History Wrestling / KofiKingston

** A much later reference to this occurred on the Dec 11, 2023 edition of ''Raw'', where Wrestling/CMPunk -- [[LockedOutOfTheLoop having just returned after a nine-year-long absence from WWE]] -- happily reunites with Kofi and exclaims [[{{Pun}}"Jamaican me crazy!"]], only for Kofi to politely correct him that he doesn't do that anymore.[[note]]The retcon occurred well before Punk originally left WWE, [[RuleOfFunny but just roll with it]].[[/note]]

* DiscontinuityNod: Kofi came up with his wrestling persona of being from Jamaica, and it was carried into the WWE for a time before being phased out, [[{{Retcon}} with him being retroactively established as being from Ghana]] from 2009 onward. The switch was made rather suddenly, but was still acknowledged a few weeks afterwards by Wrestling/TripleH during a promo, who asked in the ring [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall "Hey, aren't you supposed to be Jamaican? What happened to your accent?"]] (Wrestling/ShawnMichaels immediately changed the subject before Kofi could give any kind of response).

Kofi Nahaje Kingston (real last name Sarkodie-Mensah, born August 14, 1981) is a [[UsefulNotes/{{Ghana}} Ghanian]]-American {{professional wrestl|ing}}er with Wrestling/{{WWE}}.

Kofi started his career in WWE as a member of its iteration of ECW, with the gimmick of a laid-back Jamaican wrestler who could nevertheless put a serious hurting on the other guy when the chips were down. He became popular enough to go to the main series RAW and Smackdown, where he had a pretty-successful run as a midcard face for years, racking up title wins and feuds with Chris Jericho and Randy Orton.

He is a one-time [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE_Championship WWE Champion]], four-time [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/ic.html WWE Intercontinental Champion]], a three-time [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwf-us-h.html WWE United States Champion]], a 15-time WWE Tag Team Champion (winning every variation of the titles: once with Wrestling/CMPunk, once with Wrestling/EvanBourne, once with [[Wrestling/RonKillings R-Truth]] and 11 times as part of '''Wrestling/TheNewDay'''), the 30th WWE Triple Crown Champion, and 20th WWE Grand Slam Champion.

He joined Wrestling/TheNewDay in 2014, turning {{heel}} for the first time ever but quickly switching back to being a [[{{Face}} good guy]] as the group exploded in popularity. For years, he was the impressive, athletic LightningBruiser of the group, and the one that both Wrestling/BigE and Wrestling/XavierWoods openly campaigned for getting an opportunity at the WWE title. Unfortunately, it never quite came...

...until 2019, wherein after an absolutely show-stealing performance at ''Elimination Chamber 2019'', it became the New Day's mission to get Kofi a title shot, believing that after 11 years in the 'E, he had more than earned his chance to go for it in one-on-one competition.

Over the next two months, Kofi fought and clawed his way up to a WWE Championship match at the main event of ''Wrestling/WrestleMania 35'', with fans rallying behind him every step of the way; both the storyline and the fan campaign surrounding him have become known as "[=KofiMania=]". Naturally, Kofi encountered plenty of resistance from then-champ [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] (who believed he didn't have the moral fortitude to be a champion worth praising) and Wrestling/VinceMcMahon (who believed he didn't have what it took after years as a tag team wrestler). However, even through being underestimated and [[YankTheDogsChain screwed over]] time and time again, Kofi defeated Bryan on the Grandest Stage of Them All and won the WWE Championship for the first time, to the adulation of the entire wrestling world. In doing so, he became the first (and currently only) African-born WWE world champion in history, the 30th Wrestling/TripleCrownChampion in WWE, and the 20th overall Wrestling/GrandSlamChampion (13th under the current format).

Over the next two months, Kofi fought and clawed his way up to the main event of ''Wrestling/WrestleMania 35'', with fans rallying behind him every step of the way; both the storyline and the fan campaign surrounding him have become known as "[=KofiMania=]". Naturally, Kofi encountered plenty of resistance from then-champ [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] (who believed he didn't have the moral fortitude to be a champion worth praising) and Wrestling/VinceMcMahon (who believed he didn't have what it took after years as a tag team wrestler). However, even through being underestimated and [[YankTheDogsChain screwed over]] time and time again, Kofi defeated Bryan on the Grandest Stage of Them All and won the WWE Championship for the first time, to the adulation of the entire wrestling world. In doing so, he became the first (and currently only) African-born WWE world champion in history, the 30th Wrestling/TripleCrownChampion in WWE, and the 20th overall Wrestling/GrandSlamChampion (13th under the current format).

