photo credit: THQ.com

Unlike the Kitana-costume-donning AJ Lee, whose 10 most beloved video games were featured on Monday, Kofi Kingston hasn’t made any big shout-outs to gaming culture on WWE programming. But much like Lee, Kingston is dedicated to the medium and was totally down to write and rank his favorite games before doing a countdown interview a while back. “The top 10 list is a big deal, so you didn’t have to ask me twice,” says the resident king of resourceful Royal Rumble spots.

Kingston’s life with video games began with the 1987 Commodore 64 title Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior. As a console player, he’s run the gamut. At first, his loyalty was strictly with Nintendo (he despised Sega), but his allegiance began to wobble when the SNES version of Mortal Kombat hit and substituted blood for sweat. Later, he was a fan of the original PlayStation. When he and Zack Ryder were going through developmental together, Ryder’s mom got her son an Xbox 360. Since Ryder wasn’t really into video games, Kingston bought the barely used 360 for a song and soon became an Xbox guy. Currently, he owns all three major consoles plus, as an episode of WWE’s YouTube series Superstar Toyz indicated, a 125-games-in-one arcade cabinet. “I guess that’d be pretty hardcore if you had to put a tag on it,” he says.

As of this writing, Kingston has disappointingly been given nothing to do for WrestleMania 29 on Sunday. If he doesn’t get a last-minute slot, this will mark the first WrestleMania without a Kofi match on the card since he debuted in WWE in 2008. Seeing as how he could especially use some love right now, let’s hand off the reins to everyone’s favorite ex-Jamaican to hear his ballot.

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photo credit: WWE.com

For anyone who has harbored skepticism about the earnestness of AJ Lee’s love for video games (a medium that the Diva has repeatedly raved about), the October 31, 2011 edition of Monday Night Raw busted the hell out of that myth. During a Halloween-themed Divas battle royal, Lee hit the ring as the spitting image of Kitana from Mortal Kombat. Witnessing someone dressed up as the Princess of Edenia of all characters on WWE programming was surreal in itself, but the true coup de grâce to the skeptics was when Lee broke out a Fan Lift at the beginning of the match. Disappointingly, “Kitana wins” would not be uttered that night (Eve, who went as Robin, won), but it still was the most loving shout-out to the gaming faithful on Raw since John Cena did that Punch-Out!!-themed promo in 2010.

The New Jersey native born April Jeanette Mendez originally got into gaming as a child via her brother. The first game she played was either Super Mario Bros. or Excitebike, but as she seriously fell for the hobby later on, she became loyal to the PlayStation. “I was so obsessed with it. Now, I have an Xbox and I love that, so I can’t pick one or the other. They’re both really, really cool,” she says. “Growing up, I was like, ‘Ah, screw Xbox,’ which is terrible because I’m obsessed with it now.”

As of now, Lee’s plans for WrestleMania 29 on Sunday, April 7 involve scheming alongside Dolph Ziggler and newly crowned Twitter demigod Big E Langston when they face against Team Hell No for the tag titles, but hey, a Divas Championship match could always fall out of the sky. Way before the big show, we had a chance to speak with the ex-General Manager of Raw about her 10 most beloved vidja games. Not only was Lee up for the challenge, but she compiled the whole list before the call and put them in order. That’s dedication. (Also, check this space again shortly for another similarly gaming-informed WWE talent dropping knowledge about his favorites.)

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Swing your arms from side to side, come on, it’s time to go, do the Marion!

The Dallas Mavericks have gotten really into uploading wacky videos to their YouTube channel, and Super Marion Bros. (starring Shawn Marion as … well, you figured it out) is the best one yet. It makes me want to register BasketballGameFAQS.com. It also makes me wonder what Shawn Warion looks like. (via The NBA Mistress)

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Links

10 Of The Coolest Musicians To Guest Star On An Animated Show |UPROXX|

Vince Gilligan Offers 9 Clues On The Ending Of ‘Breaking Bad’ |Warming Glow|

Drunk kid from Twilight pees all over airport |Film Drunk|

The Hit Heard ‘Round The World: The Internet Sure Does Love Jadeveon Clowney |With Leather|

Playboy Playmate Crystal McCahill Shares Pictures From The ‘Sin City 2′ Set |Gamma Squad|

