MVP Reflects On Celebrating Kofi Kingston’s WWE Title Win With Shad Gaspard

Kofi Kingston reached the top of the mountain at WrestleMania 35, defeating Daniel Bryan (Bryan Danielson in AEW) to win the WWE Championship. The moment was cause for celebration for many wrestling fans who had followed Kofi’s journey.

Kingston was just the second black WWE Champion in history, and the fourth black world champion in company history.

A video went viral of MVP and Shad Gaspard getting emotional watching Kofi win the title.

Speaking to Chris Van Vliet on Insight, MVP looked back at that moment with Shad.

“Well, here’s a double whammy here, right? Because Shad is no longer with us, and Shad tragically passed away. Dude, his final words, he was swimming out in Venice Beach with his son. They were at the beach, they got caught in an undertow. The lifeguard said he made it out to Shad first, and Shad told the lifeguard, ‘Go get my son.’ And Shad went under and didn’t come back up. He washed back up, I think three days later. Me and Shelton, we used to verbally beat Shad up so much. He was a big, goofy little brother. I used to tell Shad all the time, ‘Dude, I can handle you in small doses.’ But what a great guy. And I was mad at him for posting that, because I felt that was very personal, it wasn’t for everybody. But when I saw the response to it and what my response meant to other people, then I apologized to Shad, ‘I owe you an apology, man.’ And we laughed about it,” he said.

Gaspard sadly passed away in May 2020, drowning while saving his son.

MVP continued, “But race is a very touchy subject, especially in our current society, and race in wrestling has always been an issue. When you look at various companies that have been around for decades, they’ve never had an Asian champion or a Hispanic champion or a black champion, then that just comes from the mindset that existed. Because if you look like old WWF back in the day, the champion was meant to be marketed to his people. Bruno Sammartino, the Italians, other people liked him too, but the Italians came out for Bruno Sammartino. Pedro Morales, the Puerto Ricans came out. That was marketing. It was done that way. But representation matters. When you have an opportunity to see somebody on the screen that looks like you, that means something to little kids, and lots of people say, ‘Oh, well, I don’t see color.’ Well, you’re wrong for saying that, you should see color. We should celebrate our differences. Different foods, different music, our complexion is different. Don’t ignore it, let’s address it. Let’s talk about it. Let’s celebrate our differences.

“Growing up, I’m 51, I’ll be 52 in October. When I went to the toy store, there weren’t toys that look like me. If you’re a little girl my age or older, you had Barbies with blonde hair and blue eyes, they weren’t Barbies that had black curly hair or brown skin, and it matters. And what really drove that point home to me was when I took my son to see Spider-Man Multiverse, Miles Morales. And I asked him, as we were learning about the Marvel Universe and the different characters and everything, he was four, maybe five, and I asked him, ‘Which Spider Man do you like?’ He goes, ‘I like the black spider man, daddy.’ And I thought, yes, that’s cool. His costume is real cool because Peter Parker’s blue and red, but Miles Morales was black and red. I thought he was referring to the costume. And my son said, ‘No, no, no, daddy, Miles Morales, because he looks like me.’ Wow! So in that moment, wrestling has always been this beautiful space where you can celebrate your hero, but there are wrestling fans all around the world that never had a man of color with dreadlocks hold the coveted championship.

“There are little kids that love wrestling and have their heroes, and I’m not taking anything away from that, but just the fact that when you have somebody like The Rock, who’s a man of color, who I took to right away, I’m like, yeah, me and that dude. It was a moment in time, and I knew that there are little kids everywhere who love wrestling, who could look and see this guy who looks like them. And not just that, but I love Kofi. Kofi is an amazing human being. He’s an awesome husband, he’s a great dad, he’s a wonderful friend, and we were in developmental together, and we laugh about it, because when he walked in the door, I was one of the first people he saw. I was in the ring with somebody, and he had his low haircut. And I remember a little while after us, we were interacting. I told him,’ Man, you gonna be all right, man, you gonna make some money in this business.’ Early on, when we would go out on the road, I was a guy that I’m going out after the show. I want to go to the bar. I want to go to the club. Kofi wasn’t that guy. He wasn’t antisocial, he’d hang out here and there, but Kofi didn’t want to be out partying or whatnot. He was married, he had a family and he didn’t get any flack for that, we didn’t drag him over. Well, I don’t say we because I was still a rookie, but the older vets, they saw something in him, and they didn’t give him a hard time for not drinking shots and hanging out at the bar. It just wasn’t his thing. But they respected the fact that he was talented and a professional. So there were a whole bunch of emotions going on at once. To see this guy that I hold so much respect for, who’s an awesome human being, tremendously talented, and the role that he was filling. Booker T was somebody for a lot of people. But here’s a whole new generation. And it was just such a beautiful, organic moment. There was just a lot of emotion going on. And I was just proud and happy for my friend.”

Kofi held the WWE Championship for 180 days before losing it in seven seconds to Brock Lesnar.

Fans can watch the full interview with MVP in the video below.