He joined Wrestling/TheNewDay in 2014, turning heel for the first time ever, but quickly switching back to being a good guy as the group exploded in popularity. For years, he was the impressive, athletic LightningBruiser of the group, and the one that both Big E and Xavier Woods openly campaigned for getting an opportunity at the WWE title, but it never quite came...

...until 2019, wherein after an absolutely show-stealing performance at Elimination Chamber 2019, it became the New Day's mission to get him a title shot, believing that after 11 years in the 'E, he had more than earned his chance to go for it in one-on-one competition.

Naturally, he encountered plenty of resistance from then-champ [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] (who believed he didn't have the moral fortitude to be a champion worth praising) and Wrestling/VinceMcMahon (who believed he didn't have what it took after years as a tag team wrestler). Kofi fought and clawed his way all the way to the Wrestlemania 35 main event, where he won the WWE Championship for the first time, to the adulation of everyone, and capping off what became known as ''Kofimania''.

* DiscontinuityNod: Kofi came up with his wrestling persona of being from Jamaica, and it was carried into the WWE for a time before being phased out, [[{{Retcon}} with him being retroactively established as being from Ghana]] from 2009 onward. The switch was made rather suddenly, but was still acknowledged a few weeks afterwards by Wrestling/TripleH during a promo, who asked in the ring [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall "Hey, aren't you supposed to be Jamaican?"]] (Wrestling/ShawnMichaels immediately changed the subject before Kofi could give any kind of response).

* DiscontinuityNod: Kofi came up with his wrestling persona of being from Jamaica, and it was carried into the WWE for a time before being phased out, [[{{Retcon}} with him being retroactively established as being from Ghana]] from 2009 onward. The switch was made rather suddenly, but was still acknowledged a few weeks afterwards by Wrestling/TripleH during a promo, who asked in the ring [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall "Hey, aren't you supposed to be Jamaican?"]]

* BareYourMidriff: Started wearing crop tops in 2017. Remains awesome.

* DarkSkinnedBlond: In 2020 he's dye his hair into blond.

* ActionDad: He has 3 children.

** As the solid in-ring worker bouncing between very successful tag team runs and midcard championships but never quite able to bust the glass ceiling, Kofi's WWE career path somewhat resembles that of Wrestling/{{Christian}} - right down to finally receiving a late-career shot at the big time in part due to an injury that altered WWE's original plans.[[note]]Originally, the spot in the Elimination Chamber match that ended up becoming a StarMakingRole of sorts for Kofi was meant to go to Mustafa Ali before the latter suffered a minor injury to his neck. Of course, in Christian's case, the injury was a much larger CareerEndingInjury for Wrestling/{{Edge}}.[[/note]] If one substracts the "getting a title shot due to another wrestler's injury" factor, that same description could also apply to Wrestling/EddieGuerrero and Wrestling/ChrisBenoit, who both got a late-career world title run around the same time as each other.

* IHaveTheHighGround: Jumping on things is even part of his workout.

** He and Wrestling/DolphZiggler once feuded almost nonstop for the Intercontinental,US titles and when Kofi was the WWE Champion in 2019, a jealous Ziggler challenged him for that title as well. As a result of their 10 year rivalry, they and the announcers jokingly refer to their rivalry as a "Best of 500 series", and as it stands as of current writing, the score is Kofi: 16 wins, Ziggler: 14 wins, and 1 draw, in singles matches. Prior to Super Showdown 2019, one redditor chronicled their history [[https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/bxs2x9/kofi_kingston_vs_dolph_ziggler_the_rivalry_from/ here]], while WWE recapped matches [[https://www.wwe.com/playlist/every-kofi-kingston-vs-dolph-ziggler-match-ever here]]. Due to the respect forged from this rivalry, [[https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/dolph-ziggler-wwe-5-best-finish-moves Ziggler lists Kofi's finisher as one of the 5 greatest of all time.]]

** MulticoloredHair: When he dyed the ends brown.