton was still seething after losing the WWE Championship, he decided to attack Hall of Famer Roddy “Rowdy” Piper. Before Orton could execute the punt-kick to his skull, Kofi came to his aid. Orton and Kofi would brawl throughout the entire arena. Despite referees and officials trying to break them up, Kofi would deliver a massive Boom Drop onto a lifeless Orton through a production table.

Both competitors would lead Team Kofi vs. Team Orton at the 2009 Survivor Series, with Kofi eliminating Orton himself and securing his team the victory. On the November 30th edition of Raw, Kofi was scheduled to have a one-on-one contest with Orton but was brutally attacked from behind by Legacy.

Both Orton and Kofi would trade victories back and forth over the next few months. Mark Cuban was the special guest referee in their first one-on-one encounter, Cuban used a fast count to get retribution for Orton’s RKO six years ago at the 2003 Survivor Series to give Kofi a much-deserved win. They would clash again at TLC with Orton picking up a victory; Orton would end their rivalry one week following interfering and costing Kofi the United States championship when he challenged The Miz.

On the January 4, 2010 edition of Raw, a triple threat match would take place between Kofi, Orton and John Cena to determine a number-one contender for Sheamus’ WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble. Orton won the match but the “real” story occurred at the end of the contest. Kofi was supposed to stay down for Orton’s patented punt kick, however, he rose too early. His adversary dropped Kofi with a vicious RKO and then he pinned him. Orton was visibly pissed. Speculation started that Orton was the culprit who put an end to Kofi’s main-event push in 2010 and would not receive his first one-on-one WWE Championship match until this past Mania. In 2009, Randy Orton sat down with Lou Ramirez on KJ-97 located in San Antonio, TX where he discusses several topics, including his anger issues.

“You know, I think my whole deal was I didn’t think other people had a right to an opinion. I think the problem I had was in real life, it was my way or the highway and if people disagreed with me, then they were just wrong. I had to realize that other people had an opinion that counted and I had to realize that other people had feelings and you’ve got to watch their feelings and listen to what they have to say. You know, this is just Randy Orton as a human being, not Randy Orton,‘The Legend Killer'”. 

Fast-forward ten years as Kofi was on his uphill battle to claim his first one-on-one WWE Championship match. On March 19, 2019, Kofi was put to the ultimate test in a gauntlet match against Samoa Joe, Rowan, Sheamus, Cesaro and Randy Orton. After eliminating all four competitors, Orton was up last. After Orton threw him into the barricade, he looked up at the Mania sign, and told the WWE Universe that “Kofi has no chance to make it to WrestleMania 35” and called him “stupid”, a reference to their last match.

Orton and Kofi have not crossed paths since their brief encounter. With the target heavily placed on the WWE Champion’s back, this would be a perfect time for The Viper to strike on his long-time rival and ascend to the top of the food chain. After revisiting their extremely personal feud in 2010, it’s clear to me that this would be a great summer feud for Kofi to continue proving the doubters wrong.