Kofi Kingston Beats Samoa Joe, Dolph Ziggler; Retains WWE Title at Smackville

Kofi Kingston beat Samoa Joe and Dolph Ziggler in a Triple Threat match at Smackville in Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday night to retain the WWE Championship.

The finish came when Kingston pinned Joe with a Trouble in Paradise. The WWE champion was facing long odds early in the match when the Samoan Submission Machine and The Showoff formed an alliance.

WWE announced over a week ago that a previously scheduled house show would stream live on WWE Network, which allowed Kingston to make a title defense in front of a larger audience.

Ziggler and Joe were the champion's most recent pay-per-view opponents leading up to Smackville, which made them logical foils for him at the event.

Kingston beat Ziggler at WWE Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia in June and followed that up with another win over The Showoff at Stomping Grounds in a steel-cage match. Kingston faced some adversity ahead of his match against Joe at Extreme Rules, but he prevailed over the Samoan Submission Machine as well.

It would have been easy for The New Day member to look past Saturday's match since he already had an agreement in place to face Randy Orton at SummerSlam on August 11.

After The Viper pinned the WWE champ in a six-man tag team match on SmackDown Live, Kingston hand-picked Orton as his opponent. While there was immediate excitement for the match because of their history, both Joe and Ziggler wanted to play spoiler.

On Tuesday's episode of SmackDown, Kingston faced Joe in a singles match, but it was interrupted by Orton, who attempted to lay out the titleholder with an RKO.

Instead, Kingston took out both Orton and Joe with Trouble in Paradise, which gave him some momentum ahead of Smackville.

The WWE champion was an overwhelming favorite at Smackville, with his SummerSlam match essentially already set in stone, and it came as little surprise when he retained over Joe and Ziggler.

With two of his rivals out of the way, Kingston can now focus on what figures to be a big-time angle with Orton on the road to SummerSlam in Toronto.

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