Kofi Kingston’s Wrestlemania Win Is Bigger than Wrestling

It was great to watch Kofi Kingston win the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania, but it's a bigger moment than some realize.

Heading into Wrestlemania, so many WWE fans jumped on the bandwagon. Wrestlemania this year was nicknamed "Kofimania," because so many fans wanted to see the 11-year veteran challenge one-on-one for the WWE Championship for the first time in his career. Obviously, he was triumphant and is now the new champ.

But it's more than a storyline. It's more than a great Wrestlemania moment. Kofi's win is big amongst the black community.

There have only been two black WWE heavyweight champions in history, and Kofi will be the first since Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

There was a meme that was making the rounds of a man who tweeted a photo of his son holding a toy WWE Championship belt. The tweet said that his son was so thrilled for the win and saying that he was Kofi.

It's been a big couple of years for young black boys. When I grew up there were no prominent black superheroes. You could find them if you dug deep into the comic books, but none were well known and popular. Now in the last year, we've had both Miles Morales, a young black boy playing Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. We also obviously had King T'Challa, the title character in Black Panther.

Now as young black WWE fans tune in every week they can find themselves a new hero. They'll find a hero that beat all odds to reach the top of the company. They'll see a champion who looks just like them.

Here's hoping Kofi has a sizeable title run and can continue to be a strong hero and role model for all the little boys looking for someone to look up to.