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133-560: The event received 143,000 pay-per-view buys, down on The Bash's figure of 178,000 buys. This was the only Fatal 4-Way PPV produced by WWE for their main roster, as it was replaced by Capitol Punishment in 2011; however, the promotion revived the name for their developmental territory NXT in 2014 as the brand's second TakeOver event titled NXT TakeOver: Fatal 4-Way . World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) previously ran an annual summer pay-per-view (PPV) titled The Great American Bash from 2004 to 2009, which they had acquired in 2001 when

266-550: A World's Strongest Slam through a broadcast table. Del Rio won the match by technical knockout after Big Show could not continue. In the fourth match, Wade Barrett defended the WWE Intercontinental Championship against Ezekiel Jackson . Jackson forced Barrett to submit to the Torture Rack to win the title. In the fifth match, CM Punk faced Rey Mysterio . The stipulation of the match

399-593: A face with a win over local wrestler David Owen in Charlottesville , Virginia . After wrestling sporadic matches, Kingston was involved in his first major match, a 24-man battle royal during the WrestleMania XXIV pre-show with the winner receiving an ECW Championship match, but was eliminated by Mark Henry . Kingston remained undefeated in singles competition in ECW for months and was placed into

532-754: A feud with Shelton Benjamin at the end of April 2008. After two straight losses, Benjamin got a win over Kingston on the May 20 ECW , ending his undefeated streak. On the June 24 ECW , Kingston defeated Benjamin in an Extreme Rules match to end their feud. On June 25, 2008, Kingston was drafted to the Raw brand , as part of the WWE Supplemental Draft . In his first match as a member of Raw roster, and first championship match in WWE, he defeated Chris Jericho for

665-484: A steel cage match at Extreme Rules for the WWE Championship. John Morrison questioned R-Truth's ability to compete in the match and challenged him to a match for his spot. Morrison won the match, causing R-Truth to turn heel by attacking Morrison. R-Truth would cost Morrison the match at Extreme Rules. R-Truth claimed that there was a conspiracy against him in WWE and announced that he was done entertaining

798-652: A stiff RKO, and Kingston reportedly had a push stopped following complaints from Orton. He would remain a mid-carder for the next decade. He competed in the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship at Elimination Chamber , but was eliminated by the champion Sheamus . At WrestleMania XXVI , Kingston was unsuccessful in the Money in the Bank match, which was won by Jack Swagger . On

931-489: A triple threat number one contender's match the week before, Kingston defeated Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) on the June 1 episode of Raw to win the United States Championship for the first time. For the next several months, he went on to defend and retain the title at Extreme Rules , Night of Champions , Breaking Point , and Hell in a Cell , and on several episodes of Raw , until losing

1064-437: A Christmas Family themed Let's Make a Deal . In 2017, he published The Book of Booty: Shake It. Love It. Never Be It with fellow New Day members Big E and Xavier Woods . Kingston and Xavier Woods appeared on an episode of Smosh Pit 's Try Not to Laugh YouTube series. Sarkodie-Mensah married Kori Campfield on September 11, 2010. They have three children together. Sarkodie-Mensah's favorite wrestler growing up

1197-493: A Codebreaker on Bourne for a near-fall. The match ended when Bourne executed an Air Bourne on Jericho's back and pinned him for the win. In the first main event match, Jack Swagger, Rey Mysterio, Big Show, and CM Punk competed in a fatal four-way match for the World Heavyweight Championship. Big Show dominated the first half of the match, quickly knocking down his opponents. The advantage turned when

1330-419: A Nattie-By-Nature. In the main event, John Cena faced Sheamus, Randy Orton, and Edge in a fatal four-way match for the WWE Championship. None of the competitors stayed in the ring for long as when one would get an advantage over another opponent they would be interrupted by another one of the challengers. The match came to an abrupt end when the rookies from the first season of NXT who had previously formed

1463-647: A Six-Man Tag Team Match. On the September 16 episode of Raw , Kingston and Woods failed to defeat The Judgment Day ( Finn Bálor and JD McDonagh ) for the World Tag Team Championship after the referee was distracted with the remainder of The Judgment Day ( "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio and Carlito with Women's World Champion Liv Morgan ) brawling with Latino World Order (LWO; Dragon Lee , Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde ) at ringside. After

