Just Daniel Bryan, casually selling the hell out of KofiMania from the top of the Empire State Building

Does Kofi Kingston’s pursuit of the WWE championship at WrestleMania 35 need to sold at this point?

No.

But Daniel Bryan running down not only his challenger, but his partners in The New Day (including their honorary captain, Royal Rumble winner Seth Rollins), and shading the historic women’s main event, while he’s at it? That never hurts. It also reminds us that though this is very much Kofi’s story, it wouldn’t be as great without Bryan - playing a mirror version of his 2014 underdog character - as his foil.

That he did it off the cuff during a media event at the Empire State Building is just further testament to his genius.

“Do you know what you need to do to be at the top at WWE? Do you know what you need to do to get to the top? The same thing I did. You have to knock down doors. And Kofi Kingston’s been sitting there, waiting outside that door for 11 years. And Xavier Woods, no matter how smart he is? He can’t knock down that door for him. And Big E, no matter how strong he is? He can’t knock down that door for him. And all these people, who chant ‘Kofi, Kofi, Kofi’? They can’t knock down that door for him. And if he hasn’t done it after 11 years, he’s certainly not gonna do it on Sunday.

Okay, when Seth Rollins, he won the Royal Rumble, right? He should go after the best champion. And do you know who the best champion is? It’s not Brock Lesnar. It’s Daniel Bryan. That’s the match that I should’ve been in. The winner of the Royal Rumble should’ve challenged the greatest wrestler on planet Earth, which is Daniel Bryan, the WWE champion. But you know what? I get it. He’s afraid. He knows that Brock Lesnar has a problem against high-flying guys and fast guys and movement guys and all that kind of stuff. And that’s why he didn’t go against me, because we’ve wrestled each other a ton in WWE, in Ring of Honor, on the independents. And do you know what happened? I beat him nearly every single time.

Any match that I’m in, should be the main event, right? I don’t begrudge the women being in the main event because realistically, I’m going against a B+ player. If I were going against, like, the elite - the top guys in our industry, the greatest guys in WWE, then I’d be in the main event. But even the biggest Superstars in the world, Floyd Mayweather, you put him against a nobody in a boxing match, it’s just not gonna draw, right? That’s the problem - is that I’m against Kofi Kingston, and all the WWE hardcore fans, they all love Kofi Kingston because of all this time he spent in WWE. And, oh, ‘we think he really deserves it!’ Right? That word, ‘deserve’ it. Guess what? People who think that they deserve it, they don’t draw box office. That’s why I’m not in the main event. Not because I’m not good enough. Not because the women are so outlandishly good. The reason I’m not in the main event? I’m fighting a B+ player.”