Major backstage WWE name pushed for 38-year-old star to win ahead of Kofi Kingston during KofiMania: "I was wrong"

Kofi Kingston winning the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35, more famously known as 'KofiMania,' was one of the greatest stories told by WWE over the past decade. However, it almost didn't happen after a major name pushed for a different superstar to be in Kingston's position.

Following an impressive performance at Elimination Chamber 2019, fans began clamoring for Kofi Kingston to go after Daniel Bryan's WWE Championship. Vince McMahon put him through a lot before eventually earning the opportunity to challenge for it at WrestleMania 35. Speaking to Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Road Dogg revealed that he wanted 38-year-old Big E in that position for KofiMania. He admitted that it was a mistake to not see the initial fan support for Kofi and was happy about being wrong.

"I was wrong. I wanted Big E to win the title at Kofi Mania. I thought Big E was the guy, and a guy on my writing team who now writes for NXT said, 'You're wrong boss. You're wrong. It's Kofi.' And I didn't realize that Kofi had such a personal connection with the fan base. I was just looking for who's the next guy and I didn't think, ‘Oh, the guy's sitting right here.’ I was trying to make this guy over here and, yeah, never been so happy to be wrong though. What a moment," Road Dogg said. [H/T: chrisvanvliet.com]

Road Dogg resigned from his position as head writer of SmackDown following WrestleMania 35. While his departure from the role was not due to KofiMania, he remained with the company and went on to help talents in NXT before getting promoted to Senior Vice President of Live Events in mid-2022.

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Kofi Kingston reflects on the importance of KofiMania

In an appearance on the No-Contest podcast earlier this month, Kofi Kingston revealed how important KofiMania was for WWE.

"All the people who never thought they’d see an African-born champion. I’m talking about some real stuff, no doubt. It’s like, anything is possible. In theory, you can say you can do whatever you want to do. You can be whatever you want to be. But when you see it happening on TV, it becomes an actual reality. It is possible because I saw him do it. It’s tangible. I saw him do it, so I know I can do it. If he can do it, I can do it," Kingston said. [H/T: WrestleZone]

Kofi Kingston currently performs as a heel, which is far from his KofiMania character. It's a fresh restart, not just for Kingston, but also for Xavier Woods and The New Day.