At WrestleMania 35, Kofi Kingston reached the mountaintop of his career when he defeated Daniel Bryan to win the WWE Championship. His road to the title was a bumpy and struggling one. So has been his WWE career.
2008- Kofi Kingston made his WWE debut with the ECW brand and had a Jamaican gimmick despite not being from Jamaica. He also had an undefeated streak to start off his WWE career, which tells you that the company had seen him having a bright future. His undefeated streak ended in a brilliant feud with Shelton Benjamin in April of that year. After being drafted to Raw, Kingston made history by defeating Chris Jericho for the Intercontintental Championship. You see, Kofi Kingston is from Ghana, making him the first African-born superstar to win a title in WWE. He held the title till SummerSlam, and helped rescue a beaten CM Punk and they formed a team that would win the Tag Team Championship against Legacy. They would end up losing the titles to the Miz and John Morrison towards the end of the year.
So, as you can see, Kofi is no stranger to championships. Also CM Punk and Kofi were close friends during Punk's employment with WWE.
2009- Kofi defeated Jericho to qualify for the Money in the Bank match at WrestleMania 25. It seems like Jericho was the springboard for Kofi's success early in his career. Kofi picked up another title during this year when he defeated MVP for the United States title. He would hold the title for 126 days before losing to the Miz in October. It was around this time where WWE had Kingston drop his fake Jamaican accent for...."reasons". In a promo regarding Bragging Rights, when Kofi tried to calm his Raw teammates down, Triple H responded to him and said "Are you supposed to be Jamaican?" Kofi's face was priceless. Towards the end of the year, Kingston was placed in a program with Randy Orton and I thought this was going to put Kofi into the top tier of the talent pool in the company. One significant promo is when Kofi damaged Orton's race car as the embattled face battling the psychotic heel.
2010- In the final match of their feud, Kofi botched a RKO attempt, which Orton responded by shouting "STUPID! STUPID!". Yes, Orton of 2010 isn't the same man as Orton of present day. This basically killed Kofi's push dead. Towards mid 2010, Kingston was drafted by Smackdown and in his first match defeated, you guessed it, Chris Jericho. Kingston then entered a tournament for the Intercontinential title, which he won. However, he was stripped of the title when the previous champ, Drew McIntyre, was reinstated and the title was returned to him. Kofi would win the title back at Over The Limit of that year. Kofi would then enter a very, underrated feud with Dolph Ziggler. I mean Kofi lost the title, but having him chase the title gave Kofi creditability as a face that the crowd got behind.
2011- Kingston began the year by defeating Ziggler for the IC title. He held the title for two months before losing it to Wade Barrett. Kofi entered that horrible eight man tag match at WrestleMania 27, but came out on the winning team. He would be drafted to Raw and would win the United States Title against Sheamus. In June, he would lose the title to his nemesis, Dolph Ziggler. But in August, he and Evan Bourne won the Tag Team Championship. Despite Bourne being suspended for a Wellness violation, the team known as "AirBoom" kept the titles till the end of the year.
2012- AirBoom lost the titles to start out the year, and Bourne was suspended again for a Wellness policy. At the Royal Rumble, Kingston had the highlight of the night when he landed on the floor with his hands and literally, walked with his hands to the ring steps and back to the ring. He would enter another tag team with R-Truth and guess what? They would win the Tag Team Championship. Truth and Kofi held the titles for five months until they lost them to Team Hell No. After chasing the tag titles, Kofi returned to singles competition and won another IC title. Towards the end of the year, Kofi would challenge for the U.S. title while still holding the IC title. On New Year's Eve, he lost the IC title to Barrett again.
2013- Kofi had another Royal Rumble moment, when he jumped on Tensai's back, went to the announce table and used JBL' s commentary chair to bounce back to the apron. Right after WrestleMania, he won the United States title for the third time, defeating Cesaro. He would lose it weeks later to Dean Ambrose, who would rarely defend the title. Kofi would sit out due to injury for four to eight weeks and when he came back, he went on a losing streak. He lost to Curtis Axel. CURTIS AXEL! He was put in a short, lackluster feud with Bray Wyatt. He would beat the Miz to end the year.
At this point, Kofi had collected many championships and was considered an excellent talent on the roster, but he would begin a rut and something who have to turn his luck around.
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