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Kofi Kingston

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Kofi Kingston
BornGhana[1]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Kofi Jamaica
Kofi Nahaje Kingston[2]
Kofi Kingston[2]
Billed height6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Billed weight225 lb (102 kg; 16.1 st)[3]
Billed fromJamaica[3]
Trained byChaotic Wrestling[1][2]
OVW staff[2][4]
DSW staff[2][4]
Debut2005[2]

Kofi Sarkodie-Mensah[2][4] is a Ghanaian[1] professional wrestler, better known under his ring name, Kofi Kingston. He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment working on the Raw brand where he is the reigning WWE Intercontinental Champion.[3]

Career

Early career

A standout wrestler at Massachusetts powerhouse Winchester High School, Kofi enrolled at Boston College. After completing a degree in communications,[1] Kingston made his professional debut in 2005.[4] He competed primarily in the New England area, including stints in the Millennium Wrestling Federation, New England Championship Wrestling, the Eastern Wrestling Alliance, and Chaotic Wrestling under the ring name Kofi Nahaje Kingston.[2][5]

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.[2] He debuted in the new company, using the same ring name, in a dark match loss to Montel Vontavious Porter on September 21.[6] 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.[7][8][9]

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. For these appearances he used the ring name Kofi Jamaica.[10][11] 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.[2] That May he also worked house shows, defeating Shelton Benjamin in Greenville, South Carolina on the 5th,[12] and Val Venis in Roanoke, Virginia on the 6th.[13]

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.[14] Kingston worked there for most of the remainder of the year,[14][15] 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.[16] 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.[17][18] 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.[19] Since Kingston's debut in ECW, he remained undefeated in singles competition for months. However, after defeating him in two consecutive matches, Kingston received his first loss on the May 20 2008 episode of ECW to Shelton Benjamin. He would continue his rivalry with Benjamin which would end on the june 24 edition of ECW when Kingston defeated Benjamin in an Extreme Rules match. [20]

Raw brand

As part of the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, Kingston was drafted to the Raw brand.[21] At Night of Champions he defeated Chris Jericho to win the first championship of his career, the WWE Intercontinental Championship.[22] 

Due to the fact that the ECW championship was taken back to ECW the same night and neither the World Heavyweight Championship nor the WWE Championship were taken to Raw, Kingston held the highest ranked championship on RAW.

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Chris Bergeron (2006-16-08). "Wrestle mania". The Milford Daily News. Retrieved 2008-02-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "OWW: Kofi Kingston Profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-08.
  3. ^ a b c "Kofi Kingston's WWE Biography". WWE. Retrieved 2008-01-22.
  4. ^ 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)
  5. ^ "Kofi Nahaje Kingston". Chaotic Wrestling Profiles. Chaotic Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-09.
  6. ^ "DSW results - 2006". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  7. ^ "OVW results - 2006". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  8. ^ "DSW results - 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  9. ^ "OVW results - 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  10. ^ "RAW results - March 5, 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-12.
  11. ^ "RAW results - March 26, 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-12.
  12. ^ Simpson, Thomas (2007-05-06). "WWE house show report 5-5 Greenville, SC". Wrestling Observer. Retrieved 2007-12-09.
  13. ^ "WWE house show report 5-6 Roanoke". Wrestling Observer. 2007-05-06. Retrieved 2007-12-09.
  14. ^ a b "Florida Championship Wrestling results - 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-06.
  15. ^ Wojcik, Alan J. (2007-11-30). "Ring report, 11/30/2007". Miami Herald.
  16. ^ Rote, Andrew (December 6 2007). "ECW Results 12/06/2007". WWE. Retrieved 2007-12-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ "ECW on Sci Fi results - January 22, 2008". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
  18. ^ Medalis, Kara (2008-01-22). "Ain't no stoppin' him". WWE. Retrieved 2008-01-22.
  19. ^ "Big Red Champion". World Wrestling Entertainment. 2008-03-30. Retrieved 2008-03-30.
  20. ^ "ECW results - May 20, 2008". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-05-21.
  21. ^ "Official 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft Results". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2008-06-25.
  22. ^ "Crowning Kingston Champion". World Wrestling Entertainment. 2008-06-29. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
  23. ^ Kara A. Medalis (2008-06-03). "New, Extreme manager in town". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2008-06-17.
  24. ^ "WWE The Music Volume 8". WWE. Retrieved 2008-02-18.
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