8 Realistic Expectations For Eminem’s 8th Album |Smoking Section|

20 Great Reasons to Hate the Redskins |Kissing Suzy Kolber|

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Links

NBC ‘Fixes’ Schedule by Removing ‘Community’ - I can’t wait for them to cancel ‘Parks and Recreation’ to replace it with something stupid about a single woman in the big city trying to balance a relationship and a career. [Warming Glow]

Six Seasons And A Movie: The Stages Of ‘Community’ Grief On The Internet - I’ve been at “not cool, not cool, not cool” all day, but I’m getting pretty close to one of those Annie screaming gifs. [UPROXX]

This Shirt Is So Streets Behind - Former Best and Worst of Raw column fill-in Andrew Johnson starts writing about a dumb new WWE shirt and ends up ranting about Community. This is what NBC is doing to us, people. [The John Report]

Depression Sets In II: 5 Songs Describing The NBA Lockout - To continue the theme of depression, basketball is gone forever. What’s next, is God going to cancel cupcakes? [Smoking Section]

The Best And Worst Of WWE Raw 11/14: Raw Gets Rocked - To continue the theme of depression, I had to watch three hours of The Rock trying to make things Twitter. If you haven’t read and commented yet, come on, go do that, would you? [With Leather]

The 10 Most Disgraceful Moments In MMA History - It must be horrible to be Kimbo Slice, fighting for a living but knowing deep down you couldn’t win a fight unless a helpless white guy was taking a dive. I could probably beat up Kimbo Slice. [Cage Potato]

Wear Your Nerditry With The DC Comics Collection By Converse - Not since the Portman-Kunis soccer jersey have I wanted a piece of clothing on the Internet as much as I want those Riddler shoes. Holy sh*t. [Gamma Squad]

Fake Anything Is Readying An Ad Campaign For All Of Your Inside Jokes - The fake Seinfeld movie posters are amazing. [UPROXX]

Twihards: Still Crazy After All These Years - The last Twilight movie should be full of guts and hardcore nudity and make us feel like assholes for not supporting it for the last five-or-whatever years. [Film Drunk]

The 10 Best Heavy D Videos - Also known as “every Heavy D video”, because every Heavy D video is the best. [Popcrush]

9 Athletes Who Are Way More Religious Than Tim Tebow - He’s not really that religious, he just prays a lot and hates abortions. He’s about as religious as the people in my family who never actually go to church. [The Smoking Jacket]

The Coolest 8-Bit Subway Station in the World - Why does this have to be so far away? [Unreality]

AHHH MR. FREEZE IS HERE I GET TO FIGHT MR. FREEZE

AHHHH I GOT THE GRAPNEL BOOST NOW I CAN BATMAN AROUND TOWN

AHHHHHHHHH

Links

The 10 Finest Celebrity Teenage Mutant Ninja Noses - I don’t know if I hate this or if I love it, so click over and decide for yourself. And while we’re at it, ears sorta look like Foot Soldier heads. [UPROXX]

FilmDrunk’s Guide to Oscar Season - It’s going to be really depressing when The Help wins everything. No movie wherein “MMM MMM I LOVES ME SOME FRIED CHICKEN” is said without irony should be considered for major awards in 2011. [Film Drunk]

YES: Carla Gugino Joins ‘Justified’! (Bonus: Gratuitous Carla Gugino Gallery) - From a Kevin Arnold love interest to a Zack Morris love interest to a The Comedian love interest, Carla Gugino has been sexy and awesome for at least 20 years. At least. [Warming Glow]

The Best And Worst of WWE Raw 10/17: El Mejor Y Peor - Don’t forget to read and comment on this. It’s right below you! It’s the one with pictures of muscly girls in their underpants! [With Leather]

Soulja Boy Arrested For Weed, Releases Movie All In One Day - Tomorrow when he wakes up, he should take a look at himself in the mirror and ask, “What’s up?” [Smoking Section]

Mo’ Worlds, Mo’ Problems: Future World, Fifth World and Ancient History Problems - C-A-R, P-A, T-H-I-A, no info for the, D-E-A. [Gamma Squad]

