Kingston On Having More Creative Freedom in WWE, Social Media Changing Wrestling

Speaking with Muscle & Fitness for a recent interview, Kofi Kingston talked about his position in WWE and the effect of social media on wrestling. Kingston was asked about how wrestling has changed over the years and pointed at the advent of social media as a big factor. You can check out highlights and the full video below: 

On how social media has changed wrestling: “So this a very special time too, in terms of like, social media, where people have a lot of access to WWE superstars. The ’80s, ’90s, you didn’t have that. You didn’t know what Shawn Michaels did off-camera, you know what I’m saying? There were no cell phones,. there were no pictures, you didn’t know how people partied and went out. But now, you’re in a time where there’s this interaction where you can literally see what the people want.” 

On the expanding from wrestling to other venues: “You’d be a fool not to, especially in this day and age. And you talk about people who are visionaries. Xavier Woods with that UpUpDownDown channel. We all play video games. I was playing video games on PSP with Shelton Benjamin back in 2008 and a whole bunch of guys. We were all playing Madden, we’re all playing PSP. Nobody had the vision to bring it to the people. Xavier Woods did.” 

On if his social media is monitored by WWE: “No, no, definitely not. At one point, it kind of was. But then people kind of have — social media is great because you can control where you want your character to go. A lot of times on television, you don’t have control over where storylines are going to go. But you can control what you sound like on social media.” 

On his relationship with Vince McMahon and having the freedom to tweak what he’s given: “I think that it’s just a matter of being able to go out and have a good performance and then the crowd reacts to you. And then all of a sudden, people will leave you alone to your own devices because they trust you. So we earned that trust with Vince.” 

On if it bothers the writers that talent like him has more creative freedom to interpret what they’re given: “If the character that somebody writes is not getting over, for lack of a better term, with the crowd, then it’s gonna be on us. Nobody is gonna say, ‘Oh, the writer didn’t write that correctly.’ So we take a lot of pride in going out and living and dying on our swords.”