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1596-593: A Street Fight on following SmackDown. In following weeks, Big E would rejoin The New Day as they would start a new feud with Sheamus and Ridge Holland, but during a match Big E encountered a neck injury. Kingston and Woods eventually challenged Sheamus and Ridge Holland for a tag team match at WrestleMania 38 in a losing effort. They would then start a feud with returning Viking Raiders, who would brutally attack them. They would be unsuccessful in defeating Viking Raiders several times. They would then once again start

1729-552: A WWE Championship match at WrestleMania if he beat Sheamus, Cesaro, Rowan , Samoa Joe, and Randy Orton in another gauntlet match, but after Kingston succeeded in beating the five men, McMahon inserted Daniel Bryan in the match who would defeat him. In what was the last chance for Kingston, McMahon announced a gauntlet match for Big E and Xavier Woods, who were able to defeat five other teams, including Bryan and Rowan to give Kingston his championship match against Bryan at WrestleMania 35 . At WrestleMania, Kingston defeated Bryan and won

1862-617: A brief feud with The Usos as they wanted to defend their record of longest-reigning tag team champions, however, they were unsuccessful. They would make a surprise appearance on NXT in December challenging for NXT tag team championship. New Day would win the match and the titles, giving them the Tag Team Triple Crown (Raw, SmackDown, and NXT Tag Team Championships), and making Kingston the first wrestler to have won both WWE's traditional Triple Crown and Tag Team Triple Crown. In

1995-571: A championship match on the October 4 episode of SmackDown , which Kingston accepted. At the 20th Anniversary of SmackDown on October 4, Kingston lost the title to Lesnar in 10 seconds, ending his reign at 180 days. In October 2019, Kingston returned to competing in tag team matches. At Crown Jewel later that month, Kingston and Big E competed in a tag team turmoil match for the WWE Tag Team World Cup, but they failed to win

2128-408: A confrontation between WWE Superstars John Cena and Rey Mysterio . WWE released a similar disclaimer for the artwork as they did for the video. The event featured an appearance by U.S. President Barack Obama impersonator Reggie Brown . The professional wrestling matches at Capitol Punishment featured professional wrestlers performing as characters in scripted events pre-determined by

2261-402: A disqualification, and as a result qualified for the fatal four-way match. The Undertaker and CM Punk won their respective qualifying matches against Rey Mysterio and Kane . Later, Kane found his half-brother Undertaker in a storyline vegetative state, unable to compete and The Undertaker was removed from the match. A battle royal was put in place to determine The Undertaker's replacement in

2394-716: A faction against the roster of the Raw brand, interrupted. The rookies first attacked Cena in the ring. Edge then tried to help him but instead was attacked by Nexus. In the midst of the commotion, Sheamus pinned Cena to win the title, bringing the event to a premature conclusion. Approximately 10,000 people attended Fatal 4-Way live at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York . The event received generally mixed reviews. Bob Kapur from Canadian Online Explorer 's wrestling section awarded

2527-614: A feud with Alberto Del Rio , which culminated in a non-title match at Elimination Chamber , which Kingston lost. On the March 25 episode of SmackDown , Kingston lost the Intercontinental Championship to Wade Barrett . On the April 1 episode of SmackDown , Kingston won his rematch against Wade Barrett by disqualification. At WrestleMania XXVII , after Vladimir Kozlov was injured at the hands of The Corre , Kingston

2660-414: A feud. They retained their titles at Roadblock against The League of Nations. At WrestleMania 32 , The New Day were defeated by The League of Nations in a six-man tag team match. The following night on Raw , they successfully retained their title against The League of Nations, ending their feud. After WrestleMania, they retained their title at Extreme Rules against The Vaudevillains , and at Money in

2793-663: A losing effort. He competed primarily in the New England area, including stints in National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) – New England (where he was briefly a member of Barry Ace's "A-List"), Millennium Wrestling Federation (MWF), New England Championship Wrestling (NECW), the Eastern Wrestling Alliance (EWA), and Chaotic Wrestling. In September 2006, he signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and

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2926-401: A match between Big Show and Del Rio at Capitol Punishment. On the June 17 episode of SmackDown , Del Rio made an appearance, but Big Show ran down to the ring and chased Del Rio into the crowd. The segment ended with Big Show destroying the ringside area. Another feud on the card was between The Miz and his former protégé Alex Riley . At Extreme Rules, Riley was not present when The Miz lost

