WWE Stomping Grounds take place this Sunday. The show features a Steel Cage match between WWE Champion, Kofi Kingston, and rival, Dolph Ziggler.
In an interview with Gamespot, Kofi spoke highly of his opponent. He called Dolph one of his favorite opponents before estimating that they have had around 500 matches together during their time in WWE.
Despite their familiarity with one another, Kingston claims that things have escalated now the WWE Championship is involved.
“Dolph is one of my favorite opponents, and I almost forgot how much I enjoyed competing against him,” Kingston said. “Over the past few weeks, I’ve been able to do so on some of the live events, and back in 2000, I think it was 2009 all the way through 2010, we wrestled each other every single week on Raw and Smackdown, and all the live events; probably a good 500 times. Now we get to go out and do it again after our careers have both gone in different directions, and now we come back and do it again for the WWE Championship, like that’s really what it’s all about.”
“We Were Guys Who Were Underrated”
The two have battled one another through the years and the ranks in WWE, often vying for different championship accolades. Kofi likens their feud with a legendary rivalry: Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels.
“Back in the day, you had Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart going at it for the Intercontinental Championship, and then years, later they were doing the same thing for the WWE title as well,” Kingston continued.
“Not to put ourselves on the same level as those legends, but that’s really the way I like to think about it is, we were guys who were underrated, undersized, underappreciated, underused, undervalued, and somehow, someway we’ve been able to stay at it and for the past decade, and still be at the top of the game.”
Kingston explains that their story goes deeper than just the physicality of the cage match, saying “[…] It’s the whole journey that we’ve been through over the past decade of trying to get to this point, and now we can finally do it in the steel cage at Stomping Grounds, it’s going to be awesome. It’s going to be a war between us, but from a performer’s perspective I can’t wait, I can’t wait. I feel like we bring out the best in each other, and the real winners are going to be the fans that get to witness us go at it toe-to-toe, so I’m pretty excited about it.”
Stomping Grounds takes place this Sunday from the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington.
