Kofi Kingston, the Ghanaian sensation in wrestling!

Kofi Kingston

This week, your exciting Chronicle Entertainment driver brings to you a Ghanaian celebrity, whose fame evolves not around music or movies, but in wrestling! Despite the hullabaloo about his origin, he is indeed adored by his fans both in and out of the ring.

Well, meet Kofi Sarkodie-Mensah, also known as Kofi Kingston, as his ring name. The Ghanaian professional wrestler was born on 14th of August 1981. Now 28, He is currently working on the Raw brand in World Wrestling Entertainment.

Kingston was born in Ghana, standing 6 feet and weighing 218 pounds, he attended high school in Winchester Massachusetts, and earned a degree in Communications at Boston College.  He started wrestling in 2005, where he was named as a Jamaican rather than a Ghanaian, since people would be more interested if he is more likely the same as the famous Bob Marley.

Kofi is managed by Barry Ace, and his developmental territories are in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and Georgia-based Deep South Wrestling (DSW). He had professional debut on June 4th of 2006.

In the ring, Kingston has different names, like The Jamaican Sensation and Controlled Frenzy in WWE, the Angry Jamaican in Chaotic Wrestling (CW) and many more, he actually has changed his ring name from time to time.

He first used the name Kofi Nahaje Kingston when he started out in wrestling. Kofi used this name in the Montel Vontavious Porter dark match last September 21st of 2006.

Then he changed it to Kofi Jamaica, when he competed against Charlie Haas and Trevor Murdoch, the competition happened in the WWE dark matches last March 5 and 26, 2007.

This appearance was his first exposure in the WWE roster, after that he again changed his name back to Kofi Kingston, minus the Nahaje, to make it shorter.

Kingston is the first Ghanaian wrestler who held the Intercontinental Championship title. He took the title from Chris Jericho at the Night of Champions in Dallas, Texas, last June 29th of 2008.  The title remained with him until the Augusts' Summer Slam where he was defeated by Beth Phoenix and Santino Marella. On his television debut, he joined Wrestle Mania XXIV pre-show for the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). He won over local wrestler David Owens but was defeated by Mark Henry.

He defeated Evan Siks in the PWF Mayhem Heavyweight Championship on June 4, 2006, and went on to defeat Shelton Benjamin and Val Venis on the 5th and 6th of 2007 consecutively during house shows last May 2007. His famous finishing move is what he called Trouble in Paradise, which includes the dropkick, monkey flip, Russian leg sweep and the seated mounted punches.

And his signature move is the Thunder Clap. Although the wrestler tried hiding his identity as a Ghanaian in the early stages of his career, thus his claim to be Jamaican, along the way he decided it was time to come back to his roots!