WrestleMania 35 - WWE Champion Daniel Bryan versus Kofi Kingston

[FunKay]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCu3p7nPqYM

This story man...

This time two months ago, this would seem ridiculous. Kofi Kingston, career midcarder/tag team specialist in a world title match at WrestleMania? Madness. And yet, here we are, and its the best thing in the company and the best built story of the whole of WrestleMania: a WrestleMania that features Batista and Kurt Angle's last matches, a WrestleMania that features Roman Reigns' first singles match since returning from leukemia and a WrestleMania that features the first ever women's main event in the show's history. And this is the hottest thing? Goddamn!

This is a testament to coherent, consequential storytelling and utterly stellar character work. The New Day have been incredible in their various roles throughout. E and Woods, desperate for their brother to get the shot he has long since deserved in their minds, and driven to show the rest of the world just how good Kofi truly is. Kofi as the weary, wounded hero. His heart has been broken a thousand times, his body a thousand more, and still he stands tall, proud, taking a stand, to just have this chance, this moment, this opportunity. And Daniel Bryan, the underrated aspect in all this. No one has been more despicable, more villainous on WWE's main roster television programming in a long, long time. He's a hypocrite, a narcissist, a holier-than-thou creep. And he's arguably the best in the world. But he's scared, because deep down, he doesn't know if he can beat Kofi one-on-one. Not this Kofi, not at this time.

Its been terrific throughout and I can't wait to see its crescendo at WrestleMania. The fact remains, it's hard to get grizzled wrestling fans to feel a real emotional connection to a story. For me personally, it's been a long time. Maybe even not since Bryan's own ascent to the main event scene have I felt this way. But by God they've done it here. This will be not only Kofi's first singles match for a world's championship, but his first singles match at a WrestleMania. It's been 11 years in the making, and I hope, nay pray, that when the dust settles, he's holding that hemp and wood up high.

Let's go Kofi...

[Y 2 Jake]

I have issues with some of the story but it's the match I want to see. Should be a good moment and I'm looking forward to how it plays out after because I don't see how Kofi has anything but a short run.

[Jack-Hammer]

Generally speaking, when you really get right down to it, there are only a small handful of matches on the card that the live crowd is truly going to be invested in, at least as far as who wins, that could make or break the show. That's not to say that there won't be other matches on the show that are entertaining, worth watching and that they'll care about, but there are a few in which the outcomes might ultimately wind up making or breaking the show and this match is one of them. For this match, I think it's fair to say that most people want to see Kofi Kingston win the WWE Championship, I think most want to see Becky Lynch tap out Ronda Rousey to win the Raw Women's Championship and they want to see Seth Rollins defeat Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship. My guess is that in at least one of these matches, the majority of fans aren't going to get what they want though it'll ultimately make for, in my opinion, a much better show overall if the fans get what they want.

For this match, I don't know if there'll be too many truly and genuinely upset if he doesn't because Daniel Bryan has done an outstanding job with his character. Yes, he's a heel that people want to see lose and get beaten up but, at the same time, he's doing such good work that fans would embrace the notion of Bryan keeping the title a while longer. After all, the Superstar Shakeup is coming about within the next few weeks, I believe, and that opens Bryan up to lots of potentially interesting challengers. Depending on which direction WWE goes at WrestleMania or in the long term with certain wrestlers, we could easily see Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns or Braun Stroman on SmackDown challenging for the WWE Championship. Maybe Bray Wyatt makes his return soon and they spend the next few months building him up as a potential challenger. Maybe Big E & Xavier Woods get opportunities as well, as part of a plan for WWE to break New Day up. Maybe the Bar breaks up and Cesaro finally gets his shot at grabbing that "brass ring". :shrug: Maybe Drew McIntyre heads over to the blue grand. My point is that if WWE decides to keep the title on Bryan, there are lots of potentially entertaining directions they can go and that's never a bad thing.

With that being said, I think it's more likely Kofi Kingston walks out of WrestleMania as WWE Champion. I think Brock Lesnar has the better chance of retaining his title against Seth Rollins because, for whatever reason that only makes sense to Vince apparently, I can easily see him keeping Raw from still having a stable main event title picture before, quite possibly, setting up a rehash of Lesnar vs. Reigns once again. :banghead: