Kofi Kingston

Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie-Mensah was born in Kumasi, Ashanti on August 14, 1981 from Kwasi and Elizabeth Sarkodie-Mensah. He had a brother, Kwame, and a sister, Nana Akua. He moved with his family to the United States and eventually settled in the greater Boston area, where he graduated from Winchester High School in Winchester, Massachusetts and then Boston College.

On the October 12 episode of Raw, Kingston defeated Evan Bourne to qualify for Team Raw at Bragging Rights. At the event, Team Raw lost the match after the Raw team member Big Show betrayed them by chokeslamming Kingston, allowing Chris Jericho to pick up the win for Team SmackDown. After the match, Kingston and Raw teammate Cody Rhodes argued about Kingston losing their match. So, when Rhodes and Ted DiBiase interfered on Randy Orton's behalf during his WWE Championship match, Kingston ran out with a chair and chased them out of the arena. Orton later lost the match. On the October 26 episode of Raw, Kingston began a feud with Randy Orton, who believed Kingston cost him the WWE Championship. This led to the two leading 5-men Survivor Series team against each other where Kingston's team won after he was the sole survivor, last eliminating Orton. On the November 30 episode of Raw, Kingston was scheduled to face Orton in a one on one match, only to be assaulted from behind by Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. Despite the assault, Kingston still wished to continue, and was quickly defeated by Orton. The following week, Kingston defeated Orton in a rematch where guest referee Mark Cuban, who had a grudge against Orton since their encounter at Survivor Series in 2003, gave Kingston a fast count. With one victory apiece, the two wrestled again at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, and Orton won. On the December 28 episode of Raw, Orton interfered in Kingston's match for the United States Championship. On the January 4, 2010 episode of Raw, Orton once again defeated Kingston and ended their feud. The next week, Kingston and John Cena lost a triple threat match which determined a challenger for Sheamus' WWE Championship at Royal Rumble to Orton, who pinned Kingston. On the February 1 episode of Raw, Kingston won a qualifying match by defeating Big Show via disqualification to advance to the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match at the Elimination Chamber event. Kingston, however, failed to win after being eliminated by Sheamus. On the March 22 episode of Raw, Kingston defeated Vladimir Kozlov to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania XXVI. At the event, Kingston was unsuccessful as the match was won by Jack Swagger.

Sarkodie-Mensah started training in late 2005 and made his official wrestling debut in 2006 for Chaotic Wrestling, when he faced Evan Siks on June 4 for the PWF Mayhem Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort. He competed primarily in the New England area, including stints in National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) – New England (where he was briefly a member of Barry Ace's "A-List"), Millennium Wrestling Federation (MWF), New England Championship Wrestling (NECW), the Eastern Wrestling Alliance (EWA), 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 federation. 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 (OVW), where he was in a tag team dubbed the Commonwealth Connection with Harry Smith.

In 2007, under the ring name Kofi Nahaje Kingston, he had his first exposure to the main WWE roster, when he worked dark matches on March 5 and 26 before episodes of Raw against Charlie Haas and Trevor Murdoch, respectively. When he returned to the developmental federations, he shortened his original ring name to Kofi Kingston and continued to alternate between both ring names throughout his duration there. He also worked live events, defeating Shelton Benjamin on May 5, and Val Venis on May 6. When the Florida-based developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) opened in June, Kingston was relocated there, appearing at their inaugural show on June 26 where he teamed with Eric Pérez against Keith Walker and Rycklon Stephens in a losing effort. Kingston worked there for most of the remainder of the year.

A series of vignettes for Kingston's television debut began airing on the weekly ECW on Syfy television show starting on December 6, 2007. During this introduction phase, his videos, the official website and commentators noted he would be the first Jamaican to wrestle for WWE but he does not have any Jamaican ancestry, nor any connection to Jamaica. He is, however, the first African-born performer in WWE history. He debuted on the January 22, 2008 ECW as a face with a win over local wrestler David Owen in Charlottesville, Virginia. 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 into 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 ECW, ending his undefeated streak. On the June 24 ECW, Kingston defeated Benjamin in an Extreme Rules match to end their feud.