3059-474: A match between the two at Battleground , which Wyatt won. On the November 18 episode of Raw , Kingston teamed with The Miz to face The Real Americans (Antonio Cesaro and Jack Swagger ), but they lost after The Miz turned on Kingston. This led to a match at Survivor Series , where Kingston was defeated by The Miz. In the upcoming weeks, the feud continued and culminated in a no disqualification match between

3192-474: A match to determine which team would challenge The Bludgeon Brothers at the Greatest Royal Rumble event. The New Day competed in a tag team tournament, defeating Sanity in the first round, while The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus) defeated The Usos. The New Day then defeated The Bar the following week on SmackDown Live to earn the right to face The Bludgeon Brothers at SummerSlam , where they won

3325-425: A more important feud on the card was between CM Punk and Rey Mysterio . Punk and Mysterio similarly exchanged a series of wins and losses like Evan Bourne and Jack Swagger did, but Punk and Mysterio were reigniting a feud dating back to WrestleMania XXVI . Punk enlisted the aid of The New Nexus to help him win against Rey Mysterio, but The Anonymous Raw General Manager announced they will be banned from ringside at

3458-435: A near-fall. In the climax, R-Truth stole a hat and a drink from a young fan in the crowd. When R-Truth handed the drink back to the fan, the fan threw the drink on R-Truth's face. Cena then threw a distracted R-Truth back into the ring and performed an Attitude Adjustment on him to retain the title. After the match, Cena celebrated with the young fan in the ring. Capitol Punishment would be a one-off event for WWE. In 2012 , it

3591-577: A near-fall. Kingston then applied a submission near the turnbuckle, but it was countered by McIntyre, who threw Kingston's legs into referee Charles Robinson , knocking him out. Since the referee was unable to officiate the match, McIntyre forced Long to fill in for the referee. When McIntyre attempted the pin, however, Long refused to count to three. As they argued, Matt Hardy interfered and attacked McIntyre, which allowed Kingston to perform Trouble in Paradise on McIntyre. Kingston then pinned McIntyre for

3724-598: A no contest after interference from The Bludgeon Brothers . Two weeks later, it was confirmed that at WrestleMania 34 , The New Day would face The Usos and The Bludgeon Brothers in a Triple Threat tag team match for the Smackdown Tag Team Championships. The New Day failed to capture the titles at the WrestleMania, which were won by The Bludgeon Brothers . On the April 11 episode of SmackDown Live , The New Day were defeated by The Usos in

3857-530: A rematch at Fatal 4-Way . On July 18 at Money in the Bank , Kingston lost the SmackDown Money in the Bank ladder match when Kane grabbed the briefcase. His Intercontinental reign would end on the August 6 episode of SmackDown , where he lost it against Dolph Ziggler. Kingston would have three title rematches at SummerSlam , Smackdown , and Night of Champions , but he did not win the title. On

3990-662: A rematch on the May 28 Raw . The following night on Raw , they successfully defended the WWE Tag Team Championship against The Prime Time Players ( Titus O'Neil and Darren Young ). At SummerSlam , Kingston and Truth defeated the Prime Time Players to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship. At Night of Champions , Kingston and Truth lost the Tag Team Championship to the team of Daniel Bryan and Kane and failed to regain

4123-562: A standout moment in the match, getting thrown of over the turnbuckles by Cesaro and to avoid elimination by keeping his toes on the steel steps, he would later be eliminated by Sheamus . At Battleground , Kingston competed in the Battle Royal for the Intercontinental Championship, but failed to win the match. During the summer of 2014, Kingston was put in a team with Big E , and Xavier Woods usually as manager. In November, WWE began airing vignettes for Kingston, Woods and Big E, with

WWE Fatal 4-Way - Misplaced Pages Continue

4256-571: A table with the 3D. New Day lost to the Dudley Boyz via disqualification at Night of Champions but retained their tag team titles. The next month, at Hell in a Cell , they defeated the Dudley Boyz to retain their titles. At TLC , The New Day retained the title against The Usos and The Lucha Dragons in a Triple threat tag team ladder match . The New Day retained the titles at Royal Rumble against The Usos. At Fastlane , The New Day turned face by mocking The League of Nations , starting

4389-415: A tables match after being powerbombed through two tables. while Kingston would suffer a legitimate back injury, thus being out for nearly three months. On the October 9 episode of SmackDown , both Kingston and Woods returned from injury and defeated Cesaro and Nakamura, winning their seventh SmackDown Tag Team Championship. After the match, as part of the 2020 Draft , Kingston and Woods were drafted to

