5 Things You Should Know About Kofi Kingston

Kofi Kingston has done it! The New Day member has finally won the WWE Championship and what a way to to do it!

11 years after joining WWE, Kofi has finally got his hands on the big one. The WWE veteran and one-third of the New Day has been a fan favorite for a long time and the WWE Universe just loved it when he pinned Daniel Bryan.

Follow up on 2019 WrestleMania 35 Results here

There are a lot of interesting things about Kofi but listing them all out is difficult. So, here are 5 important things you should know about the new WWE champion:

#5 Kofi almost quit WWE before New Day was formed

Kofi Kingston is seen as that amazing mid-carder who will do anything to entertain the fans. But that wasn't always the case.

In a recent interview, Kofi revealed that he was once fed up with the lack of push and thought of quitting WWE. He said:

“The closest time I’ve come (to quitting), I don’t want to say it was the lowest point of my career, but before I joined the New Day, I was at a point when I would go out there and be the happy go lucky guy who was gonna have a great match and probably end up losing. At a certain point, when you keep going out there and doing the same thing over and over again, it gets repetitive and boring. It was at that point, I didn’t know how much longer I would be able to do that.”

Things would have been so different if he had actually walked away. Imagine the Royal Rumbles without him and also what would have happened if New Day wasn't formed! It's a good thing he decided to stay and now, he would be glad that he did.

#4 CM Punk is his best friend, brother and ‘road wife’

CM Punk might have left WWE a long time ago and it looks like more than the WWE Universe, it's Kofi Kingston who would be missing him. The New Day member spoke about how close they are in an interview in 2014 and how much they cared about each other.

He said:

Yeah, we were each other’s road wives. With Punk, I consider him to be like a brother to me. He’s one of the guys who took me under his wing when I first came. So we’ve been able to maintain a good relationship. And there are very few people in the business that you can call true friends, so I consider Punk to be that and more. So yes, “road wife” is the term we used to sum that all up.

CM Punk also had some stories to say about Kofi:

#3 Jamaican, from Ghana but raised in Boston

At the start of his WWE career, Kofi Kingston was portrayed as a Jamaican. He also had a weird accent to go along with it and he played it out really well. He did manage to convince the majority of the WWE Universe that he was from the Caribbean and that's what the character is all about right?

However, Kofi's roots are actually in Ghana. He is from the African country and at WrestleMania 35, he became the first ever African-born WWE Grand Slam Champion! WWE used his Ghanian roots during the FIFA World Cup in 2014 but they didn't win a single game and this was scaped in no time.

Interestingly, WWE have used both Jamaica and Ghana but not Boston – the place where he was actually raised. Now that he is the WWE champion, there might be a chance in this.

#2 Trained Under Killer Kowalski

Killer Kowalski

Killer Kowalski has helped a lot of WWE wrestlers in their initial days with basic training and Kofi Kingston is one of them. The legendary wrestler was a part of several organizations including the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and World Wide Wrestling Federation (now WWE)

Killer Kowalski has a wrestling school in Massachusetts and that is where Kofi got his basic training. While their wrestling styles are totally different, Kofi might not be where he is today without the guidance of Kowalski.

Kofi isn't most popular WWE star to have got training from the great as it is claimed that as Chyna, Triple H, and even Damien Sandow were a part of his school in their initial days.

Kowalski passed away in August 2008 – 2 years after Kofi got on WWE's books. He was a part of their developmental territories first before making his ECW debut in 2007.

#1 Grand Slam Champion

With the WWE Championship victory at WrestleMania 35, Kofi Kingston is now a Grand Slam Champion. He has held all the top titles in WWE and only the newly formed WWE Universal title is not in his list of accolades.

Before the victory at WrestleMania 35, Kofi Kingston had won the Intercontinental Championship 4 times, WWE United States Championship 3 times and was the tag team champion as many as 8 times!

He also became the first ever African Grand Slam champion in the history of WWE when he defeated Daniel Bryan. Kofi is also the first ever WWE Champion of African origin – so he is well and truly doing to be remembered for decades to come!

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Does Kofi have what it takes to defend the title for a long time or will he lose his title in his very first defense? Let us know in the comments section below!