On June 25, 2008, Kingston was drafted to the Raw brand, as part of the WWE Supplemental Draft. In his first match as a member of Raw roster, and first championship match in WWE, he defeated Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Championship at Night of Champions, after Shawn Michaels, whom Jericho was feuding with, attacked Jericho's manager Lance Cade. The win made him the first African-born wrestler to hold a championship in World Wrestling Entertainment. Kingston held the championship until SummerSlam, where he and Women's Champion Mickie James both lost their championships in an intergender "winner take all" tag team match to Santino Marella and Beth Phoenix.

On the April 6 episode of Raw, The New Day turned heel, which would mark Kingston's first heel turn in WWE ever since debuting in 2008. At Extreme Rules, Kingston and Big E defeated Tyson Kidd and Cesaro to win the WWE Tag Team Championships. At Payback, The New Day defeated Kidd and Cesaro to retain their titles. At Elimination Chamber, The New Day defeated Kidd and Cesaro, The Lucha Dragons, The Ascension, Los Matadores, and the Prime Time Players to retain their titles in the first ever tag team Elimination Chamber match; all three members were allowed to compete in a pre-match stipulation. However, they lost the titles at Money in the Bank against The Prime Time Players. However, they would regain the titles at SummerSlam. The following night on Raw, The Dudley Boyz made their WWE return and attacked the New Day with Woods being put through a table with the 3D. New Day lost to the Dudley Boyz via disqualification at Night of Champions but retained their tag team titles. The next month, at Hell in a Cell, they defeated the Dudley Boyz to retain their titles. At TLC, The New Day retained the title against The Usos and The Lucha Dragons in a Triple threat tag team ladder match. The New Day retained the titles at Royal Rumble against The Usos.

At Unforgiven, he appeared backstage, coming to the aid of then-World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk, who had been attacked by Randy Orton, Manu, and the World Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. Soon after coming to his rescue, Kingston and Punk were paired together more often, and on the October 27 episode of Raw, the duo won the World Tag Team Championship. 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 live event on December 13. When asked about his reign with Punk, he stated that "Punk took him under his wing when he didn’t have to and he was always grateful for that friendship". At No Way Out on February 15, 2009, Kingston was scheduled to compete in the World Heavyweight Championship Elimination Chamber but was unable to officially enter the match as he was ambushed by Edge, who took Kingston's place and eventually won the match. On the March 9 episode of Raw, Kingston defeated Chris Jericho after interference from Ric Flair, to earn a spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania XXV, but the match was won by CM Punk.

On the August 22 episode Raw, Kingston won the WWE Tag Team Championship with Evan Bourne, when they defeated David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty. On the August 29 Raw, the duo was called "Air Boom", and they had their first successful title defense when they defeated Otunga and McGillicutty in a rematch. At Night of Champions, Air Boom retained their titles against The Miz and R-Truth by disqualification after Miz attacked a WWE referee. At Hell in a Cell and Vengeance, Air Boom retained their titles twice against Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger. Bourne was suspended throughout November for his first violation of the company's Wellness policy. At TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs Air Boom successfully retained their titles against Primo & Epico. On January 15, 2012, Air Boom lost the Tag Team titles to Primo and Epico at a house show. The following night on Raw, Air Boom were awarded a rematch but failed to regain the titles. The following day, Bourne was suspended again for his second violation of WWE's Wellness Policy.

In 2012, he guest-starred in an episode of Disney XD's karate sitcom Kickin' It. In 2016, he appeared with his New Day teammates on a Christmas Family themed Let's Make a Deal. In 2017, he published The Book of Booty: Shake It. Love It. Never Be It with fellow New Day members Big E and Xavier Woods.

