Childhood & Early Life
Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie-Mensah was born on August 14, 1981, in Kumasi, Ghana, to Elizabeth and Kwasi Sarkodie-Mensah. He has a brother named Kwame and his sister Nana Akua passed away in 2015.
His family moved to the US when he was young. He attended ‘Winchester High School,’ Massachusetts. He received his degree in communication from ‘Boston College.’
Ever since he was a kid, he wanted to wrestle. So he gave up his corporate job to follow his dream.
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Career
He made his wrestling debut in 2006, when he faced Tony Omega on February 24 at ‘Chaotic Wrestling.’ Next, he faced Evan Siks on June 4 for the ‘PWF Mayhem Heavyweight Championship.’
He had a tryout at his wrestling school in Boston where some of the WWE producers were present. They liked his performance and invited him to Atlanta to wrestle in ‘Deep South Wrestling’ (DSW). In September 2006, he signed a contract with WWE and was assigned to DSW. His first match as ‘Kofi Nahaje Kingston’ was against Montel Vontavious Porter on September 21.
Till early 2007, he was with DSW and ‘Ohio Valley Wrestling’ (OVW), where he was part of a tag team with Harry Smith. In late-2007, he was placed in the WWE roster, and fought two matches against Charlie Haas and Trevor Murdoch.
In June 2007, at the ‘Florida Championship Wrestling,’ he teamed up with Eric Pérez against Keith Walker and Rycklon Stephens. He worked there till the end of the year.
On January 22, 2008, he debuted at ECW and won against David Owen in Charlottesville. Mark Henry eliminated him at ‘WrestleMania XXIV’ pre-show. He fought a match against Shelton Benjamin in April 2008, where he was defeated. However, he won against Benjamin in an ‘Extreme Rules’ match in June.
In 2008, as a member of the Raw roster, Kofi Kingston defeated Chris Jericho for the ‘Intercontinental Championship.’ He held the championship until ‘SummerSlam,’ where he and Mickie James lost their championships to Beth Phoenix and Santino Marella in a tag team match.
On the October 27, 2008, Raw episode, CM Punk and Kingston won the ‘World Tag Team Championship.’ The duo lost the championship to John Morrison and The Miz in December that year.
Kofi Kingston defeated Chris Jericho and earned a spot in the ‘Money in the Bank ladder match’ at ‘WrestleMania XXV.’ He defeated Montel Vontavious Porter on June 1, 2009 and won the ‘US Championship.’ After successfully defending the title for several months, he eventually lost the championship to The Miz on the December 13th episode of Raw.
Meanwhile, on the October 12, 2009, episode of Raw, he qualified to wrestle for Team Raw at ‘WWE Bragging Rights’ after defeating Evan Bourne. However, Team Raw lost the match. He then led his ‘Survivor Series’ team to victory against Orton's team.
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Kofi and Orton wrestled at TLC, where he lost the match. On the January 4, 2010 Raw episode, he was once again defeated by Orton. On February 1 Raw, he won a match by defeating the Big Show and advanced to the ‘WWE Championship Elimination Chamber’ match. However, he failed to win the match. On February 22 Raw, he teamed up with Yoshi Tatsu and Evan Bourne, and won against Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, and Ted DiBiase in a six-man tag team match.
On the March 22, 2010, episode of Raw, he defeated Vladimir Kozlov to qualify for the ‘Money in the Bank’ ladder match at ‘WrestleMania XXVI,’ which he eventually lost. On April 26, he was drafted to the SmackDown brand. In his first match, he defeated Chris Jericho.
In a four-man tournament for the ‘Intercontinental Championship,’ he defeated Dolph Ziggler in the first match and Christian in the finals, and won his second ‘Intercontinental Championship’ on May 14, 2010. But due to some dispute, he was stripped off the championship soon after.
At ‘Over the Limit,’ he defeated McIntyre, and won the ‘Intercontinental Championship.’ At ‘Fatal 4 Way,’ he defended the ‘Intercontinental Championship’ against Drew McIntyre. On July 18, at ‘Money in the Bank,’ he lost the ‘SmackDown Money in the Bank’ ladder match.
On the October 15th episode of Smackdown, he defeated Drew McIntyre and earned a spot on ‘Team SmackDown’ at ‘Bragging Rights.’ His team went on to win the match.
On December 3, 2010, SmackDown, he defeated Jack Swagger, but failed to win back the ‘Intercontinental Championship.’ On January 7, 2011, SmackDown, he defeated Ziggler to become the Intercontinental champion once again.
On March 25, 2011, SmackDown, Kofi Kingston lost the ‘Intercontinental Championship’ to Wade Barrett. However, on the April 1st episode of SmackDown, he won a match against Barrett. On April 26, 2011, he was sent to the Raw brand. On May 1, he defeated Sheamus in a ‘Tables Match’ and won his second ‘US Championship.’
In the May 9th episode of Raw, he successfully defended his championship against Jack Swagger. However, at ‘WWE Capitol Punishment,’ he lost the title to Ziggler.
On August 22, 2011, Raw, he won the ‘WWE Tag Team Championship’ with Evan Bourne by defeating David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty. On April 30, 2012, Raw, he and R-Truth defeated Primo and Epico to win the ‘WWE Tag Team Championship.’ At ‘Over the Limit,’ he and R-Truth defended the title against Ziggler and Swagger.
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At the 2012, ‘Money in the Bank,’ he and Truth defeated Hunico and Camacho. In the subsequent episode of Raw, they defended their ‘WWE Tag Team Championship’ against ‘Prime Time Players.’
At ‘SummerSlam,’ they defeated ‘Prime Time Players’ and retained their ‘WWE Tag Team Championship.’ At ‘Night of Champions,’ they lost the ‘Tag Team Championship’ title to the team of Daniel Bryan and Kane. After a series of defeats, the team of Truth and Kingston was disbanded.
In October 2012, Kingston defeated Miz twice, and won the ‘Intercontinental Championship.’ On SmackDown that month, he defeated Damien Sandow to retain the ‘Intercontinental Championship.’
At TLC, he defended his title against Barrett. On December 31, Raw, he lost the ‘Intercontinental Championship’ to Barrett. On April 12, 2014, SmackDown, he defeated Antonio Cesaro. On Raw, he defeated Cesaro to win his third ‘US Championship.’
On May 19, 2014, he lost the ‘US Championship’ to Dean Ambrose. On the August 5th episode of Raw, he defeated Fandango. On September 6 SmackDown, he defeated Curtis Axel.
At ‘Extreme Rules,’ he and Big E defeated Tyson Kidd and Cesaro to win the ‘WWE Tag Team Championship.’ Kingston entered the ‘Royal Rumble’ match for ‘WWE World Heavyweight Championship,’ but was eliminated by Chris Jericho. In 2016, Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Big E (the New Day) became the longest-reigning ‘WWE Tag Team Champions’ in the history of WWE.
Along with his ‘New Day’ members Big E and Xavier Woods, he published ‘The Book of Booty: Shake It. Love It. Never Be It’ in 2017.
In January 2018, at the ‘Royal Rumble,’ Kingston entered the match as the 16th entrant, but was eliminated by Andrade "Cien" Almas.
Kingston was selected as a replacement for Mustafa Ali, who was suffering from an injury, for an episode of SmackDown Live in February 2019.
