Kofi Kingston

Kofi Sarkodie-Mensah (born August 14, 1981), is a Ghanian professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Kofi Kingston. He is currently signed to WWE and works on its Raw brand where he is one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions with Evan Bourne as Air Boom. Since competing for WWE, he's won 7 total championships: the Intercontinental Championship three times, the United States Championship twice, and the World Tag Team Championship once with CM Punk and WWE Tag Team Championships with Evan Bourne.

World Wrestling Entertainment / WWE (2006–present)

He made his official wrestling debut in 2006, when he faced Evan Siks on June 4. He competed primarily in the New England area, including stints in National Wrestling Alliance – New England, Millennium Wrestling Federation, New England Championship Wrestling, the Eastern Wrestling Alliance, and Chaotic Wrestling. In September 2006, he signed a developmental contract with WWE and was assigned to Deep South Wrestling (DSW), a Georgia based developmental federation. He debuted in the new company, as Kofi Nahaje Kingston, in a dark match loss to Montel Vontavious Porter on September 21. For the rest of 2006 and the beginning of 2007, he appeared in DSW, as well as its Kentucky based sister promotion Ohio Valley Wrestling, where he was in a tag team dubbed the "Commonwealth Connection" with Harry Smith. In 2005, under the ring name "Kofi Nahaje Kingson", he had his first exposure to the main WWE roster, when he worked dark matches on March 5 and 26 before episodes of Raw against Charlie Haas and Trevor Murdoch, respectively. When he returned to the developmental federations, he shortened his original ring name to "Kofi Kingston" and continued to use both ring names throughout his duration there. He also worked live events, defeating Shelton Benjamin on May 5, and Val Venis on May 6.

When the Florida based developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling, opened in June, Kingston was relocated there, appearing at their first show on June 26 teaming with Eric Pérez against Keith Walker and Rycklon Stephens in a losing effort. Kingston worked there for most of the remainder of the year.

Return to Raw; United States and WWE Tag Team Champion (2011)

On April 26, 2011, Kingston was drafted back to the Raw brand as part of the 2011 Supplemental Draft. On May 1, Kingston defeated Sheamus in a Tables Match at Extreme Rules to win his second United States Championship, in the process returning the title to Raw. On the June 13 edition of Raw, Stone Cold Steve Austin granted Dolph Ziggler a championship match against Kingston. At WWE Capitol Punishment, Kingston lost the title to Ziggler. Kingston used his rematch clause at the Power to the People edition in a 2-out-of-3 Falls match, which he won by disqualification and Ziggler retaining the United States Championship. On the August 22 episode of Raw, Kingston won the WWE Tag Team Championship with Evan Bourne when they defeated David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty. On the August 29 edition of Raw, the duo was called "Air Boom", and they had their first successful title defense when they defeated Otunga and McGillicutty in a rematch.