Kofi Kingston Says The Brand Split Has Already Caused Competition In WWE

Kofi Kingston is in front of thousands trying to one-up his own tag team partners each week, so he knows how important competition is.

With Raw and Smackdown splitting rosters in half during last month’s WWE Draft, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon was hoping it would cause competition among his own brands. Current WWE Tag Team Champion Kofi Kingston thinks much of the same, and when speaking to Channel Guide Magazine, said that it’s something that has been absent from WWE in recent years. 

“For the SmackDown brand to be live, which it hasn’t been for a while regularly, the guys on that show see it as a chance to dethrone Raw as the flagship show. So us on the Raw side, we see this as a chance to keep up with ourselves and prove ourselves. We don’t want to relinquish the throne. So it’s instant competition with the brand extensions. That has been kind of missing within WWE over the past few years. There is no competition.” said Kofi.

According to Kingston, McMahon’s idea of creating that competition has already taken place. He noted changes to the set, announce table and other aspects in which the shows are trying to differentiate themselves.

“Now with Raw and SmackDown, we have created a competition within ourselves. It really provides for an amazing product because we want to be the best on the Raw side, and they want to be the best on the SmackDown side,” said Kingston. “It provides for a great time for the WWE Universe. It’s been awesome so far. Raw has changed its look with a new set. It’s weird now seeing the announce table out of the arena and by the ramp. There are these little things that when you look at each show it has a different feel, and that’s good.”

Kingston will team with Xavier Woods to defend their WWE Tag Team Championships at WWE Summerslam on August 21.