Speaking in a new interview, Kofi Kingston has moved to praise his long-time rival Randy Orton.
The pair first met in a heated feud back in 2010, before reprising their rivalry during Kingston’s run with the WWE Title in 2019. The two men fought to a no contest in SummerSlam of that year, with Kingston picking up the win in a rematch at Clash of Champions.
For a time the former champions went their separate ways before locking up one more time in singles action on a recent episode of RAW, with Kingston again being victorious.
In conversation with Matty Paddock of the Daily Star, Kingston was full of praise for his adversary. The New Day member explained that while talk of ‘the best in the world’ is subjective, Orton has the ability to do so many things so well.
“The whole premise of ‘who is the best’ [is] really subjective – it’s just what you like… As far as Randy is concerned, I think he has the ability to do so many things so well. A lot of people think that because he doesn’t do a lot of moves, he’s not good, but that’s simply not true. The industry is not about the moves; it is about being able to connect with the crowd and express what you’re thinking without saying things a lot – to make people watch you. If you watch Randy move around the ring, he moves so slowly and every step has a purpose – you can’t take your eyes off him, yet he doesn’t ‘do’ anything, right? To be able to do that is an absolute talent.”
Kingston expanded further, explaining that with his experience, in his mind Orton is already a Hall of Famer.
“Now he’s the guy who has the most experience on the roster – I can’t think of anyone currently has more experience than him, so you have to respect that. He has the respect of a lot of people in a lot of different ways. He’s changed in a lot of ways, too, and I think you see that personal growth. In my mind he is already a Hall of Famer. I would never tell any of this to him as he’d never let me live any of it down! So he’ll never hear that come out of my mouth, but I can’t sit here and lie to you and say he’s not up there because he definitely is.”
Following his series of matches with Orton in 2019, Kingston lost the WWE Championship to Brock Lesnar in shocking style on SmackDown.
Speaking in a separate interview, Kingston admitted that if it was up to him the match would have gone down very differently.
Looking ahead, Kofi Kingston will face Drew McIntyre on the May 31st episode of RAW. The winner of the match will go on to face WWE Champion Bobby Lashley at Hell In A Cell.