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rv - no he was really born in Ghana
corrected date of his debut match, inluded cited reference.
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|billed =[[Jamaica]]<ref name=WWEbio/>
|billed =[[Jamaica]]<ref name=WWEbio/>
|trainer =[[Chaotic Wrestling]]<ref name="milford"/><ref name=OWoW/><br>[[Ohio Valley Wrestling|OVW staff]]<ref name=OWoW/><ref name=Rajah/><br>[[Deep South Wrestling|DSW staff]]<ref name=OWoW/><ref name=Rajah/>
|trainer =[[Chaotic Wrestling]]<ref name="milford"/><ref name=OWoW/><br>[[Ohio Valley Wrestling|OVW staff]]<ref name=OWoW/><ref name=Rajah/><br>[[Deep South Wrestling|DSW staff]]<ref name=OWoW/><ref name=Rajah/>
|debut =June 4, 2006<br>vs. [[Evan Hatch|Evan Siks]]<ref name="Xamin"> {{cite web |url=http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/Bios//kingston-kofi.html |title=Kofi Kingston |accessdate= |author=Xamin, Mark |authorlink= |coauthors= |date=2008-08-28 |year= |month= |format= |work=SLAM! Wrestling Bios and Stories |publisher=SLAM! Sports |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= }} </ref>
|debut =2005<ref name=OWoW/>
|retired =
|retired =
|website =
|website =
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A standout wrestler at Massachusetts' Winchester High School, Sarkodie-Mensah enrolled at [[Boston College]].<ref name="miamiherald">{{cite web|url=http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/wrestling/story/652587.html|title=Fast rise for high flying Kingston|date=2008-08-21|last=Varsallone|first=Jim|accessdate=2008-08-27|publisher=Miami Herald}}</ref> After completing a degree in communications,<ref name="milford"/> he first went into the corporate world - and almost immediately regretted it. "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. <ref name="BBC" />
A standout wrestler at Massachusetts' Winchester High School, Sarkodie-Mensah enrolled at [[Boston College]].<ref name="miamiherald">{{cite web|url=http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/wrestling/story/652587.html|title=Fast rise for high flying Kingston|date=2008-08-21|last=Varsallone|first=Jim|accessdate=2008-08-27|publisher=Miami Herald}}</ref> After completing a degree in communications,<ref name="milford"/> he first went into the corporate world - and almost immediately regretted it. "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. <ref name="BBC" />


He made his professional debut in 2005.<ref name=Rajah/> 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]] under the ring name '''Kofi Nahaje Kingston'''.<ref name=OWoW/><ref name="miamiherald"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chaoticwrestling.com/profiles/kofi.htm|title=Kofi Nahaje Kingston|accessdate=2007-12-09|work=Chaotic Wrestling Profiles|publisher=Chaotic Wrestling}}</ref>
He began wrestling professionally in 2005, <ref name=OWoW/> <ref name=Rajah/> but did not made his official debut until the following year when he faced [[NECW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship|NECW Heavyweight Champion]] [[Evan Hatch|Evan Siks]] on June 4, 2006. <ref name="Xamin"/> 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]] under the ring name '''Kofi Nahaje Kingston'''.<ref name=OWoW/><ref name="miamiherald"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chaoticwrestling.com/profiles/kofi.htm|title=Kofi Nahaje Kingston|accessdate=2007-12-09|work=Chaotic Wrestling Profiles|publisher=Chaotic Wrestling}}</ref>


===World Wrestling Entertainment (2006-present)===
===World Wrestling Entertainment (2006-present)===

Revision as of 18:04, 24 October 2008

Kofi Kingston
Born (1981-08-14) August 14, 1981 (age 42) [1]
Ghana[2]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Kofi Jamaica
Kofi Nahaje Kingston[3]
Kofi Kingston[3]
Billed height6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Billed weight218 lb (99 kg)[4]
Billed fromJamaica[4]
Trained byChaotic Wrestling[2][3]
OVW staff[3][5]
DSW staff[3][5]
DebutJune 4, 2006
vs. Evan Siks[6]

Kofi Sarkodie-Mensah[3][5] (born on August 14, 1981) is a Ghanaian American[2] professional wrestler, better known under his ring name, Kofi Kingston. He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment working on the Raw brand,[7] where he is a former Intercontinental Champion.[7]

Career

Early career

Born to Ghanaian parent, his family moved to the United States in 1982. Coming from a member of a family of intellectuals from near Kumasi in Ghana, Sarkodie-Mensah was expected to become a teacher like his grandfather.[8] Sarkodie-Mensah has no connection to Jamaica, but has long been billed from there 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.[8]

