Add as a preferred source on Google Bryan Danielson still has a very negative feeling about the end of Kofi Kingston’s reign as WWE Champion.
Speaking with The Ringer, Danielson looked back on “KofiMania” and pointed to Kingston’s win over him at WrestleMania 35 as his favorite moment from his entire WWE run. That night, Kingston defeated Daniel Bryan to win the WWE Championship for the first time in his career.
The ending of that story, however, still bothers Danielson. Months later, on the premiere episode of Friday Night SmackDown on FOX on October 4, 2019, Kingston lost to Brock Lesnar in less than 15 seconds, dropping the title after taking an F-5.
Danielson said the following:
“To me, that whole thing was magical. It was my favorite match and my favorite part of my WWE career. On the other hand, the most demoralized I ever felt was seeing him lose to Brock Lesnar the way that he did.”
Bryan Danielson comments on putting over Kofi Kingston at WrestleMania 35 only for Kofi to get squashed by Brock Lesnar at the SmackDown FOX premiere:
— NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW news (@nodqdotcom) June 14, 2026
“To me, the whole thing was magic. And you look at the live events, like the number of shows that he did for WWE, the amount of… pic.twitter.com/PBvjubKJ6x
Kingston’s loss also became one of the most criticized title reign endings in recent WWE history, especially because “KofiMania” had been built around strong fan support and The New Day’s direct involvement.
In January, Kingston himself addressed the subject on Cheap Heat, saying it was “a very weird day” and that there were several different ways the title change could have been handled. The former champion, however, stressed that his job was to deliver what the company had asked of him.
After the win, Lesnar immediately entered a feud with Cain Velasquez, who made his WWE debut alongside Rey Mysterio that same night. Kingston, meanwhile, never again challenged for a world title in a major singles storyline.