5 things we learned about Kofi Kingston on Lilian Garcia's podcast

Over the past two years, Lilian Garcia's Chasing Glory podcast has impacted the lives of many people through some incredible interviews. She has the ability to bring people to open up and share their stories of weakness, with many real, raw and inspiring interviews with most of the current roster and some former superstars, including the likes of Becky Lynch, Batista and Corey Graves among so many more familiar faces.

This week, on the milestone 100th episode of the show, the former WWE ring announcer spoke to Kofi Kingston, who is currently reigning WWE Champion. Not a bad get for the century. This episode was another riveting listen among the stark majority of them, as Kofi spoke about how his life was, from moving to the United States at one year old all the way to winning the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35.

Here are five things we learned about Kofi Kingston on Lillian Garcia's 'Chasing Glory' podcast.

#5 The Ghana-Jamaica connection

Kofi Kingston was born in Ghana, but he and his family moved to the United States when he was one. Kofi went back just a handful of times since then, learning a valuable lesson over there that life was much more than material things. That would be his only trip to the country since returning there as WWE Champion. It seemed like a no brainer for Kofi to portray a Ghanaian on WWE programming, right? That wouldn't be the case initially, as there was a similar character in Ring of Honor at the time, Prince Nana.

This forced the New Day member to brainstorm for a new character. That would be done when he was listening to a Damian Marley album, as he tried out a Jamaican accent in promo class. Kofi eventually became 'Jamaican' to start off in WWE. However, he received some severe backlash from Ghanaians, and even Jamaicans, on MySpace for portraying the character. After over a year of the weird accent, Kofi dropped the entire Jamaican schtick due to a problematic interview with the BBC, which he did entirely in character.

Lilian Garcia would be left confused when she was told to introduce Kofi Kingston from Jamaica one week and Ghana, West Africa the other. She funnily mentioned that she never got any backstory or reasoning for various changes in what she had to say. This was one of the most striking alterations in recent WWE history.

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#4 He is grateful for all his tag-team partners

Lilian Garcia touched upon Kofi Kingston's various tag-team partners, ones he had shared the Tag Team Championships with. Kofi is quite the decorated tag champ, winning the titles with multiple people. He also said that he learned so much from each of them. CM Punk took a recently debuted Kingston under his wing in 2008, giving him advice and helping him settle in the company. The abrupt formation of their partnership would not be a detriment to the eventual friendship that Punk and Kofi would share.

In 2011, he would team with Evan Bourne, a team that wowed the WWE universe during their entire existence as Air Boom. They were actually solid WWE Tag Team Champions and continuously put in brilliant performances. Kofi even said that the pair would attempt to out-do each other every night, while out-doing their opponents together. This team ended due to Bourne's suspensions, forcing Kofi to go back to the drawing board as well. He would flounder for a while before teaming with R-Truth.

The current WWE Heavyweight and 24/7 Champion would have a blast together as Tag Team Champions, with Kofi learning so much about entertaining crowds beyond wrestling moves from Truth. He had no regrets from any of the three tag team partners he had, saying that he doesn't stress at all and just moves forward.

#3 The circumstances of the New Day's formation were a shoot

Despite winning the tag team title with multiple superstars, it is without a single iota of doubt that Kofi Kingston's best partners are Big E and Xavier Woods. He even credited the New Day for his unbelievable rise to become WWE Champion, stating that it would not be possible without E and Woods. However, the way these three became one was not under the best circumstances. All three were unhappy at their position in WWE at the time, mid-2014 when Woods pitched the idea of a 3-man group to Big E and Kofi.

The thing is, this was precisely what happened both on TV and in real life. The trio wanted to be disgruntled heels upon formation and worked towards an impactful debut, but Vince McMahon changed their act and wanted them to become positivity preachers. Kofi, Big E and Woods debuted as such, several months after going off TV, but the fans hated them and rejected the entire premise of their character.

Luckily, the New Day was allowed to turn heel and let loose. This would make them the most over act in the entire company, and now, all three men are permanent stars in the business. It really is weird looking back at the New Day during less successful times, especially when they are 6-time Tag Team Champions, even holding the longest reign ever at 483 days.

#2 He trained with a couple of former NXT stars

Kofi Kingston's family moved around the United States, living in New Orleans among a couple of other cities for a few years before they eventually settled in Boston. He looked to live a normal life and worked a desk job at Staples for three years, before quitting and trying his hand in wresting. Kofi trained at Chaotic Wrestling, along with a couple of familiar faces. In his class was former NXT Champion, Tommaso Ciampa, who did mention that he and Kofi had teamed up during a dark match in WWE in 2006.

The head trainer of the class was Ivar, formerly known as Hanson, of the Viking Raiders. When WWE came to Chaotic Wrestling for a tryout, Kofi would become the only member of the class to be signed. He impressed in front of legends like Dean Malenko and Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, having multiple matches as both a face and a heel. Kofi looks back fondly at those times but felt bad for some of the others that he was the only one picked up.

Ciampa and Hanson would eventually sign for WWE, much to Kofi's delight. The match between the New Day and the Viking Raiders on Raw was a special one for the WWE Champion, as he finally got to wrestle his Chaotic Wrestling trainer in a WWE ring. It was a full-circle moment for those who knew about it, as described by Kofi.

#1 WrestleMania 35 was not the culmination

Kofi Kingston's journey towards the WWE Championship was one of the greatest storylines in WrestleMania history, creating one of the greatest moments in WrestleMania history. It was pretty much perfect, but Kofi will not rest to let that define him. He is out to have an amazing reign with the WWE Championship. He told Lilian that the top of one mountain is the bottom of another mountain you want to climb. Kofi wants a memorable and lengthy title reign, already clocking up some solid title defences against the likes of Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler and Sami Zayn.

Some of the storytelling and booking during his reign could be better, but the in-ring work `really holds up as a world title reign. Kofi Kingston needs to have that one defining match and feud, to make his title reign a complete and utter success. Hopefully, that will come in the form of an old rival, with a very interesting WWE Championship match against Randy Orton coming up at SummerSlam. Kofi was even asked who he would like to face for the title, answering with a laundry list of talent.

He is so excited for the ascent of various NXT superstars, particularly Tommaso Ciampa. Kofi would also like to wrestle the likes of Johnny Gargano, Adam Cole and Velveteen Dream among others. He is remaining positive and optimistic about the future, proving that the Power of Positivity is not just a gimmick. It is a way of life for him.

You can listen to this interview as well as some of Lilian Garcia's other incredible ones, here.