Selena Gomez Gets Her Gangsta’ On - I want your life, Justin Bieber. I want it. I will use my Genesis Machine to steal your youth. [Buzzfeed]

Is This the Best or Worst Movie Costume in History? - The worst. THE WORST. [Moviefone]

Adult Swim’s Oddities of Stop Motion - This is honestly a really cool list, and one that makes me wish more Internet top tens or whatever attempted objectivity. [Adult Swim]

Cannot Be Unseen of the Day - The best news about America in at least a few years. [The Daily What]

5 TV Characters That Prove You Don’t Have to Be “Manly” to Be an Awesome Man - Crush girls now. Couldn’t last year. Oh you like me now? Well that’s weird. [Pajiba]

An Amazing Super Mario Bros. Wedding Invitiation - My friends Randy and Jenny just got married using Scott Pilgrim-themed invitations just like this. I hope the “Congratulations! You Chose Vegan!!!” card graphic is just Toad shrugging his shoulders. [Unreality]

Yesterday was a strong day of traffic at With Leather thanks to an appearance by Kate Upton playing baseball in little shorts. Unfortunately, Kate spent her Monday evening chilling out, eating celery sticks or whatever and watching the Home Run Derby on the 2,000 inch flatscreen in [insert billionaire rapper industrialist here]‘s private jet, so we don’t have another gallery. However, the Internet doesn’t work in real time and these pictures are great even if you’ve flipped through them already, so support your local website and pretend like you had no idea who she was until you clicked the following link.

Thank you for your patronage.

Sports

Kate Upton, Erin Andrews, and the Best of the MLB Celebrity Softball Game - What’s weirder, how less hot Erin Andrews becomes when she’s standing beside Kate Upton and Jennie Finch, or Andy from “Parks and Recreation” without facial hair? Dude looks like a thick Stephen Dorff, I don’t know if I can handle it. Also, couldn’t somebody drag Aubrey Plaza to this thing? I want to see her swing a bat. |With Leather|

NBA Lockout Report: Paul Pierce, High Stakes Poker Player - Hopefully Pierce has linked his PSN to the Rockstar Social Club and obtained the Gentleman’s Attire, allowing him to get into the high stakes poker games at Blackwater Hotel. To make this joke even better, Pierce should change into his Miami Heat outfit before the next game so LeBron and Wade won’t show aggression toward him until he tries to score. |Smoking Section|

Today’s 25 Most Successful Comedy Actors by Winning Percentage - Winning percentage is a sports thing! But it’s pretty unfair to start Danny McBride at Pineapple Express, considering how awesome he was in All the Real Girls. “I know that albóndiga is meatball soup. Uh, dios is…” |Pajiba|

K-Swiss Kenny Powers Ad Campaign - Speaking of Danny McBride, I realized the other day that I’ve inadvertently collected nearly his entire filmography. The Foot Fist Way, Observe and Report, Up in the Air, Hot Rod, All the Real Girls … I just need to justify owning a copy of Land of the Lost and I’m set. Hey, I hear they put a bunch of adult situations into a thing meant for kids. LOL! |Warming Glow|

Not Sports

Marine Asks Mila Kunis to Marine Corps Ball, She Accepts - I like to think Mila Kunis in real life is just her character in Black Swan, young and beautiful and passionately perfect at everything. Oh, and also when I’m having sex with her backstage I get to freak out and pretend she’s Natalie Portman. Mila Kunis is awesome. |Film Drunk|

New Rebecca Black Single Dropping Soon. You’ve Been Warned - It’s gonna be hilarious to see the Internet justify their “meh, underwhelmed” and “sophomore slump” talking points about a girl they only supported because she was terrible. I hope the new song is like, Lady Gaga “Monster” good and blows us out of the water. That’s the only way this can work. |UPROXX|

Nerd Beats Super Mario Bros. with Lowest Score Possible - A testament to how good this game is: 30 years later we’re still finding ways to play it. This is still nowhere near as funny as Hamid’s Super Mario Bros. speed run.|Topless Robot|

The Best of Wonder Woman Cosplay - Gonna use this to try out my “the rest of Uproxx” headline. Best of Wonder Woman Cosplay? Best of Wonder Woman Cosplay. Hey, that’s fun! |Gamma Squad|