Kofi Kingston has said Stephanie McMahon “will definitely be missed” and is lucky to have gotten to know her.
He also stated that the locker room talent have “no idea” what is transpiring on the business side of WWE.
In an interview with CBS Sports’ Shakiel Mahjouri, Kofi said of the outgoing WWE co-CEO:
I’ve been so lucky to have gotten to know Stephanie very well over the past 15 years, and her passion for the industry is just undeniable.
I mean, obviously, it’s the family business, but, you know, just listening to her talk — I’m even getting goosebumps thinking about it right now — but going to different events and listening to her talk about the impacts that we’ve made as a company and just her experience going from a youth all the way to an adult, like, WWE is her life, so she means a lot.
She does so much for the company, whether a lot of it gets seen or not. She is part of the lifeblood that allows the WWE to exist, so her presence will definitely be missed for sure, but I think she’s earned the right to retire and enjoy her family life, and I’m happy for her in that sense.
He added:
So, yeah, we’ll see where things go but, like I said before, you don’t know what’s going to happen in WWE long term, so our role as Superstars remains constant.
We’re gonna go out and put on the best matches possible and tell stories in the ring and give people incredible memories, and give them reasons to come back and to invest in our product. That’s what we do regardless of what’s going on around us; we go out there and we put on a great show. So I’m looking forward to continuing to be able to continue to go out and do that on the grandest stage of them all.
When asked how this week’s rumors of a Saudi sale had affected the locker room, Kingston replied:
I mean, I think we kind of all have the same mentality. Whatever happens outside of the company is going to happen. We really have no idea what’s transpiring, but our role, again, remains the same: just go out there and put on great matches. That is the one thing, regardless of whoever’s in charge or whoever owns this or that, you know what I mean. That’s what we’re gonna do. That’s what we’re always going to do.
Later in the interview, Kingston promoted a charity initiative that he and his mother have founded named CLICK for Quality Education which provides computer equipment and library media centers in deprived areas of Ghana. He said:
I have a direct link to Ghana because my mom lives there now and obviously she’s been very connected there throughout the years…There are some kids who have never seen a computer, who have never been to a library up until the age of high school.
I think when you get into a position of celebrity, we have a social responsibility to positively impact the world and I can’t think of a better way to do that than giving kids the opportunity to succeed.
