Kofi Kingston

Kofi Kingston is a WWE professional wrestler of Ghanaian origins. His full name is Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie Mensah and he was born in the city of Kumasi in Ghana. His family decided to migrate to the United States early in his childhood. He completed his schooling in Winchester and later on went to Boston College for his graduation. After graduating he was leaning towards wrestling and started his training for the same. His first wrestling match was against Evan Siks in 2006 for Heavyweight Championship which he lost. In the September of the same year, he entered into a contract with the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and got associated with the Deep South Wrestling (DSW) federation and later on with Ohio Valley Wrestling. In 2007 he fought Trevor Murdoch and Charlie Haas in the main WWE listing. He won against Val Venis and Shelton Benjamin at live shows.

Later he joined the Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). He became the first-ever player of African origins to wrestle at WWE. He made his debut on the Extreme Wrestling Championship (ECW) –a program produced by WWE, in January 2008. Eventually, he landed in his first full-fledged battle royal in WrestleMania XXIV. He got listed with the RAW extension of WWE in June and won the Intercontinental Championship against Chris Jericho, making him the first African-origin wrestler to hold a championship title in WWE. However, he lost his title at a winner take it all match. He won the World Tag Team Championship with CM Punk. He also won against Montel Vontaavious Porter the title of the United States Championship. Later he was listed in the SmackDown extension of WWE and in 2011 he fought Ziggler to become the Intercontinental Champion.

He won against Sheamus to win again the title of United States Champion. He teamed with Evan Bourne in 2011 in the WWE Tag Team Championship and the duo became a hit. They were together called the Air Boom. In 2012 he won the title of Intercontinental Championship for the fourth time and later the United States Champion title for the third time. He can be seen making appearances on the YouTube channel UpUpDownDown. He has also been seen in various movies playing himself, including Countdown (2016), Escape the Undertaker (2021), The Main Event (2021) and Scooby-Doo!, and WWE: Curse of the speed demon. He can also be seen as a character in several WWE themed video games.