Kofi Kingston Quotes

I don't think I'd be in WWE, and I wouldn't be in NXT, if it wasn't for my time in EVOLVE and Dragon Gate USA and things like that.

I went from two-minute matches when I started with NXT to eight, to 10, to 12.

I really appreciate ROH for letting me wrestle in the United States. American fans get to see me and get to see New Japan. Ring of Honor lets us do that.

I never was in a wrestling ring before I stepped foot into a WWE ring, so I am a product of NXT.

The fact that I'm still able to wrestle on the indies and yet still do my stuff in NXT, and the fact that I wrestled in front of 15,000 people at the Barclays Center at TakeOver, and then, the following weekend, I was still doing indie shows, is wild.

When I came to NXT, it was very much a developmental brand.

In North America, there aren't too many big places to go, so you find that pretty much all of the best talent in the world ends up filtering through WWE.

Without Ring of Honor, I wouldn't be the wrestler I am or have the confidence needed to continue to grow in this ever-challenging sport.

Many people ask me about WWE and if I'd go to WWE in the future. They ask me if I'm going now. I will not go. I want to make New Japan Pro-Wrestling bigger.

Was I a fan of WWE? Yeah, of course, but I knew it was not going to be a thing for me, until NXT came to the foreground and a lot of my friends who I was competing against on the independent scene were getting signed.

I spent a lot of time wrestling at NXT. That was not seen because I was also an announcer. When you're an announcer, they try to protect you and make sure you don't get hurt or injured, or anything that would hinder you from your TV work.

I wanted to be a part of WWE and part of NXT first, as, if I went to 'Raw' or 'SmackDown' right away, I would always wonder what NXT would have been like.

Ring Of Honor was so great to me and so great to many young talents where they really give you the ball.

I trained at All Pro Wrestling in the U.S. Later, I signed up with the New Japan Pro Wrestling. Then WWE noticed me.

I kind of miss that whole NXT thing. When I was there, it was Florida Championship Wrestling with Seth Rollins and the other guys who were there. I wrestled on, like, local-access Florida TV in front of 30 people. It was a tiny little situation.

I think NXT has opened up the doors for a lot of guys to come in and create different opportunities.

In a perfect world, I'd end up at NXT.

Daniel Bryan is a guy I'd like to mix it up with at some point - Tyson Kidd, Kevin Owens. You know, we have a lot of history in NXT, and he's another guy I've known for a long time, so there's so many different options.

'Stone Cold' came in with a monster push as 'The Ringmaster' with Ted DiBiase. That didn't work out.

Bayley helped me a lot in my career, especially in NXT. I had some of my best NXT matches with her, and she definitely helped me develop as a talent, because you're just as good as the person you're in there with.

Triple H really prepares everybody for WWE in everything we do in NXT, and everything we do in the performance center is to prepare us for WWE.

I went from being a guy who was sparingly being used on television to being the World Heavyweight Champion and the focus of a lot of the storylines on Smackdown.

If I do make WWE - because in my head, until it's official, it's not a thing - I think if they brought me in, it would be very short lived at NXT, and I'd be on main roster extremely quick.

I talk about Hulk Hogan being in my corner back in the day... Back in the day, if it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, I don't know if Booker T and Stevie Ray would've gotten the push that we got.

I think all The Shield boys will tell you we hold The Shield very dear to our hearts. That was our vehicle to where we are now, and to get out of developmental and out of that hot Tampa warehouse.