Kofi Kingston vs. Daniel Bryan Finally Set for WWE WrestleMania 35

At SmackDown Live on Tuesday, it was finally announced that Kofi Kingston will face Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35.

In order to earn the trip, the other members of New Day had to win a tag team Gauntlet match against Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev, The Bar, The Usos and finally Bryan and Rowan: 

It looked as though Kingston was destined to clinch his place in the WrestleMania title match on the March 19 edition of SmackDown Live when he beat Sheamus, Cesaro, Rowan, Samoa Joe and Randy Orton in a Gauntlet match that lasted an hour.

Instead, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon added Bryan to the bout, and an exhausted Kingston was unable to pull out another win.

McMahon had told Kingston the previous week that while he didn't feel he deserved a title match against Bryan, he would grant him one if he won the Gauntlet. The Chairman went back on his word by adding the WWE champion to the bout, and that didn't sit well with the New Day man's supporters.

In addition to the bevy of Superstars who gathered backstage to watch Kingston win the Gauntlet only to get screwed over, his New Day partners, Big E and Xavier Woods, were furious over what happened.

Immediately after Kingston's disappointment, WWE posted a locker room video in which Big E and Woods suggested they should quit. Despite everything that transpired, their teammate rejected the idea.

It was far from the first time McMahon took an opportunity away from Kingston, as he previously forced the 37-year-old out of his scheduled WWE Championship match against Bryan at Fastlane. McMahon replaced him with Kevin Owens and even added Mustafa Ali to make it a Triple Threat.

Kingston was never supposed to be part of the WWE Championship scene, but he was added to the Elimination Chamber match when Ali was unable to compete because of injury. The New Day member lasted an hour in a Gauntlet match prior to the Chamber, and in the Elimination Chamber match, he and Bryan were the final two participants.

Kingston fell just short in losing to the champion at Elimination Chamber, but it was clear that he was the fans' choice to face Bryan at WrestleMania on April 7.

Even so, the WWE chairman went to great lengths to prevent it from happening. Not only did that provide shades of the Mr. McMahon character from years past, but it also was reminiscent of Bryan's own road to WrestleMania 30.

Just as Bryan eventually got his shot to become world champion then, Kingston will have that same opportunity five years later, and it has the potential to be one of the most special and memorable moments in WrestleMania history.

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