Exclusive interview: Kofi Kingston on breaking the record for longest-reigning WWE Tag Team Champion of all time
It’s a great day to eat your Booty-O’s. On March 18, 2016, Kofi Kingston officially became the longest-reigning WWE Tag Team Champion in the titles’ 14-year existence, at 542 collective days and counting. To celebrate, WWE.com caught up with The Boom Squad General to talk about being “the greatest friend in WWE,” ponder The New Day’s prospects at breaking the longest single reign of all time, and shout-out a former Superstar who previously held the record.
WWE.COM: Congratulations are in order. You broke the record!
KOFI KINGSTON: Yeah, it’s a pretty cool accolade. It’s one that kind of crept up. There was one guy on Twitter that was counting down, and all of a sudden today everyone seems to be rejoicing that I am such a good friend as a tag team partner.
WWE.COM: Did Xavier Woods and Big E have anything to say to mark the occasion?
KINGSTON: Yeah! Woods sent out a tweet offering me the highest of fives for the accolade. It’s kind of weird. I wasn’t fully expecting it, I guess, and it wasn’t something that I aimed to do. But at the same time it’s pretty cool to be able to say, like I said, I am the greatest friend in WWE.
Congrats to @TrueKofi 4 now holding the collective record for being @WWE world tag team champion longer than anyone! pic.twitter.com/6wZlESXKE0
— Xavier Woods (@XavierWoodsPhD) March 17, 2016
WWE.COM: What is your favorite memory during your four stints as WWE Tag Team Champion?
KINGSTON: I don’t know if I can put a finger on a favorite moment. All I know is that every moment we’ve had as The New Day has been amazing. Just awesome. Literally, traveling around with my best friends and doing the things we do backstage on television. It’s been a wild run. The journey before the actual journey is something we talked about on “Table For 3.” But even that half-hour show didn’t fully describe the trials and tribulation we had to endure to get to where we are.
So as much of an accolade as it is for me, it’s also an accolade for all the people that were willing to be my partner. I couldn’t have done it without any of them, particularly with Woods and E.
WWE.COM: Speaking of New Day, the longest single WWE Tag Team Title reign is a record that’s within your reach. Have you talked about the possibility of breaking that as well?
KINGSTON: We’ve been celebrating since the day we won, because we’re going to be champions until the end of time. When the actual record gets broken, it’ll just be another day of the week for us. It’s been our expectation. We feel we’re the best tag team in a very long time, probably in the history of WWE. We try to steal the show regardless of where we are on the show. ’Long as you put a mic in our hands and a camera in front of us and turn that red light on, we know that we’re going to be the most entertaining thing that you see.
I noticed you guys had a March Madness tournament [for WWE’s greatest faction] going on. If we don’t win that, the whole bracket system is moot. There’ll be something wrong if we don’t win. [Laughs]
WWE.COM: Lastly, the man you just passed for this record is someone you know very well, John Morrison. Anything you’d like to say to him?
KINGSTON: Ah, yeah, man! Morrison and I are still pretty tight. A lot of people compare us because we have pretty similar builds and athletic prowess, especially when it comes to the Royal Rumble Match. Morrison is the guy who kind of started that all. Luckily, he left, so I’ve never had much competition in terms of having to outdo somebody. [Laughs] To pass Morrison on this totem pole is a pretty cool thing, just because I respect him as a performer and as a person. It’s a cool thing to take the torch from a guy like that.
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