4522-608: A team, and Kingston's 13th tag team championship reign individually. On December 20, at TLC , Kingston and Woods lost the Raw Tag Team Championship to The Hurt Business ( Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin ). In January 2021, Kingston stated that he was sidelined with a jaw injury. Kingston returned to the ring on the February 8 episode of Raw , teaming with Woods to defeat Retribution ( T-Bar and Mace ). At Elimination Chamber , Kingston competed in

4655-612: A title match at Capitol Punishment against Jackson, but Gabriel and Slater were angered by his actions. Gabriel and Slater then announced to Barrett that The Corre was no more and he could defend his title on Sunday without their help, effectively dissolving the group. On the May 23 episode of Raw , Big Show sat on Alberto Del Rio's luxury car, which angered Del Rio. When Big Show and his partner Kane lost their WWE Tag Team Championships to The New Nexus ( David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty ), Del Rio mocked them backstage during an interview segment. Del Rio even slapped Big Show across

4788-596: A triple threat ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship, which was won again by Ziggler. On the January 7, 2011, episode of SmackDown , Kingston defeated Ziggler to become the Intercontinental Champion for a third time. Immediately following the match, acting General Manager Vickie Guerrero ordered that Ziggler invoke his rematch clause straight away, but Kingston quickly pinned Ziggler again to retain his championship. Kingston then moved into

4921-486: A triple threat match which included John Cena to determined a challenger for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble , which was won by Orton, who pinned Kingston. Around a week earlier, on the January 4, 2010 episode of Raw , Kingston botched the finish of a match with Orton, and kept getting up despite the plan having been to take a punt kick on the ground from Orton. Orton was reportedly insulted by this, delivered

5054-467: A wrestling match or series of matches. The storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Raw and SmackDown . The main feud for the Raw brand was a fatal four-way match for the WWE Championship between defending champion John Cena , Randy Orton , Edge , and Sheamus . After Cena retained his title against Batista in an "I Quit" match at Over the Limit , Sheamus attacked Cena. On

5187-627: Is still in the tag team 'The New Day' with his partner Xavier Woods, however the 3rd member of the New Day Big E retired in 2022 due to injuries sustained to his neck. Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie-Mensah was born in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana on August 14, 1981, to Kwasi and Elizabeth Sarkodie-Mensah. He has a brother, Kwame (who is a Twitch streamer under the name Temp0 ), and a late sister, Nana Akua. He moved with his family to

5320-418: Is the first, and currently only, African-born world champion in WWE history. His WWE Championship win also made him WWE's 30th Triple Crown Champion and 20th overall Grand Slam Champion (13th under the current format). With his NXT Tag Team Championship win in 2022, Kingston also became a Tag Team Triple Crown Champion , becoming the only wrestler to have won both the traditional and tag team version of

5453-496: The 2024 WWE Draft , The New Day remained on Raw . Woods and Kingston began feuding with Karrion Kross and his stable The Final Testament . Kross attempted to form a wedge between the two tag team competitors, claiming that Kingston was holding Woods back from having a successful singles career, leading to several on-screen and backstage bouts between the two factions. The feud concluded on the August 19 episode of Raw when The New Day and Odyssey Jones defeated The Final Testament in

WWE Fatal 4-Way - Misplaced Pages Continue

5586-464: The Florida -based developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) opened in June, Kingston was relocated there, appearing at their inaugural show on June 26 where he teamed with Eric Pérez against Keith Walker and Rycklon Stephens in a losing effort. Kingston worked there for most of the remainder of the year. A series of vignettes for Kingston's television debut began airing on

5719-708: The Intercontinental Championship at Night of Champions , after Shawn Michaels , whom Jericho was feuding with, attacked Jericho's manager Lance Cade . The win made him the first African-born wrestler to hold a championship in World Wrestling Entertainment. Kingston held the championship until SummerSlam , where he and Women's Champion Mickie James both lost their championships in an intergender "winner take all" tag team match to Santino Marella and Beth Phoenix . At Unforgiven , he appeared backstage, coming to

5852-605: The King of the Ring tournament, where he lost to Jinder Mahal in the first round. Woods, however, went on to win the King of the Ring tournament. Woods, in turn, changed his ring name to "King Woods", and he knighted Kingston as "Sir Kofi Kingston", the Hand of the King. Kingston and Woods then reignited their feud with The Usos, but would be defeated to them at WWE Day 1 and then again in

