King of the Ring winner Oba Femi is off to an impressive start to his WWE career. Since strutting his way into the Royal Rumble as the No. 1 entry in his WWE main roster debut, Femi has been a bone collector across RAW and SmackDown.
The 6-foot-6 superstar squashed Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 42, pushed former WWE Champion Cody Rhodes to his limits at Saturday Night’s Main Event and was recently crowned the 2026 King of the Ring.
It’s become apparent that the Nigerian star is destined for greatness, and WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry believes that Femi is already “equal to Roman Reigns.”
During an exclusive interview shared with Heavy, the former ECW Champion discussed the rise of Oba Femi, who he believes is the next face of WWE.
“Oba Femi could easily be the face of WWE. He already is,” Henry told Casino.org. “He’s so close; it’s just about him getting the opportunity now. That is the only thing holding him back. I would put him equal to Roman Reigns in popularity right now.”
Despite having less than a year of main roster experience, Mark Henry believes that Oba Femi is already among the most feared talents on the roster.
“He’s better than Cody Rhodes, Trick Williams, CM Punk, Drew McIntyre, all the elite older established wrestling talent. If you ask all the fans who will win out of these guys versus Oba Femi, they’ll choose him. They’ll be like, ‘Oh, uh, Oba Femi is a problem.”
Mark Henry Compares Oba Femi to Kurt Angle
GettyOba Femi is the 2026 King of the Ring
Kurt Angle, famous for winning Olympic Gold with a “broken freakin’ neck,” was one of the fastest-rising champions in WWE history.
Given his impressive amateur background, wrestling was second nature to Angle, and it didn’t take him long to thrive in WWE.
“He picked up wrestling faster than anybody in history,” Henry said of Angle. “He wrestled dark matches for a calendar year. From that year, he became one of the elite guys.”
Just 343 days after making his WWE debut, Angle defeated The Rock in a No Disqualification match at No Mercy in October 2000 to become WWE Champion.
Only seven stars had a faster track to the WWE Championship, and Henry believes Oba Femi could be on a similar trajectory.
“I think Oba’s going to write his own story. When you look at Kurt Angle, everybody knew he’d wrestled the best wrestlers in the world and had that incredible amateur background. When he finally got the opportunity to be a champion, he never looked back,” Henry told Casino.org.
“I feel like Oba’s at that point now. Look where he is and look at who he’s being in the ring with. He was in there with Cody Rhodes during John Cena’s retirement tour. Then Drew McIntyre came in and ruined it. So we never got to see the rest of the match. But Oba was kicking Cody’s ass before that happened.”
Femi has already defeated three former world champions since making his WWE debut. Plus, as Henry noted, he nearly took down WWE Champion Cody Rhodes in an exhibition match at Saturday Night’s Main Event while he was still an NXT member.
The Ruler certainly isn’t wasting time establishing himself as a main event talent.
Notably, Femi is still due for a world championship match for winning the King of the Ring tournament. So, it’s possible that, like Kurt Angle, Femi is crowned world champion less than a year after his debut.
The Ruler has arrived in WWE. World champions, beware.
Three-Time WWE Champion Says Oba Femi is “Equal to Roman Reigns”