Survivor Series 2009: Kofi pulls off what is considered the fastest consecutive eliminations in the history of said PPV (approximately 10 seconds). After eliminating CM Punk via roll up, Kofi immediately stood up the moment Randy Orton entered the ring and gave him a Trouble in Paradise to eliminate him as well, becoming the sole survivor for his team.
Everything about Kofi's 2009 feud with Randy Orton, from performing a Boom Drop on Orton on a table from an upper level, to him destroying Orton's prized car.
In what is one of his most memorable moments, Kofi performs a Boom Drop onto Drew McIntyre on an announce table from the top of a ladder in Money in the Bank 2010.
Extreme Rules 2011: Kofi faced Sheamus for the United States Championship in a Tables Match. At the time, Sheamus was still considered a Wrestling Monster and kept in control for most of the match but Kofi's quickness and agility helped him twice. First, after Sheamus dodged Kofi's Stinger Splash while the former was lying on a table at the corner, Kofi managed avoid crashing into the table by landing on the ropes at the last minute. Then, Sheamus performed a Brogue Kick on Kofi while he was on the apron but Kofi managed to turn mid-air to avoid crashing into a table outside the ring. In the end of the match, Kofi performed a Boom Drop on Sheamus while he was leaning on a table to capture his second United States Championship.
Starting Royal Rumble 2012, it becomes a running gag that Kofi will guarantee save himself from being eliminated using crazy maneuvers or an ally/enemy.
Raw, Jan. 13, 2014: Kofi pulls out probably the biggest upset victory in his career by defeating then WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton, CLEANLY, in a non-title match. A victory like this normally earns him a title match.
SmackDown, Feb. 12, 2019: The greatest performance of Kofi's career to date. Selected by his New Day teammates to replace the injured Mustafa Ali in the Elimination Chamber match the coming weekend, he took part in the gauntlet match to determine entry order and stole the entire show. Starting off against the champion Daniel Bryan, Kofi struggled through interference from Erick Rowan and pinned the champion after hitting him with Trouble in Paradise, then immediately took on and defeated Jeff Hardy afterwards. Without any time to rest, he was forced to face Samoa Joe, who toyed with the exhausted Kofi, shoving him off the ring apron and going for a count-out victory, but Kofi barely manages to beat the count. Then when Joe locked in the Coquina Clutch, Kofi was able to shockingly use the corner to flip over Joe and roll the brute up for a pin! Dragged out of the ring and forced back into the Clutch again by an angry Joe, Kofi is only saved by the intervention of his next opponent, AJ Styles. AJ told a by now completely drained Kofi that he didn't have to continue, he'd more than proven himself, but Kofi fired up and shouted that he'd been waiting his entire life for this, and demanded AJ fight him! Incredibly, he managed to give AJ a serious fight before finally being forced to submit to the Calf Crusher, and received a standing ovation from the arena crowd as well as the full respect of AJ himself as Xavier and Big E helped carry him out. Immediately recognised as a career-defining performance (he wrestled for over an hour against some of the top stars in the business), the match instantly started conversation about Kofi receiving a main event level push, possibly even culminating in a World Championship run!
Crossing over with Tear Jerker and leading on from the above, the final confrontation of Elimination Chamber 2019: Kofi vs. Daniel Bryan. Despite being added to the match at literally the last second to replace an injured Mustafa Ali, as mentioned previously, Kofi won the hearts of literally every fan in attendance and watching at home by first eliminating his career-long, on-and-offscreen rival Randy Orton, then taking literally everything Bryan had to throw at him, up to and including being the first person in recent memory not to be put down by Bryan's two finishers, both breaking the LeBell Lock and kicking out of the Busaiku Knee. Even though Bryan finally managed to retain his title by putting Kofi down with a second knee strike, Kofi reminded everyone on that night exactly why he was so heavily touted for a big-league push at the start of his career, and proved once and for all that - despite pushing 40 - he could still go toe-to-toe with even the likes of Daniel Bryan, a man with a legitimate claim to being the best who ever lived.
