2008:
- Kofi Kingston Vs Chris Jericho – Night of Champions 2008 – 2 ¼* - Within 6 months of debuting on WWE television, Kofi was one of the most over baby faces and was placed in a match against Chris Jericho for his Intercontinental Championship, and in surprisingly fashion actually won the championship – showing WWE have faith in him being a big star.
- CM Punk & Kofi Kingston Vs Legacy (Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes) - Raw 27/10/2008 – Kofi was so liked by WWE officials backstage that they partnered him with his ‘road wife’ CM Punk and gave them an opportunity to become WWE Tag Team Champions against Legacy.
2009:
- Team Kofi (Kofi Kingston, Christian, Mark Henry, Montel Vontavious Porter & R-Truth) Vs Team Orton (Randy Orton, CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase Jr. & William Regal) – Survivor Series 2009 – 3 ¼* - Near the end of 2009 it seemed that Kofi Kingston was going to get the a big push as he was going to feud with the former WWE Champion and main event star – Randy Orton. He put on a great performance in this match as the leader for his team and it was believe that he was destined for greater opportunities. However, if you want to believe the rumours online, the story goes that his main-event push was halted and stopped after a couple botches in a match with Randy Orton, which heard him audibly, call Kofi Kingston ‘Stupid’ repeatedly.
2010:
- Kofi Kingston Vs Jack Swagger Vs Dolph Ziggler - Smackdown 30/12/2010 - I’m a sucker for this match, 3 of the main-players for Smackdown on the mid-card in 2010 and from what I remembered about this match was that it was a rematch because of the ending that happened at TLC.. which I personally loved and thought was very innovative.
2011:
2012:
2013:
- Big E Langston Vs Seth Rollins - NXT 09/01/2013 - Big E was a ‘big’ player in NXT back in the day, he had a fun gimmick which was to get the count of 5, instead of 3 during a pin. He would dethrone Rollins as the NXT Champion thus ending his reign.
- Big E Langston Vs CM Punk - Smackdown 18/10/2013 – This would be one of Big E’s first real opportunities to face a main-event star without any screwy finish – and overall it was just a fun match for this new up-and-comer.
2014:
- The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E) Vs Goldust & Stardust – TLC 2014 – 2* - This was the first PPV match for the newly formed ‘New Day’ who came in as ‘happy-go-lucky’ faces, that the crowd was not really getting around at all.
2015:
- The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E) Vs Cesaro & Tyson Kidd – Payback 2015 – 3 ½* - Much like New Day’s future feuds, this was their first real feud against former Tag Team champions and I think they worked really well together – it’s a shame that Tyson Kidd would get injured two months after this (and potentially put an end to his in-ring career) because it would’ve been fun to see him compete against them more, as well as I really enjoyed the partnering of him and Cesaro.
- The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) Vs Cesaro & Tyson Kidd Vs The Primetime Players (Darren Young & Titus O'Neil) Vs Diego & Fernando, Vs Lucha Dragons (Kalisto & Sin Cara) Vs Konnor & Viktor – Elimination Chamber 2015 – 3 ¼* - This would be the first ever Tag-Team Elimination Chamber, and it involved every member of a tag team, not just 1 competitor – it was quite fun and unique to see and I look forward to another Tag-Team Elimination Chamber match.
- Kofi Kingston Vs Brock Lesnar – WWE Network Special: Beast in the East – This would be one of the rare times that Brock Lesnar would compete on a WWE Show that wasn’t one of the ‘Big 4’ PPVs, and he would face Kofi Kingston in a fun 3 minute match. Yes people might see this as a ‘squash match’ but people aren’t looking at the positives, and that was that they trusted Kingston to go against one of the main event stars – Brock Lesnar.
