Hollywood A-Lister and former WWE creative team writer Freddie Prinze Jr. recently took to an episode of his Wrestling with Freddie podcast from iHeart Media’s My Cultra Network and revealed that back in 2009 WWE Star Kofi Kingston was involved in a promo, which resulted in his career taking off into new heights and ultimately winning a mid-card championship.
Freddie Prinze Jr. said:
“All this happened because Kofi had this crazy scene on live television.” “Hey, maybe it was Monday Night RAW and it was the U.S. Title? But one of the NASCAR guys, and I don’t follow NASCAR, so I don’t know their names the way some of you do. So forgive me for not knowing.”
“One of these guys gave Randy Orton a NASCAR. Like an actual NASCAR race car. NASCAR. And it’s shiny and it’s got all the logos. It looks like, you know, straight out of Tom Cruise’s Days of Thunder. Maybe not with a good of hair as he had, but still, the same vibe, and it’s glistening the way they have the lights on it. And Kofi’s going just ballistic for something that happened. Forgive me, again, this is a long time ago. I can’t remember.”
“But he takes an ax. A fire axe to this NASCAR, while he’s cutting the promo. So there’s a ton of effort and breath behind it and it doesn’t sound like the standard babyface promo, or babyface trying to be a tough guy. Hell, trying? The man is holding an ax and he’s cutting holes into the hood of what looks like, and it’s clearly not, but of what looks like a two million dollar car. However much a NASCAR costs. I have no idea.”
Freddie Prinze Jr. also spoke about how that moment resulted in WWE Chairman Vince McMahon saying the New Day member is going to be a star.
Freddie Prinze Jr. said:
“And he’s like, ‘Is this what you wanted? Is that what..’ And he’s yelling every time the ax hits. And I’m watching Vince’s reactions to this and he’s just lighting up like a teenager watching it. I mean, you just see when he sees something in somebody. He’s like, ‘That’s it dammit. Yes!’ He’s just behind him all the way and then Kofi finally puts the axe through the windshield, or if you’re in England, the windscreen. I respect all cultures. And he just jumps off the car and storms off, and Vince is like, ‘Dammit. Yes!’ and, ‘this kid’s gonna be a star!”
Freddie Prinze Jr. then talked about how they started writing a storyline for Kofi Kingston to become a champion as they had a green light from WWE Chairman Vince McMahon himself.
Freddie Prinze Jr. said:
“We started writing crazy. As quick as we could, because we knew we had a green light.” “And when you work at that company, there is so much uncertainty and so much of your hard work feels like it goes to waste sometimes because you get assignments that aren’t even approved by the boss. Or maybe they were approved but just in passing, so he wasn’t really listening.”
You can check out Freddie Prinze Jr.'s comments at this link. H/T to Wrestling Inc. for transcribing the above quotes.
