WWE Superstar Study: Analyzing the State of Kofi Kingston's Character

The curious case of Kofi Kingston continues. 

Since debuting in the WWE in January 2008, Kingston has established himself as one of the top baby faces in all of the WWE, but his career is one that’s been highlighted by start-and-stop pushes and a four-plus year run in the mid-card scene. 

Today, we’re going to analyze exactly what is going on with Kingston and his character by taking a look at his history and where he might be headed in the not-so-distant future. 

Where He’s Been: 

On Aug. 22, 2011, Kingston and Evan Bourne defeated David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty to become the WWE Tag Team Champions, and their victory and subsequent partnership as Air Boom had many fans thinking that a rejuvenation of the tag team could be on our hands. 

For a while, that seemed to be the case. Kingston and Bourne successfully defended their titles against The Miz and R-Truth at Night of Champions and against Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger at Hell in a Cell, and there were at least glimmers of hope for tag team wrestling. 

But then Bourne got suspended for violating the WWE Talent Wellness Program last November, and a month after Bourne returned, he and Kingston dropped the WWE Tag Team Championship to Primo and Epico when it was revealed that Bourne had been suspended yet again for violating the Wellness policy. 

In an instant, the momentum that Kingston and Bourne had built up over the last half of 2011 had been completely killed, and with Bourne off of TV for another 60 days, Kingston found himself back in the singles scene to start off the new year. 

Kingston didn’t have a noteworthy singles feud upon splitting with Bourne, but he had the most memorable spot of the 2012 Royal Rumble when he did a handstand to avoid elimination, and along with Ziggler, he was one of the stars of Raw’s Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship last month. 

Unfortunately for Kingston, he was placed in those matches primarily to improve their quality, and his standout performances did not lead to any type of sustained push. 

Where He Is Now: 

As it drew closer to WrestleMania 28, the WWE (in very stereotypical fashion, I might add) placed Kingston into a temporary tag team of sorts with R-Truth, and the two even received a tag team title shot on the Feb. 27 edition of Raw. 

But the Kingston/Truth pairing proved to be nothing more than filler, and even though they teamed together on this week’s episode of Raw, it doesn’t appear that they’re going to be teaming up for the long haul. It seems as though the only real link between Truth and Kingston is that they are both members of Team Long for the GM vs. GM match at WrestleMania 28. 

While obviously not everyone is going to receive a push during WrestleMania season, Kingston has had a phenomenal few months, and it’s a bit disappointing to see him thrown into a random 12-man tag team match rather than getting a push as either a singles or tag team wrestler. 

With a limited number of spots on the WrestleMania card, however, Kingston is one of the stars who is lucky enough to get on the show, though his recent work certainly merits it. 

Where I Think He’s Headed: 

History says that Kingston’s stance in the WWE isn’t going to change much. 

Kingston has been with the company for more than four years now, but aside from his main event-caliber feud with Randy Orton in the fall of 2009, he has basically stayed in the exact same spot: the mid-card. 

He’s sort of been stuck in that position where WWE officials don’t have enough faith in him to push him to the World Title or main event scene for the long-term, but they’re not going to drop him below the mid-card, either. It’s a testament to Kingston’s reliability, but it’s also an unfortunate spot to be in. 

Kingston has spent almost his entire WWE career challenging for or holding mid-card titles, having had runs with the WWE Tag Team, United States and Intercontinental Championships. He’s done well while holding each of those titles, but there’s nothing that suggest he’s going to step into a bigger role anytime soon. 

The WWE seems afraid to pull the trigger on Kingston, and it looks like, barring something unforeseen happening, he’s going to continue to stay in that mid-card/tag team scene and put on very good matches, but not get much of a push or any real mic time. 

I’d expect Kingston to stay on Raw after this year’s WWE Draft and to remain in his current spot: stuck between a rock and a hard place. 

Where I Think He SHOULD Be Headed: 

I’d start Kingston’s rise up the card by sending him to Smackdown in the 2012 WWE Draft. 

If you look back at what happened on the blue brand in 2011, a whopping three superstars won their first World titles in the WWE that year: Christian, Mark Henry and Daniel Bryan. In other words, Smackdown is the land of opportunity. 

Because Smackdown is considered to be the WWE’s “B-Show,” it’s much easier for a superstar to step up into the World title picture on the blue brand than it is on Monday nights. This is precisely why I’d love to see Kingston relocate during the draft, whenever that happens. 

The only way that Kingston is going to improve and step up his game is if he gets an opportunity, and that’s much more likely to happen on Friday nights. You move Kingston to the blue brand, start him off in the upper mid-card, let him win a bunch of matches there and gradually work his way into the main event by the end of 2012. 

You can do this both through his in-ring work and promos, which is something that we haven’t seen too much of from Kingston in his four years with the company. 

Though I think Kingston would be a great candidate for a Money in the Bank win, I think that’s unlikely and fully expect him to make his way up the WWE ladder the old-fashioned way: hard work. 

But if the WWE isn’t willing to let Kingston do that, then it might be time to do something that the high-flying superstar has never done before: turn heel.

Note: As part of the new WWE blog, I'll be asking all of the B/R wrestling readers for questions for a new mailbag that I will post on Fridays. It will be a slideshow featuring 10-20 questions and answers on a wide range of topics. You can submit questions either through Formspring orTwitter, and the best ones will be answered in the B/R mailbag.