Kofi Kingston

Kofi Sarkodie-Mensah (born on August 14, 1981) is a Ghanaian professional wrestler, better known under his ring name, Kofi Kingston, currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment working on the Raw. Since competing for WWE, he has won the WWE Intercontinental Championship one time, the WWE United States Championship one time and the World Tag Team Championship one time (with CM Punk).

Professional wrestling career
After receiving a degree in communications, 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.

Sarkodie-Mensah began wrestling professionally in 2005, under the ring name of Kofi Nahaje Kingston. Kingston's country of birth was billed as Jamaica rather than Ghana, because, according to Leslie Goffe of the BBC, "[Everyone] would be more likely to embrace a person from the land of Bob Marley and reggae music" than someone from Ghana. He made his official wrestling debut in 2006, when he faced PWF Mayhem Heavyweight Champion Evan Siks on June 4. 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. 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. He debuted in the new company, as Kofi Nahaje Kingston, in a dark match loss to Montel Vontavious Porter on September 21. 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.

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". 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. That May he also worked house shows, defeating Shelton Benjamin in Greenville, South Carolina on the 5, and Val Venis in Roanoke, Virginia on the 6.

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. Kingston worked there for most of the remainder of the year, until he was called up to WWE's main roster.A series of vignettes for Kingston's television debut began airing on the weekly ECW television show starting on December 6, 2007. 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 Owens. 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. 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. On June 24 edition of ECW Kingston defeated Benjamin in an Extreme Rules Match thus ending their feud. As part of the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, Kingston was drafted to the Raw brand. He took the Intercontinental Championship from Chris Jericho at Night of Champions in Dallas, Texas on June 29, in his first match as a member of the Raw roster. The win made him the first Ghanaian wrestler to hold a championship in World Wrestling Entertainment. 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.

At Unforgiven, he appeared backstage, coming to the aid of then World Heavyweight Champion, CM Punk, who had been attacked by Manu, Randy Orton, and the World Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. Soon after coming to his rescue Punk and Kingston were paired together more often, and on the October 27, 2008 Raw the duo took the World Tag Team titles. He was also involved at Survivor Series in the traditional ten-men elimination tag team match on the side of Team Batista, but was eliminated by Randy Orton. Kingston and Punk lost the World Tag Team Championship to John Morrison and The Miz at a WWE live event on December 13.

At February's No Way Out event in 2009, Kingston won a spot in the World Heavyweight Elimination chamber by defeating Kane, but was unable to officially enter in the match, as he was ambushed by Edge, who took Kingston's place and eventually won the match.

Kingston defeated Chris Jericho, after interference from Ric Flair, to earn a spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania XXV. The match was eventually won by CM Punk.

Wrestling facts

 * Finishing moves
 * Cool Runnings (DSW) / Trouble in Paradise (WWE) (Inverted Enzuigiri / Jumping corkscrew roundhouse kick)


 * Signature moves 


 * The Boom Drop (Running jumping high-angle double leg drop, with theatrics)
 * Crucifix
 * Diving crossbody, sometimes while springboarding.
 * Dropkick
 * Flying forearm smash
 * Ranhei
 * Russian Legsweep
 * Calf Kick
 * Jumps on a cornered opponent's shoulders and executes multiple blows to the head followed by rolling backwards off of the opponent trqansition into either a monkey flip or a shoulder thrust
 * Modified DDT


 * Nicknames
 * "The Jamaican Sensation"
 * "The Angry Jamaican"


 * Tag teams and stables
 * Commonwealth Connection - with Harry Smith


 * Managers
 * Luscious (DSW) (2007)


 * Theme music
 * “S.O.S." by Collie Buddz (WWE)

Championships and accomplishments

 * World Wrestling Entertainment
 * WWE Intercontinental Champion (1 time)
 * WWE United States Champion (1 time, current)
 * World Tag Team Champion (1 time) - with CM Punk

Wrestling Ranking
28/35

External links and references

 * Kofi Kingston profile at WWE.com
 * Kofi Kingston profile at CAGEMATCH.net