WWE Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston recently spoke with the Creative Loafing Atlanta website to promote Sunday's Hell In a Cell pay-per-view. Here are some highlights:
You and the Miz are no strangers to one another in the ring. You even had a successful United States Championship defense against him and Jack Swagger at the first Hell in a Cell pay-per-view in 2009. How do you think your past experience with him will benefit you going into this Sunday's match?
Yeah, the Miz and I have feuded for the Intercontinental Championship before and for the United States Championship. I feel like this time it's a little bit different. This isn't about finesse or anything like that. It's about both of us being able to show different sides of our characters that we haven't really had the opportunity to show in the past. So I think this one's a little bit more special and we have our noses to the grindstone. We're both pretty excited about being able to showcase these different sides of ourselves.
The two of you got your main event pushes around the same time a few years ago. The Miz went on to become the WWE Champion, but you have yet to capture one of the major WWE titles. That being said, how important is it for you to retain the Intercontinental title this Sunday?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure we were gaining momentum around the same time. We're both trying to do everything we can to kick, claw and scratch our way into that main event track to the top. I think you're seeing a lot of that. As a WWE superstar, it can be frustrating sometimes because we're the best athletes in the world and we all want to be the best. Anything less than that is unsatisfying. He and I both have an opportunity to step our games up, which is kind of what we've been doing over the past couple of weeks. A lot of people have been talking about this rivalry we've had and we've really only had about two weeks to build it. I think we've both done a good job of that and I see it as an opportunity to step up and be noticed in a different way. I'm sure he's feeling the same way. So when you have two guys who are that hungry for the same thing in the ring against each other, both wanting to steel the show every night, it makes for a great match.
Where do you anticipate things going for you after Hell in a Cell?
I don't try to look too far into the future because things change so much and you have no idea what's going to happen, who's going to get hurt, what's going to get shuffled around. But Hell in a Cell is going to be an amazing pay-per-view. The Miz and I will definitely have an amazing match, but I have no idea what the future holds. All I can do is the best I can do in this moment.
