Kofi Kingston

Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie-Mensah (born August 14, 1981) is a Ghanaian-born American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on both the SmackDown and NXT brands under the ring name Kofi Kingston. He is one-half of the current NXT Tag Team Champions with Xavier Woods in their first reign. After graduating from Boston College, he decided to pursue a professional wrestling career, and began performing on the New England independent circuit as a Jamaican wrestler by the name of Kofi Nahaje Kingston. After signing a developmental deal with WWE in 2006, he shortened his ring name to Kofi Kingston. He debuted in WWE in 2008 using the same Jamaican character as he did on the independent circuit. In late 2009, he stopped being billed from Jamaica and dropped the accent, although he kept his ring name. He then started being billed from his home country of Ghana. From 2008 to 2013, Kingston became a four-time Intercontinental Champion, a three-time United States Champion, and a one-time World Tag Team Champion with CM Punk. In 2014, he formed The New Day with Big E and Xavier Woods. The trio went on to break the record for the longest tag team championship reign in WWE history when they held the WWE (Raw) Tag Team Championship from August 2015 to December 2016, defending the titles under the Freebird rule. All totaled, Kingston is a 15-time tag team champion in WWE. In April 2019, Kingston defeated Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 35 to win the WWE Championship, giving him 23 total championships in WWE.