On the October 17 episode of Main Event, Kingston defeated The Miz to win the Intercontinental Championship for the fourth time in his career. Kingston then began feuding with Wade Barrett, when the two were placed on opposing teams in the traditional five-on-five elimination tag team match on November 18 at Survivor Series. Kingston's team, led by Mick Foley, was defeated by Barrett's team, led by Dolph Ziggler, during which he was eliminated by Barrett. The following night on Raw, Kingston was defeated by Barrett in a non-title match. Kingston, still the Intercontinental Champion, received a shot at the United States Championship on the December 3 episode of Raw against Barrett, R-Truth, and the champion Antonio Cesaro in a fatal four-way match, but was unsuccessful after Cesaro pinned Kingston for the win. At TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, Kingston successfully defended his title against Barrett. Two weeks later on the December 31 episode of Raw, Kingston lost the Intercontinental Championship to Barrett, ending his reign at 74 days. Kingston received his rematch four days later on SmackDown, but lost the match. On January 27, 2013, at the Royal Rumble, Kingston participated in the Royal Rumble match, and after eliminating Tensai, he was pushed out of the ring, but Kingston jumped on Tensai's back, landed on the announce table and used a commentary chair from John "Bradshaw" Layfield to hop to the ring apron, before being eliminated by Cody Rhodes.

Sarkodie-Mensah has been married since 2010 to Kori Campfield, with whom he has two sons: Khi, born in 2013, and Orion, born in April 2016. Sarkodie-Mensah has tattoos of Ghanaian Adinkra symbols along his spine.

At the Royal Rumble on January 26, 2014, Kingston participated in the Royal Rumble match, where he avoided elimination by landing on the crowd barricade and made an 11-foot jump to get back in the ring, but he was later eliminated by Roman Reigns. At WrestleMania XXX, Kingston competed in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, where he would have a standout moment in the match, getting thrown of over the turnbuckles by Cesaro and to avoid elimination by keeping his toes on the steel steps, he would later be eliminated by Sheamus. At Battleground, Kingston competed in the Battle Royal for the Intercontinental Championship, but failed to win the match.

During the summer of 2014, Kingston was put in a team with Big E, and Xavier Woods usually as manager. In November, WWE began airing vignettes for Kingston, Woods and Big E, with the stable now being billed as The New Day. The New Day made their in-ring debut on the November 28 episode of SmackDown in a winning effort against Curtis Axel, Heath Slater and Titus O'Neil. They started a brief feud with Gold and Stardust, which Kingston and Big E defeated Gold and Stardust at the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pre-show on December 14. At the WrestleMania 31 pre-show on March 29, 2015, they failed to win the WWE Tag Team Championship in a fatal four-way match as well as being eliminated by Big Show in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.

On January 29, 2017, Kingston participated the Royal Rumble match in which he was standing on the top-rope when Baron Corbin tried to push him backwards to eliminate him from the match. Instead, he fell directly behind the ring post, grabbed on to the top rope of it and managed to hang on. The New Day were revealed to be the hosts of WrestleMania 33. The night after WrestleMania on Raw, The New Day issued an open challenge to any team which was accepted by The Revival, who were moved up from NXT, and lost to them. After the match, Revival attacked Kofi Kingston. On April 10, it was announced that Kingston had suffered an ankle injury due to the attack of Revival which would require surgery.

