Kofi Kingston Beats Kevin Owens, Retains WWE Championship at Money in the Bank

Kofi Kingston defeated Kevin Owens at Money in the Bank on Sunday to retain the WWE Championship in his first defense.

In addition to the WWE title being on the line, Sunday's match was personal due to the manner in which KO betrayed Kingston and Xavier Woods a few weeks ago.

With Big E on the shelf due to injury, Kingston and Woods recruited Owens to be an honorary New Day member. Early returns were great, as they teamed to beat Cesaro, Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura in a six-man tag team match on SmackDown Live.

The Prizefighter seemed to embrace the New Day gimmick by calling himself "The Big O," eating pancakes and even taking over the pre-match announcement that Big E made famous.

Just one week after joining forces with Kingston and Woods, though, he turned his back on them by attacking the WWE champion after he picked up a win over Nakamura. KO also powerbombed Woods onto the apron to cement his return to the heel ranks.

Owens attacked Woods again the following week, but Kingston got some level of revenge by jumping KO to close the show, which sent the former universal champion running.

Before Owens turned on Kingston, the two Superstars had a bit of history. Kofi was originally scheduled to face Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship at Fastlane, but WWE Chairman Vince McMahon replaced him with KO.

Bryan went on to retain in a Triple Threat against Owens and Ali, which set the stage for Kingston to earn the right to face the then-WWE champion at WrestleMania 35.

Kingston went on to beat Bryan for the title in memorable fashion, while Owens was left off the card, which helped fuel his desire to get back at the new champ and all of New Day.

With Owens reverting to his villainous persona, he posed a legitimate threat to Kingston's title reign at Money in the Bank after just one month of holding the championship.

However, the titleholder once again managed to prevail and retain, but given the highly personal feud between them, it likely isn't the final time they will meet with the WWE Championship on the line.

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