5985-458: The New England independent circuit as a Jamaican wrestler by the name of Kofi Nahaje Kingston . After signing a developmental deal with WWE in 2006, he shortened his ring name to Kofi Kingston. He debuted in WWEs brand ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) in 2008 using the same Jamaican character as he did on the independent circuit. In late 2009, he stopped being billed from Jamaica and dropped

6118-473: The Raw brand , splitting them from Big E, who remained on the SmackDown brand. On the October 12 episode of Raw , New Day would exchange tag team titles with Raw Tag Team Championship holders The Street Profits , who were drafted to SmackDown. This would mark Kingston and Woods' third reign with the Raw titles as a team (fifth for Kingston individually), New Day's 10th tag team championship reign in WWE as

6251-583: The Raw and SmackDown brands , Capitol Punishment replaced the 2010 Fatal 4-Way themed event. Promotion towards for Capitol Punishment was centered around the setting for the PPV, that being the United States capital, Washington, D.C. , held at the city's Verizon Center on June 19, 2011. WWE produced a video to promote the event using actual press footage of President Barack Obama spliced and edited with footage that WWE recorded using actors. The video

6384-407: The Royal Rumble match in which he was standing on the top-rope when Baron Corbin tried to push him backwards to eliminate him from the match. Instead, he fell directly behind the ring post, grabbed on to the top rope of it and managed to hang on. The New Day were revealed to be the hosts of WrestleMania 33 . The night after WrestleMania on Raw, The New Day issued an open challenge to any team which

6517-589: The SmackDown Tag Team Championship after the brand split, the titles held by The New Day were renamed the Raw Tag Team Championship. They would retain the titles against Gallows and Anderson at SummerSlam and Clash of Champions . Their reign ended at Roadblock: End of the Line , where they lost the title to Cesaro and Sheamus , thus ending their record breaking championship reign at 483 days. On January 29, 2017, Kingston participated in

6650-419: The Torture Rack , his signature submission maneuver, Slater and Gabriel would interfere and attack Jackson. This would make Jackson win the match by disqualification, but Barrett retained as titles can't change hands by disqualification. During a six-man tag team match against The Usos and Jackson on SmackDown , Barrett abandoned Slater and Gabriel. He claimed that he was preserving his own interests since he had

6783-622: The United States and eventually settled in the greater Boston area, where he graduated from Winchester High School in Winchester, Massachusetts , and then Boston College , majoring in communications. Sarkodie-Mensah started training in late 2005 and made his official wrestling debut in 2006 for Chaotic Wrestling , when he faced Evan Siks on June 4 for the PWF Mayhem Heavyweight Championship in

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6916-534: The Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. This was a one-off event, as in 2012 , Capitol Punishment replaced Fatal 4-Way as the June 2011 PPV, but it itself was replaced by the reinstated No Way Out in June 2012. Capitol Punishment had a PPV buy rate of 170,000, up from the 143,000 buys that Fatal 4-Way received in June the previous year. Nine matches were contested at the event, including one match on

7049-640: The WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match, eliminating Randy Orton , before being eliminated by Sheamus . On the March 15 episode of Raw, Kingston and Woods would defeat Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin to win back the Raw Tag Team Championship , the New Day's 11th tag team championship, and Kingston's 14th individually. They would hold the championship until WrestleMania 37 where they lost

7182-532: The WWE United States Championship against Dolph Ziggler (accompanied by Vickie Guerrero ). The match ended when Ziggler applied a sleeper hold on Kingston, who passed out. Ziggler won the match by technical submission and the title. Next, The Miz faced Alex Riley . Riley performed a lifting DDT on Miz to win the match. After that, Big Show faced Alberto Del Rio . Before the match, Mark Henry attacked Big Show and delivered

7315-466: The "WWE" abbreviation becoming an orphaned initialism . WWE revived the event's name in 2014 for their developmental territory NXT as a TakeOver event titled NXT TakeOver: Fatal 4-Way . WWE Capitol Punishment WWE Capitol Punishment was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE . It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions . The event took place on June 19, 2011, at

7448-427: The April 17 episode of SmackDown , where Big E, who represented The New Day, won the titles back from Miz, who represented himself and Morrison, in a triple threat match, also involving Jey Uso, who represented The Usos, and this makes The New Day six-time SmackDown Tag Team Champions. At The Horror Show at Extreme Rules on July 19, Kingston and Big E lost their titles to the team of Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura in