On April 11, 2017, The New Day were moved to the SmackDown brand as part of the Superstar Shake-up. The New Day debuted on "Talking Smack", the post-show for SmackDown Live on May 23, however, they did not wrestle or make an appearance on SmackDown Live itself due to Kingston's injury. The New Day made their official return on May 30 episode of SmackDown Live, announcing their objective to defeat The Usos and win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship. The two teams faced off at Money in the Bank, where Big E and Kingston emerged victorious when The Usos purposely got themselves counted out, thus keeping their titles. A rematch took place at Battleground, where Kingston and Woods were successful in capturing the titles, thus making Kingston the first wrestler to hold the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, Raw Tag Team Championship (both its previous and current incarnations), and the original World Tag Team Championship. A month later at the SummerSlam pre-show, however, The New Day (represented by Big E and Woods) dropped the titles back to The Usos, ending their reign at 28 days. On September 12 at the episode promoted as Sin City SmackDown, Kingston and Big E represented New Day and defeated The Usos to win back the championship for their second reign in a "Sin City Street Fight", but lost them again to The Usos at Hell in a Cell. On the October 23 episode of Raw, The New Day along with other talent of SmackDown ambushed the Raw locker room. They again appeared on the November 6 episode of Raw in the crowd, which led to distraction of Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose and costing them the tag titles. On the November 14 episode of SmackDown Live, The Shield led an attack with Raw Superstars and invaded SmackDown similar to the one led by SmackDown and attacked everyone including The New Day. At Survivor Series, The New Day was defeated by The Shield. The New Day failed to regain the titles from The Usos at Clash of Champions in a Fatal-4-Way tag team match also involving the team of Rusev and Aiden English, and Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin.

At the Royal Rumble on January 28, 2018, Kingston entered the match as the 16th entrant, but was eliminated by Andrade "Cien" Almas. At Fastlane, The New Day faced The Usos for the Smackdown Tag Team Championships, but went to a no contest after inference from The Bludgeon Brothers. Two weeks later, it was confirmed that at WrestleMania 34, The New Day would face The Usos and The Bludgeon Brothers in a Triple Threat tag team match for the Smackdown Tag Team Championships. The New Day failed to capture the titles at the WrestleMania, which were won by The Bludgeon Brothers. On the April 11 episode of SmackDown Live, The New Day were defeated by The Usos in a match to determine which team would challenge The Bludgeon Brothers at the Greatest Royal Rumble event. The New Day competed in a tag team tournament, defeating Sanity in the first round, while The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus) defeated The Usos. The New Day then defeated The Bar the following week on SmackDown Live to earn the right to face The Bludgeon Brothers at SummerSlam, where they won the match by disqualification, meaning The Bludgeon Brothers retained their titles. Two days later on SmackDown Live, however, The New Day defeated The Bludgeon Brothers in a no disqualification match to capture the titles for a third time. At Hell in a Cell, The New Day successfully defeated Rusev and Aiden English to retain the titles. A few weeks later on October 6, at Super Show-Down, The New Day again retained their titles by defeating The Bar. At SmackDown 1000, The New Day lost their titles against The Bar. They would fail to regain the titles at Crown Jewel event. Two weeks later, they made up part of Team SmackDown in a 5-on-5 tag-team elimination match at Survivor Series, in which they defeated Team Raw. At TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, The New Day failed to win the championship from The Bar, in a triple-threat tag team match, also involving The Usos. On the January 1, 2019 episode of SmackDown Live, The New Day members announced their entry into the Royal Rumble match at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. At the event, Kingston was eliminated by Drew McIntyre.

Kingston, under the nickname Mr. 24/7, frequently appears on fellow WWE wrestler, Xavier Woods' YouTube channel UpUpDownDown. In May 2019, he defeated UpUpDownDown Champion Gentleman Jack Gallagher in a game of Mortal Kombat 3 to win Gallagher's championship. Kingston lost the title one month later to Jey Uso in a game of Tetris.

After losing the title, Kingston returned to compete in tag team matches, where he teamed with Big E and Woods to defeat The O.C. (AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson) on the following week on SmackDown. At Crown Jewel, Kingston and Big E competed in a tag team turmoil match for the WWE Tag Team World Cup, but they failed to win the match. On the November 8 episode of SmackDown, Kingston and Big E defeated The Revival to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, becoming four-time champions as a team, and record fifth reign for The New Day as a stable. At TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, Kingston and Big E successfully defended the titles against The Revival in a ladder match. On January 26, 2020, at the Royal Rumble, Kingston participated in the Royal Rumble match, but was eliminated by Brock Lesnar. At Super ShowDown, Kingston and Big E lost the championships against John Morrison and The Miz and failed to regain the titles at Elimination Chamber.