Kofi Kingston Gives the Inside Scoop on His Most Memorable WWE Royal Rumble Spots

Regardless of where he falls in the running for the title of WWE's Mr. Royal Rumble, Kofi Kingston will be forever synonymous with the famed match concept.

The New Day star also go down as one of the greatest to never win a men's Rumble match...at least not yet.

The NXT tag team champion is set to compete in his 15th Rumble match on Saturday night, and in a majority of those contests, he has avoided elimination in the most innovative ways imaginable.

Kingston's Rumble saves have become a beloved staple of the annual Battle Royal since the unforgettable handstand that spared him an early elimination in 2012. From jumping back into the ring from the barricade to using pancakes to keep his feet from touching the floor, nothing has been off limits for him over the years.

Ahead of this year's Royal Rumble, Kingston caught up with Bleacher Report to discuss his most memorable spots, the process of coming up with them, if he's had to practice any beforehand, and more.

Check out the complete video of the interview on the next slide and read on for the highlights.

Keeping Busy on the Road to the Royal Rumble

Although Kingston's sights are firmly set on winning his first men's Rumble in San Antonio this Saturday, he's also been keeping himself both inside and outside of the ring as of late.

This week marks 15 years since he arrived on the WWE main roster as part of the now-defunct ECW brand. Since so many others were pivotal in his rise to superstardom, he feels responsible for giving back any way he can.

That has included him having a run in NXT alongside Xavier Woods and winning the NXT Tag Team Championship at Deadline on December 10.

"We were called into talent relations and they said, 'Shawn [Michaels] has a special request. He needs you in NXT,'" Kingston said. "When Shawn calls, what do you say? It's a great opportunity down there, but my childhood hero is asking me to be a part of this experience and of course I'm going to do it. For that reason and several others, it was a no-brainer. To feel that energy, it's been a long time."

Kingston noted how invigorating being a part of NXT has been, considering that the Raw and SmackDown locker rooms are far removed from the process of people trying to figure their characters out. He praised Pretty Deadly in particular for their phenomenal character work.

Additionally, he and his mother have been hard at work with the CLICK for Quality Education Foundation, a non-profit organization helping to build computer labs and libraries for junior high school students in his home country of Ghana.

"My mom and I want to provide kids with a fair shot," Kingston said. "A lot of them have to take a standardized test, and you're held to the same standard as people who have been born and raised with computers and you're expected to do just as well, but you just don't have the footing.

"We want to give them that equal footing by providing these computer labs and libraries for them just so they can reap the benefits of education we have all over the world."

How His 2012 Handstand Kicked off a Beloved Tradition

Kingston isn't the first Superstar to pull off a spectacular save in a Rumble match, but he'll definitely go down as the most memorable.

After fairly forgettable runs through the 2009-2011 editions, he decided to stand out in a major way in 2012 following the departure of John Morrison, who made the Rumble highlight reel with his awe-inspiring save the year prior.

"I think it was either that day... I know it was less than a week that I had the idea to even do it," Kingston said. "John Morrison was the guy who jumped off the apron and Spider-Man'd all the way to the barricade and jumped back to the ring. The next Rumble he was gone, he wasn't with the company anymore. I thought, 'Oh, who can fill that void? Let me slide up in there.'

"The handstand came about at that moment and at the time I hadn't done a handstand in about a decade. If you notice, when most people do a handstand, they walk the other way. I couldn't walk the other way. That was the only way I could do it. When people went nuts for it, I thought, 'All right, let's see what we can do the next year.'"

Kingston recalled how it's become a "cool thread" and a story people are excited to see every year. He's always had the mentality that he'll only use ideas that come to him organically so nothing feels forced.

"It's pretty cool to be in that spotlight where people are looking to me to deliver something unique on a pay-per-view that's been around for over 30 years," he said. "Any way you can be a staple in WWE for any reason is an impressive thing."

Crediting Everyone Involved in Each Spot and Bouncing Ideas off Hornswoggle

The more men's Rumble matches Kingston takes part in, the higher the bar is raised in terms of what people expect out of his performance.

In 2013, the 41-year-old was still a Rumble rookie and had the opportunity to keep the trend of cool saves going. That was what led to him jumping off the back of Tensai and using one of the chairs from the commentary table to hop his way back into the ring.

"For everyone else involved in the spot, I give them all the credit in the world," Kingston said. "If Tensai falls down [in 2013], I fall down, too. If Rusev falls down [in 2014] or if the Rosebuds drop me [in 2015], I fall. There's a lot that goes into them. My guy that I always used to bounce stuff off of was Hornswoggle. We always used to room and travel together."

Interestingly, sharing a hotel room with Hornswoggle was how the notion for using the chair as a pogo stick in 2013 came to be. Kingston revealed that other members of the roster will occasionally pitch potential Rumble saves to him, allowing him to take some of the pressure off himself to come up with the ideas.

Practicing Spots Ahead of Time and Why Nothing Special Was Done in 2020

The pogo-stick spot from 2013 almost had to be practiced ahead of time to ensure it was possible. Popular to contrary belief, most of Kingston's other Rumble saves are done solely in the moment because of the many factors that go into ensuring they're pulled off perfectly.

"You can't really practice it to the full extent because when you have the crowd involved and everything is live, it's a lot different," he said. "With the pogo-stick one [in 2013], I wanted to see if it was even possible to hang onto a chair and see if it could work. With the handstand one, I needed to see if I could still do a handstand. With everything else, you just hope it goes the way that you plan."

Since debuting on the main roster in January 2008, he has competed in every men's Rumble match WWE has held with the exception of 2021 due to an injury. The 2020 installment was the only one where he didn't do anything to avoid getting eliminated.

That was because of the story in that Rumble revolving entirely around Brock Lesnar, and everyone he encountered (up until Drew McIntyre) had to be disposed of quickly and easily.

"The focus [in the 2020 Rumble] was on Brock," Kingston said. "I had something on tap, but the situation didn't call for it. I know a lot of the old-school vets will come in and say, 'You have to be selfish and step on toes.'

"There is an element of that where you take time for yourself when the time is right, but we want to make sure the crowd gets the best story possible. If that involves you having to withdraw something you wanted to do, you've made that sacrifice for the crowd. At least I do. I think that's always been the mentality: If you work for it, you work for the match."

If He's Had to Scrap Any Saves and Looking to the Future

When following up on what he had planned for the 2020 men's Rumble before it was nixed and if there were any other instances of that happening over the last decade, Kingston explained that he might be saving them for a future edition.

In fact, it's possible he plans on recycling one of those spots this year unless something more sensational comes to mind.

"I may have to wait until my career is all said and done, when there's no way I can be involved in any of these Royal Rumble matches," Kingston said. "As you can imagine, it gets to be pretty difficult and far and few between."

Katana Chance, Naomi and Sol Ruca have all attempted to make names for themselves with standout showings in Battle Royals. All three women have shown unbelievable athleticism and could soon surpass some of the saves Kingston has been able to pull off based on what we've seen from them so far.

The New Day star believes the Rumble's future will be in good hands with them and anyone else interested in following in his footsteps.

"You have so many incredible athletes like Kacy Catanzaro [Katana Chance] when they did the women's Rumble a few years ago," Kingston said. "Same with Sol Ruca and the things she can do. The future is bright with NXT.

"I can't really divulge what I'm going to do or what I'm thinking about doing because I might end up using it in some way, shape or form before it's all said and done. We'll just have to keep watching and see what happens."

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Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, has specialized in sports and entertainment writing since 2010. Visit his website, WrestleRant, and subscribe to his YouTube channel for more wrestling-related content.