7581-523: The April 26 episode of Raw , Kingston was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the WWE draft . He would win a tournament for the vacant Intercontinental Championship on the May 14 episode of SmackDown . However, moments later, the title win was reversed when the title was returned to the previous champion Drew McIntyre . Kingston would defeat McIntyre for the title at Over the Limit , and retained in

7714-421: The August 29 Raw , the duo was called "Air Boom", and they had their first successful title defense when they defeated Otunga and McGillicutty in a rematch. At Night of Champions , Air Boom retained their titles against The Miz and R-Truth by disqualification after Miz attacked a WWE referee. At Hell in a Cell and Vengeance , Air Boom retained their titles twice against Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger. Bourne

7847-489: The Bank against Gallows and Anderson , The Vaudevillains and Enzo Amore and Big Cass in a Fatal-4 Way Tag Team match. On July 19 at the 2016 WWE draft , Kingston, along with his fellow The New Day teammates, was drafted to Raw . Three days later, on July 22, Kingston, along with Big E and Xavier Woods, became the longest reigning WWE Tag Team Champions in history, breaking the record of 331 days previously set by Paul London and Brian Kendrick . After SmackDown established

7980-651: The Commonwealth Connection with Harry Smith . In 2007, under the ring name Kofi Nahaje Kingston, 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 alternate between 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

8113-469: The December 31 episode of Raw , Kingston lost the Intercontinental Championship to Barrett, ending his reign at 74 days. Kingston received his rematch four days later on SmackDown, but lost the match. On January 27, 2013, at the Royal Rumble , Kingston participated in the Royal Rumble match, and after eliminating Tensai , he was pushed out of the ring, but Kingston jumped on Tensai's back, landed on

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8246-501: The February 12, 2019 episode of SmackDown Live , Kingston was selected to replace Mustafa Ali in the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match at the namesake pay–per–view after Ali suffered an injury. While Kingston lost the Elimination Chamber match against Bryan, his good performance during a one-hour gauntlet match at SmackDown and the Elimination Chamber translated in a huge support by

8379-418: The February 27 Raw , Kingston and Truth failed to capture the WWE Tag Team Championship from Primo and Epico in a Triple Threat Tag Team Match, also involving Ziggler and Swagger. On the April 30 Raw , Kingston and Truth defeated Primo and Epico to win the WWE Tag Team Championship. At Over the Limit , Kingston and R-Truth successfully defended the titles against Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger and then again in

8512-488: The Freebird rule). At Smackville , he successfully defended the title against Dolph Ziggler and Samoa Joe in a triple threat match. Kingston defended his title against Randy Orton at SummerSlam , where the match ended in a double count out. The two had a rematch at Clash of Champions , where Kingston was victorious. On the September 17 episode of SmackDown Live , Brock Lesnar confronted Kingston and challenged him to

8645-467: The June 14 episode, the current Divas Champion, Eve, teamed up with Kim in a winning effort against Maryse and Fox and a fatal four-way match was announced between the four. The event began with Kofi Kingston defending the Intercontinental Championship against Drew McIntyre . SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long was also in attendance near the announce table. The contest was even between both competitors. Kingston executed an S.O.S. on McIntyre for

8778-424: The May 24 episode of Raw , Bret Hart was announced as the new Raw General Manager . Before Batista could cut a promo, Hart interrupted and said that if Batista wanted his rematch, then he would have to qualify. Batista refused to wrestle, citing an injury and Hart then let Orton qualify by forfeit, causing Batista to quit the WWE afterwards. Edge and Sheamus won their respective qualifying matches to gain entry into

8911-464: The October 15 episode of SmackDown , Kingston defeated Drew McIntyre to earn a spot on Team SmackDown at Bragging Rights . At Bragging Rights, Team SmackDown defeated Team Raw. On the December 3 episode of SmackDown , Kingston defeated Jack Swagger to become the number one contender for the Intercontinental Championship, but failed to win back the title when Swagger attacked him during the match. At TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs , Kingston competed in

9044-438: The Prime Time Players to retain their titles in the first ever tag team Elimination Chamber match ; all three members were allowed to compete in a pre-match stipulation. However, they lost the titles at Money in the Bank against The Prime Time Players. However, they would regain the titles at SummerSlam . The following night on Raw , The Dudley Boyz made their WWE return and attacked the New Day with Woods being put through

