Brock Lesnar squashing Kofi Kingston was planned almost immediately
Added 2023-04-29 16:00:04 +0000 UTCOne of the most controversial booking decisions over the last few years was set months ahead, per a former WWE writer.
Brock Lesnar crushed Kofi Kingston in October 2019 in the Smackdown debut on Fox, also crushing many fans. The reaction following the move, even to this day, was polarizing. Many who defended the move claimed that it was a result of an "underwhelming title reign," however, one WWE writer spoke out on Fightful Overbooked's In The Weeds, and seemed to nix that possibility.
Dave Schilling told Jeremy Lambert and Joel Pearl that the decision for Brock to squash Kofi Kingston was the plan within weeks of Kofi winning the title.
"I was there in 2019, I was on the home team on SmackDown. The thing that we were the most concerned with and most involved with was KofiMania. That was a storyline that traded on a lot of attitudes about race and ideas about who should or shouldn’t be the champion. I never felt like that storyline was disrespectful. I never felt that storyline was treated in a way where Kofi came off as a ‘token champion.’ That was a great storyline and I’m very proud of the small part I had to play in that. We can debate how it turned out in the end, when he lost to Brock Lesnar, which I found out about in April. We were talking about, ‘the plan is first SmackDown on Fox, Brock is going to come in and win the title and it’s going to be a quick match.’ That’s exactly what happened after I left. That’s the way it turned out. The writers in the room with me, were always incredibly aware of what we were doing and why it was important," said Schilling.
See the full show at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvaWk-M761E&ab_channel=FightfulOverbooked
Comments
I mean, I guess that's better In a way but still fucking awful
Gary
2023-05-01 20:04:37 +0000 UTCW name
2023-05-01 13:00:50 +0000 UTCJust because it was a long term plan doesn’t mean it was good, I also wonder how much minority representation was in those rooms
Richman
2023-04-29 19:52:10 +0000 UTCIt still bothers me to this day how he got squashed
Geo
2023-04-29 18:27:58 +0000 UTCThat squash helped me make the final decision to never waste a single precious second of my time on WWE’s garbage product again. Haven’t watched a single second of it since
Talk About Your Psalms Talk About John 3 16 Femboy 3 16 Says I Just Licked Your Ass
2023-04-29 18:13:58 +0000 UTCThat moment was memorable for me. For the wrong reasons though.
Sheila Antonio
2023-04-29 16:46:27 +0000 UTCSounds just like E. If you’re not writing for a person to have a good title reign then yeah it’ll look half assed. That’s another reason I miss the automatic rematch clause for a former champion. Some of the best fueds have been over the title, and if a former champion doesn’t make it a priority to push rematch then how will it take serious?
thaddperkins
2023-04-29 16:22:34 +0000 UTCAre you forgetting about the angle they set up seconds after the match ended? It was an effort to strap the rocket to Cain Velasquez, which obviously made it all worthwhile nope not really you’re right it sucked
patchrick
2023-04-29 16:15:01 +0000 UTCThis makes a lot of sense. Kofi wasn’t supposed to be the plan and while I’m happy they gave us KofiMania, it does look as if they didn’t want to give him a memorable title reign. All for it to end by squashing him and have Brock wrestle a mma fighter with a bum leg for 2 minutes.
Wulf
2023-04-29 16:12:45 +0000 UTCWatching the show yesterday, I was like “wait… April? That’s when WrestleMania happens…” but it also doesn’t surprise me since it seemed like a corporate decision to line up with the new network relationship. Corporations are terrible bookers
patchrick
2023-04-29 16:09:06 +0000 UTCI’m fine with kofi losing to Brock but I wish there was a bigger effort into the match.
Roku
2023-04-29 16:08:48 +0000 UTCNo wonder they put zero effort into making it a memorable reign
Jordan Lassiter
2023-04-29 16:05:45 +0000 UTC