- The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E) Vs Diego & Fernando Vs Lucha Dragons (Kalisto & Sin Cara) Vs The Primetime Players (Darren Young & Titus O'Neil) – Summerslam 2015 - 3 ¼* - The New Day would come out to bright, vibrant white and gold, playing Empire State of Mind on the trombone and they were ready to win back their WWE Tag Team Championships. This was not only a really fun match, but the start of the New Day’s historic WWE Tag Team Championship reign.
- The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E) Vs The Uso’s Vs Lucha Dragons (Kalisto & Sin Cara) – TLC 2015 – 4 ¼* - This match was ridiculously fun, you have all three of these teams in a match, throw in a whole bunch of ladders you’re going to get magic. Honestly, this match features a great spot where Kalisto does his finisher the Salida del Sol from the top of a ladder to Jimmy Uso and it’s just a perfect visual and looks like it hurts a lot.
2016:
- Chris Jericho & AJ Styles Vs The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E) – WWE Raw 07/03/2016 - This may be my favourite title defence by the New Day in their total 483 days as being WWE Tag Team Champions. The dynamic pairing of ‘Y2-AJ’ worked perfectly and it set up for one of more memorable matches from the Raw brand that year. I’m quite shocked that this match didn’t even get rated; as it was universally liked and most comments towards the match put it in the 4 stars category.
- The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) Vs The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Braun Strowman & Erick Rowan) – Battleground 2016 – 3 ¼* - I’m surprised many people don’t discuss this match when talking about The New Day’s 2016 run. I personally loved this match and expected it to have a higher rating. I really enjoyed the ‘Wyatt Compound’ segment as well. I feel like these two teams could’ve had a longer feud, and could’ve potentially put the championships on the line against the Wyatt Family.
- The New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston) Vs Cesaro & Sheamus – Roadblock: End of the Line – 3 ½* - After the New Day had passed the WWE Tag Team Championships record held by Demolition for 477 days it was almost as if they had a countdown coming for them until the would lose the championships. It would happen less than one week later when Cesaro & Sheamus would beat them at their own game and defeat them to win the championships ending the 483 Tag Team Championship reign. It was really great to see the evolution in the group from their debut in 2014 all the way until the end of their championship reign.
2017:
- The New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods) Vs The Uso’s – Summerslam 2017 – 4* - The New Day and The Uso’s feud grew over the summer period of 2017, and these teams had good matches with each other on previous PPV’s and episodes of smackdowns, and even had the segment of the year on an episode of Smackdown which involved a Rap Battle. But this match is easily one of the best matches in all the competitors careers, they were pushed on the Pre-Show for the second biggest PPV of the year, and they arguably put on one of the best matches of the night and tried to prove to people that they should’ve been put on the main show.
- The New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods) Vs The Uso’s – Hell in a Cell 2017 – 4* - The final match in perhaps the best WWE feud of 2017, between two of the greatest tag teams in WWE – The Uso’s Vs New Day was contested in the demonic structure, the Hell in a Cell. This was the opening match for the PPV, and quite frankly I think it was the best match on the show and one of the best Cell matches in recent history. I try to not be hypocritical and complain about ratings by Meltzer, but it fathoms be how the Shane/Owens match got a higher rating than this match; when this match was unquestionably much better. But whatever it’s one persons opinion.
- The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Big E & Xavier Woods) Vs The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins) – Survivor Series 2017 – 3 ¾* - Two of the biggest factions in the modern era of WWE, are finally coming together to compete against each other in a big stage of Survivor Series, to have bragging rights as to which show (and which team) was the better in WWE. This was a really fun match, and these two factions worked well against each other and this match had some great spots, highly recommend.
Honorable Mentions
I haven't done these since last year, but I feel obligated to include some of Kofi Kingston's Royal Rumble matches as he is one of the funnest parts of the Rumble finding ways to keep himself from being eliminated
Thanks for taking the time to read this list, I hope you enjoyed it. I’ll be back hopefully in the next couple of weeks/months to drop a new list – if you have a suggested era/superstar feel free to comment on this or privately message me.
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