The 11-year journey of WWE Superstar Kofi Kingston has been one of the major focal points long this year’s road to WrestleMania, and one of the defining moments of that program has been an in-ring segment involving WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and all three members of Kingston’s New Day faction.

During a back-and-forth exchange on Smackdown Live, Kingston made it clear to Mr. McMahon that “people like us” do not headline WrestleMania for world championships — a clearly divisive phrase that has sparked a lot of conversation on both sides of the argument over the past few weeks.

The #1 contender to the WWE Championship recently sat down with Busted Open Radio to discuss the promo segment ahed of his huge title match at WrestleMania, and Kingston had a lot to say about the topic.

“We left it open-ended for a reason. It means a lot of different things. For example, myself, I wear pigtails in the ring. I wear pink. I skip. I clap. I twerk. You know what I mean? You don’t see somebody like that in the main event scene. There’s obviously an element of race concerned in it, right? You haven’t seen many African-American champions hold major titles. So that is definitely a big piece of it. I think what’s awesome about this whole storyline is that so many people can identify with it. Whether it be people who are — like black children who are looking at the screen, and they see black men doing excellent things, and excelling, and now they believe that they can do excellent things. That’s a huge part of what we do, and it’s a huge element of pride that we take in being able to be that beacon of hope. But also, from that perspective that kind of transcends race, is the fact this is a legitimate 11-year journey. It’s an 11-year grind. People like us, people who work as hard as they possibly can, who are told “no” — even before I became a WWE Superstar, I was told I wasn’t going to make it because I’m not big enough. I wasn’t strong enough. And here we are… ‘People like us’ involves everybody who has struggled. Everybody who has had a difficult time getting to where they want to be.”

"It's everybody who has struggled."

A lot has been made of the phrase "people like us" when it comes to the #KofiMania story heading into #WrestleMania but @TrueKofi says it was left open ended for a reason. pic.twitter.com/pDO5IobfIF

— SiriusXM Busted Open (@BustedOpenRadio) April 4, 2019