Wow. What a difference a month makes. I take back what I said about Kofi Kingston a few weeks ago. Actually, I don’t take it back since it was true at the time, but I thought it would take longer to get a good match out of him. His match with Shelton Benjamin on this week’s ECW program was really good. I guess it goes to show you how someone who’s a little green needs someone with experience to lead him along. Usually it’s the heel that does the leading in this type of situation because they can keep taking control.
Kofi’s undefeated streak is over. That’s a good thing. Even though Kofi lost, he came out of the match looking good. The dynamic of having him be the underdog and almost winning several times worked. Benjamin would have the upper hand, but when Kofi needed to take over he had the athletic ability to pull off one exciting move after another. It didn’t have the paint-by-numbers feel that his other matches have had. And now that they don’t have to continue the streak they can put him against other wrestlers and not worry about what the finish is going to be.
The test will be seeing whether he can continue the momentum in his next match, or if it really was all Benjamin making this one turn out as good as it did.
I’ve really liked Kofi as a whole, but I’m happy to see him get that first loss. Remember me saying that he just needed a longer match with Shelton? 🙂
Yep, you were right.
His match against Mike Knox was pretty good too, although I have to deduct a point for busting him open. Not that it affected the quality of the match, but it’s a measure of how skilled you are if you can hit somebody really hard in a way that won’t split them open or break anything.
Looks like he could have a promising career.