Hailing from the tropical climate of the Caribbean Sea, Jamaican Superstar Kofi Kingston brings unique in-ring abilities, style and lingo to Raw.
For weeks, WWE fans were offered a glimpse into Kingston’s Island paradise where the vibrant Superstar took troublesome matters into his own capable hands. Mixing it up with his lightning quick arsenal while maintaining his bright, amiable smile, Kofi undoubtedly made ECW his own private island of the Extreme.
Kofi has engaged in a series matches against Shelton Benjamin as of late. Although he had done incredibly well in them, Benjamin is responsible for giving Kingston's his first loss in WWE. Rather than slowing him down, this has only inspired Kofi to work harder and do ever better in the future.
The day after defeating ECW's Gold Standard in an Extreme Rules match, Kofi Kingston was randomly drafted to Raw in the Supplemental Draft on June 25. The Jamaican Superstar made an impact immediately in his first Match with the brand, winning the Intercontinental Championship from Chris Jericho at Night of Champions.
Early life
Sarkodie-Mensah was born in Ghana; his family moved to the United States in 1982. Coming from a member of a family of intellectuals from near Kumasi in Ghana, he was expected to become a teacher like his grandfather.[8] A standout wrestler at Massachusetts' Winchester High School, he enrolled at Boston College.[9]
[edit] Career
After receiving a degree in communications,[4] he initially pursued a career in the corporate world. "My first day at work I sat in my cubicle and looked at the empty walls and it was very depressing," he recalls. Sarkodie-Mensah decided to drop his business pursuits and opt to go into professional wrestling. "The first day I walked into the wrestling school, I knew I was in the right place," he says.[8]
Sarkodie-Mensah began wrestling professionally in 2005, under the ring name of Kofi Nahaje Kingston.[1] Kingston's country of birth was billed as Jamaica rather than Ghana, because, according to Leslie Goffe of the BBC, "[People] would be more likely to embrace a person from the land of Bob Marley and reggae music" than someone from Ghana.[1][5][8] He made his official wrestling debut in 2006, when he faced PWF Mayhem Heavyweight Champion Evan Siks on June 4.[6] He competed primarily in the New England area, including stints in National Wrestling Alliance - New England, Millennium Wrestling Federation, New England Championship Wrestling, the Eastern Wrestling Alliance, and Chaotic Wrestling.[9][10]
[edit] Developmental territories (2006–2007)
In September 2006, he signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), and was assigned to Deep South Wrestling (DSW), a Georgia based developmental territory.[1] He debuted in the new company, as Kofi Nahaje Kingston, in a dark match loss to Montel Vontavious Porter on September 21.[9][11] For the rest of 2006 and the beginning of 2007 he appeared in DSW, as well as its Kentucky based sister promotion Ohio Valley Wrestling, where he was placed into a tag team dubbed the "Commonwealth Connection" with Harry Smith.[12][13][14]
In 2007, Kingston had his first exposure to the main WWE roster, when he worked dark matches on March 5 and 26 before episodes of WWE Raw against Charlie Haas and Trevor Murdoch respectively. For these appearances he used the ring name "Kofi Jamaica".[15][16] When he returned to the developmental territories he shortened his original ring name to "Kofi Kingston" and continued to use both ring names throughout his duration there.[1] That May he also worked house shows, defeating Shelton Benjamin in Greenville, South Carolina on the 5,[17] and Val Venis in Roanoke, Virginia on the 6.[18]
When Florida based developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling opened in June, Kingston was relocated there, appearing at their first show on June 26 teaming with Eric Perez against Keith Walker and Ryklon Stephens in a losing effort.[19] Kingston worked there for most of the remainder of the year,[19][20] until he was called up to WWE's main roster.
[edit] ECW (2007–2008)
A series of vignettes for Kingston's television debut began airing on the weekly ECW television show starting on December 6, 2007.[21]view During this introduction phase his videos, the official website, and commentators all made note that he would be the first Jamaican-born person to wrestle for the company. He debuted on January 22, 2008 with a win over local wrestler David Owen.[22][23] After wrestling sporadic matches, Kingston was involved in his first major match; a 24-man battle royal during the WrestleMania XXIV pre-show with the winner receiving an ECW Championship match, but was eliminated by Mark Henry.[24] Kingston remained undefeated in singles competition in ECW for months and was placed in to a feud with Shelton Benjamin at the end of April 2008. After two straight losses, Benjamin got a win over Kingston on the May 20 episode of ECW, ending his undefeated streak.[25] On June 24 edition of ECW Kingston defeated Benjamin in an Extreme Rules Match thus ending their feud.[26]
[edit] Raw (2008–present)
As part of the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, Kingston was drafted to the Raw brand.[27] In his first match as a member of Raw roster, he defeated Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Championship at Night of Champions in Dallas, Texas on June 29.[7] The win made him the first Ghanaian wrestler to hold a championship in World Wrestling Entertainment and it was also his first championship in his wrestling career.[28] Kingston held the championship until August's SummerSlam, where he and Women's Champion Mickie James both lost their championships in a intergender "winner take all" tag team match to Beth Phoenix and Santino Marella.[
; "Kofi Kingston")
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