It's worth mentioning that the list of people who have kicked out of Bryan's knee is very short, consisting of only Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, and Randy Orton. Now, Kofi Kingston joins that elusive club.
WrestleMania 35: After eleven years in WWE, Kofi Kingston, in his first WrestleMania singles match, finally wins his first ever WWE Championship. With this win, Kofi not only becomes the first ever African-born WWE Championnote The Rock was technically the first, but he's half African-Canadian from his father's side. And while Booker T and Mark Henry did become World Champions, it's by winning WWE's Big Gold Belt instead of the promotion's original World Title, but also the 30th Triple Crown and the 20th Grand Slam Champion. The supersonic pop from the audience, the image of all three members of the New Day practically sobbing with joy in the ring, and the fact that Kofi's tiny son came out to help his dad hoist the renewed WWE title in the air all combined to create one of the most truly indelible moments in the show's three-decade history.
Keep in mind that, if you go back to the start of this story two entries up, this all began with Kofi being picked as a substitute for the injured Mustafa Ali. Before Ali was injured there were no plans for Kofi to even get near the WWE Championship, and it's not likely he simply picked up the story that was originally planned for Ali either.*While Ali was over, he was still too new to be a serious championship contender; The initial gauntlet match may have been initially planned to build Ali up as a plausible contestant in the match, but nothing can be assumed beyond that. In fact, given Kingston's history as a consistent popular midcarder, his long-earned equity with the fans likely contributed as much to the rocket fuel reception he was given as his performance in the gauntlet match itself, meaning an equivalent with Ali at the time would likely not have even come close to Kofi Mania. No, brought in as a substitute, Kofi was offered one more chance (after over a decade in the company) to step up and prove if he really had what it took to be champion- and he didn't just leap at it, he flew!
For those afraid that Kofi would get his five minutes of glory and then drop the belt, his 12 successful title defenses have been against a who's who of brutal fighters, including triple threats and cage matches. His reign defined "fighting champion" more than anyone else in 2019, or even in most years, proving that if someone wanted the title from Kofi, they'd have to pry it from his cold, dead hands. His opponents included:
Daniel Bryan: Former world champion in - WWE, ROH, PWG
Kevin Owens: Former world champion in - WWE, NXT, ROH, PWG
Sami Zayn: Former world champion in - NXT, PWG
AJ Styles: Former world champion in - WWE, NJPW, ROH, TNA, PWG
Samoa Joe: Former world champion in - NXT, ROH, TNA
Dolph Ziggler: Former world champion in - WWE
Randy Orton: Former world champion in - WWE
And then Kofi went two better by striking the blackest mark on his career by finally putting down Randy Orton and then promptly looking Brock Lesnar dead in the eye and accepting a title challenge from perhaps the deadliest man in the entire company. While he ultimately lost, Kofi has packed a relatively lengthy single title reign (180 days, which is longer than most champions have had for their multiple reigns combined) with more high-octane defenses than most champions see in an entire year.
When Kofi feuded with Randy Orton again for the first time in nearly 10 years, Kofi reenacted his infamous stunt from 2009 at Madison Square Garden; performing a Diving Boom Drop onto Orton on a table from an elevated position from the audience. He also returned the favor for Orton's infamous "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" moment that killed that initial push for him, and then called Orton out and got him to admit that he intentionally had him held back, before finally avenging all of this by beating Orton clean in the middle of the ring despite FTRKO's best efforts to needle Kofi and The New Day the whole time.
By winning the NXT Tag Team Championship at NXT Deadline with Xavier, Kofi becomes the only person in WWE to win all four versions of the Championship note The original World Tag Team Championship, Raw Tag Team Championship which was formerly the Tag Team Championship, the Smackdown Tag Team Championship, and NXT Tag Team Championship. The only other people who come close to this accomplishment are the Hardy Boyz who win three out of four of these titles.
of most WWE title wins