Unpopular Opinion: Kofi Kingston has not lived up to his fullest potential as WWE Champion

Note: The following is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily resemble the opinions of Sportskeeda or the Sportskeeda WWE staff.

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We had a crazy week of exciting pro wrestling. NJPW's G1 Climax 29, EVOLVE 10th Anniversary Show, AEW's Fight for the Fallen, and WWE Extreme Rules all took place within' the span of a full weekend. Even for the most die-hard wrestling fan, that is a lot of wrestling to digest.

Focusing specifically on Extreme Rules, we saw Kofi Kingston defeat Samoa Joe to retain his WWE Championship. That match was pretty good and arguably Kofi's toughest challenge to date. Kofi had done a great job as WWE Champion since WrestleMania 35. However, I'm beginning to feel indifferent. It's time to explain why Kofi hasn't lived up to his fullest potential as the WWE Champion.

The idea of a babyface wrestler is to chase after a major world championship. This captures the allure of wrestling fans everywhere. Allowing wrestlers to get over with the audience and test the waters with the company brass, to prove to executives that they have what it takes to be "the man" (apologies to Becky Lynch).

Kofi Kingston captured the title at WrestleMania 35 and earned that right. The moment was historic for many reasons. The culmination of 11 years of working hard, busting tail, scratching, clawing, just to get noticed and to become more than just a workhorse or a comedy act. He defeated Daniel Bryan and cemented his spot at the top of the WWE mountain.

One problem Kofi has is the group that had held his career together for the last five years, The New Day. Kofi is just a WWE Champion with a group that is popular and over with the WWE Universe, but they're a comedic sideshow with silly shenanigans and things of that nature.

Kofi needed to break away from the group and be his own man. WWE could continue the New Day without him, in terms of Xavier Woods and Big E. A plan would had been easy to execute. Kofi would be ousted from the group out of jealousy from Big E. and Xavier Woods. A simple 101 storyline that would put Kofi over more so as WWE Champion, a singles competitor and break away that "New Day" stigma.

The second issue comes with challengers. Kofi has faced Dolph Ziggler and defeated him on several occasions. Great job on his part, but Dolph is not the same leveled performer or threat that he used to be.

Kevin Owens is benefitting from his current push in his new role as the anti-babyface, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin type of role. When he turned heel and feuded with Kofi over the WWE Championship before, he lacked motivation and it made Kofi look bad on his part. Kofi did his job and defended the title well, but no growth was shown.

Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler

Samoa Joe was his most recent challenge and that was his toughest challenge to date. Kofi triumphed over Samoa Joe at Extreme Rules, dodged the Brock Lesnar bullet with his cash in on Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship, and will go on to likely challenge Randy Orton at SummerSlam.

Orton is the most established and credible challenger Kofi Kingston has had. They have a history that dates back to 2010, when Kofi's initial push came at a time where he was still under the learning tree and made mistakes. Clearly, he wasn't ready and Orton let him know about it at the time.

Now, Kofi is ready. Orton is ready to take back the WWE Championship. Kofi Kingston has yet to live up to his fullest potential due to lack of credible challengers and the association with The New Day. After SummerSlam, I may have a change of opinion. For now, in conclusion, I have to say Kofi Kingston has disappointed me as a WWE Champion to date.

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