9177-471: The Royal Rumble match, but was eliminated by Brock Lesnar. At Super ShowDown , Kingston and Big E lost the championships against John Morrison and The Miz and failed to regain the titles at Elimination Chamber . At WrestleMania 36 , Kingston, who represented The New Day, failed to win the titles back from Morrison, who represented himself and Miz, in a triple threat ladder match, also involving Jimmy Uso, who represented The Usos. A rematch took place on

9310-456: The WWE Championship for the first time, becoming the first African-born WWE Champion in history and his first world championship win in his career, as well as WWE's 30th Triple Crown and 20th Grand Slam champion . Kingston then successfully defended the title against Daniel Bryan on the May 6 episode of Raw , and against Kevin Owens at Money in the Bank . Kingston then started a feud with

9443-481: The WWE Championship match an eight out of ten and the World Heavyweight Championship match a seven out of ten. He also appreciated Chris Jericho and Evan Bourne for their performances in their match and rated the match as eight out of ten. Overall, he awarded the event a score of eight out of ten. This would be the only Fatal 4-Way PPV produced by WWE for their main roster as it was replaced by Capitol Punishment in 2011. In April 2011, WWE ceased using its full name with

9576-498: The WWE Championship to John Cena. The next night on Raw , Miz regained the championship from Cena after hitting him with the title belt; however, Riley accidentally revealed the title belt in Miz's hands to the referee. The referee then reversed his decision to Miz being disqualified and Cena retaining the championship. At Over the Limit, during The Miz's "I Quit" match with Cena, Riley left his cell phone behind which they had used to trick

9709-524: The WWE Intercontinental Championship for the fourth time in his career. Kingston then began feuding with Wade Barrett, when the two were placed on opposing teams in the traditional five-on-five elimination tag team match on November 18 at Survivor Series . Kingston's team, led by Mick Foley , was defeated by Barrett's team, led by Dolph Ziggler, during which he was eliminated by Barrett. The following night on Raw , Kingston

9842-809: The WWE Tag Team Championship in a fatal four-way match as well as being eliminated by Big Show in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. On the April 6 episode of Raw , The New Day turned heel , which would mark Kingston's first heel turn in WWE ever since debuting in 2008. At Extreme Rules , Kingston and Big E defeated Tyson Kidd and Cesaro to win the WWE Tag Team Championships. At Payback , The New Day defeated Kidd and Cesaro to retain their titles. At Elimination Chamber , The New Day defeated Kidd and Cesaro, The Lucha Dragons , The Ascension , Los Matadores , and

9975-493: The WWE Triple Crown, as well as having the most overall reigns with a WWE-branded tag team championship with 15. With the exception of a few months spent as a villain in 2015 with The New Day, Kingston has been a heroic character for almost the entirety of his WWE career. Kingston has also gotten some distinction through his numerous methods of avoiding elimination during the Royal Rumble . As of today Kofi Kingston

10108-588: The World Heavyweight Championship Elimination Chamber match but was unable to officially enter the match as he was ambushed by Edge , who took Kingston's place and eventually won the match. On the March 9 episode of Raw , Kingston defeated Chris Jericho after interference from Ric Flair , to earn a spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 25 , but the match was won by CM Punk. After winning

10241-439: The accent, although he kept his ring name. He then started being billed from his home country of Ghana . From 2008 to 2013, Kingston became a four-time Intercontinental Champion , a three-time United States Champion , a one-time World Tag Team Champion with CM Punk , and a two-time WWE Tag Team Champion with Evan Bourne and R-Truth . In 2014, he formed The New Day with Big E and Xavier Woods . The trio went on to break

10374-618: The aid of then- World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk , who had been attacked by Randy Orton , Manu , and the World Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase . Soon after coming to his rescue, Kingston and Punk were paired together more often, and on the October 27 episode of Raw , the duo won the World Tag Team Championship. He was also involved at Survivor Series in the traditional ten-men elimination tag team match on

10507-411: The announce table and used a commentary chair from John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) to hop to the ring apron, before being eliminated by Cody Rhodes. On the April 15 episode of Raw , Kingston defeated Antonio Cesaro to win his third United States Championship but lost it on May 19 at Extreme Rules to Dean Ambrose . On the May 31 episode of SmackDown , Kingston was written out of television, as he

10640-557: The card was between Christian and Randy Orton over the World Heavyweight Championship . After losing his rematch against Orton at Over the Limit , Christian challenged Orton to another match for the World Heavyweight Championship on the following episode of SmackDown , but was interrupted by Mark Henry and Sheamus . SmackDown General Manager Teddy Long then announced a triple threat number one contender's match between Christian, Henry, and Sheamus, with