A standout wrestler at Massachusetts' Winchester High School, Sarkodie-Mensah enrolled at Boston College.[9] After completing a degree in communications,[2] he first went into the corporate world - and almost immediately regretted it. "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]

He began wrestling professionally in 2005, [3] [5] but did not made his official debut until the following year when he faced NECW Heavyweight Champion Evan Siks on June 4, 2006. [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 under the ring name Kofi Nahaje Kingston.[3][9][10]

World Wrestling Entertainment (2006-present)

Developmental territories

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.[3] He debuted in the new company, using the same ring name, 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]

2007 was also 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. The March 5 dark match took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Kofi got a really good response from the crowd saying that he chose Albuquerque to make his WWE debut. 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.[3] That May he also worked house shows, defeating Shelton Benjamin in Greenville, South Carolina on the 5th,[17] and Val Venis in Roanoke, Virginia on the 6th.[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 the main WWE roster.

ECW brand

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 the videos, official WWE website, and the ECW 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.[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.[25]

Raw brand

As part of the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, Kingston was drafted to the Raw brand.[26] He took the Intercontinental Championship from Chris Jericho at Night of Champions in his first match as a member of the Raw roster.[7] The win made him the first Ghanaian wrestler to hold a championship in World Wrestling Entertainment.[27] 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.[28]

In wrestling

  • Nicknames
    • Jamaican Sensation (WWE)[30]
    • Crazy Jamaican (CW)
    • Controlled Frenzy (WWE)
    • Soul Shakedown (WWE)

Championships and accomplishments

Notes

  1. ^ "Kofi Kingston". Superstars. WWE Kids. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
  2. ^ a b c d e Chris Bergeron (2006-08-16). "Wrestle mania". The Milford Daily News. Retrieved 2008-02-22.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "OWW: Kofi Kingston Profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-08.
  4. ^ a b "Kofi Kingston's WWE Biography". WWE. Retrieved 2008-01-22.
  5. ^ a b c d Michael Bluth (2007-12-07). "Kofi Kingston Debuts On WWE TV: News On Who He Is". Rajah.com. Retrieved 2007-12-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ a b Xamin, Mark (2008-08-28). "Kofi Kingston". SLAM! Wrestling Bios and Stories. SLAM! Sports. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ a b c d "History Of The Intercontinental Championship - Kofi Kingston". WWE. 2008-06-29. Retrieved 2008-07-01.
  8. ^ a b c Goffe, Leslie (2008-07-02). "Wrestling's Jamaican Star - From Ghana". BBC. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
  9. ^ a b c Varsallone, Jim (2008-08-21). "Fast rise for high flying Kingston". Miami Herald. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
  10. ^ "Kofi Nahaje Kingston". Chaotic Wrestling Profiles. Chaotic Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-09.
  11. ^ "DSW results - 2006". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  12. ^ "OVW results - 2006". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  13. ^ "DSW results - 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  14. ^ "OVW results - 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  15. ^ "RAW results - March 5, 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-12.
  16. ^ "RAW results - March 26, 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-12.
  17. ^ Simpson, Thomas (2007-05-06). "WWE house show report 5-5 Greenville, SC". Wrestling Observer. Retrieved 2007-12-09.
  18. ^ "WWE house show report 5-6 Roanoke". Wrestling Observer. 2007-05-06. Retrieved 2007-12-09.
  19. ^ a b "Florida Championship Wrestling results - 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-06.
  20. ^ Wojcik, Alan J. (2007-11-30). "Ring report, 11/30/2007". Miami Herald.
  21. ^ Rote, Andrew (December 6, 2007). "ECW Results 12/06/2007". WWE. Retrieved 2007-12-06.
  22. ^ "ECW on Sci Fi results - January 22, 2008". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
  23. ^ Medalis, Kara (2008-01-22). "Ain't no stoppin' him". WWE. Retrieved 2008-01-22.
  24. ^ "Big Red Champion". World Wrestling Entertainment. 2008-03-30. Retrieved 2008-03-30.
  25. ^ "ECW results - May 20, 2008". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-05-21.
  26. ^ "Official 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft Results". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2008-06-25.
  27. ^ "WWE Night of Champions 2008". Online World Of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
  28. ^ Medallis, Kara A. (2008-08-17). "'Glamarella' wins the gold". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2008-08-18.
  29. ^ a b c d e Martin, Todd (2008-09-01). "Todd Martin's Labor Day Raw Report". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved 2008-09-09.
  30. ^ Kara A. Medalis (2008-06-03). "New, Extreme manager in town". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2008-06-17.
  31. ^ "Complete PWI 500 list for 2008". Wrestling Inc. Retrieved 2008-10-17.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kofi_Kingston&oldid=247423991"