10773-405: The championship match at Capitol Punishment if he won, but Christian ended up winning. After the match, Orton, who was at ringside, attempted to attack Christian, but he escaped; instead, Orton punted Sheamus in the head, sending a message to Christian. Evan Bourne and Jack Swagger had a mini-feud leading up to Capitol Punishment. Bourne and Swagger exchanged a series of wins and losses. But

10906-675: The championship to The Miz on the October 5 episode of Raw , ending his reign at 126 days. On the October 19, 2009 episode of Raw , Kingston spoke without a Jamaican accent during a televised segment, dropped the Jamaican character and began being billed from his home country of Ghana . At Bragging Rights , Kingston wrestled as part of the Team Raw, which lost the match after Raw teammate Big Show betrayed them by chokeslamming Kingston, allowing Chris Jericho to pin Kingston to pick up

11039-401: The crowd, which led to distraction of Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose and costing them the tag titles. On the November 14 episode of SmackDown Live , The Shield led an attack with Raw Superstars and invaded SmackDown similar to the one led by SmackDown and attacked everyone including The New Day. At Survivor Series , The New Day was defeated by The Shield. The New Day failed to regain

11172-544: The episode promoted as Sin City SmackDown , Kingston and Big E represented New Day and defeated The Usos to win back the championship for their second reign in a "Sin City Street Fight", but lost them again to The Usos at Hell in a Cell . On the October 23 episode of Raw, The New Day along with other talent of SmackDown ambushed the Raw locker room. They again appeared on the November 6 episode of Raw in

11305-729: The face, resulting in Big Show chasing Del Rio into the parking lot, but Del Rio's personal ring announcer Ricardo Rodriguez "accidentally" ran Big Show over with Del Rio's car. This injured Big Show's leg and left Kane without a partner. Del Rio and Rodriguez then made fun of Big Show by having Rodriguez dress like him, mocking Big Show's weight. On the June 13 episode of Raw , Big Show returned during Del Rio's match with Kane and assaulted him, but Del Rio managed to escape after Rodriguez attempted to save him, resulting in Big Show beating Rodriguez so badly that Kane had to pull him off Rodriguez. After that, guest host Stone Cold Steve Austin announced

11438-536: The fans as it did not earn him titles. He repeatedly ranted about Cena's popularity and even harassed a young Cena fan and his father by throwing water in the father's face after defeating Cena in a non-title match by countout. The anonymous Raw general manager announced a championship match between him and Cena at Capitol Punishment on the condition that R-Truth apologize for his actions. On the June 6 episode of Raw , R-Truth apologized for his actions and retained his title shot against John Cena. SmackDown's main feud on

11571-489: The hosting promotion , WWE. Storylines between the characters were produced on WWE's weekly television shows Raw and SmackDown with the Raw and SmackDown brands—storyline divisions in which WWE assigned its employees to different programs. Raw's main feud was between John Cena and R-Truth for the WWE Championship . The crazed R-Truth started to set his sights on the WWE Championship and John Cena. R-Truth had been scheduled to compete against The Miz and John Cena in

11704-439: The match alongside Orton. The following three weeks saw the four wrestlers compete against each other in singles and tag team bouts. The main event for the SmackDown brand was a fatal four-way match for the World Heavyweight Championship between Jack Swagger , Big Show , CM Punk , and Rey Mysterio . At Over the Limit, Big Show defeated Swagger by disqualification but did not win the championship since it cannot change hands on

11837-559: The match by disqualification, meaning The Bludgeon Brothers retained their titles. Two days later on SmackDown Live , however, The New Day defeated The Bludgeon Brothers in a no disqualification match to capture the titles for a third time. At Hell in a Cell , The New Day successfully defeated Rusev and Aiden English to retain the titles. A few weeks later on October 6, at Super Show-Down , The New Day again retained their titles by defeating The Bar. At SmackDown 1000 , The New Day lost their titles against The Bar. They would fail to regain

11970-484: The match, Woods was livid that Kingston had approached LWO without being consulted, driving a bigger wedge between the two. On the November 25 episode of Raw , after losing to Alpha Academy ( Otis and Akira Tozawa ) and many weeks of disagreements, the pair had an extremely heated argument, attacking each other's achievements in WWE. In 2012, he guest-starred in an episode of Disney XD 's karate sitcom Kickin' It . In 2016, he appeared with his New Day teammates on

12103-471: The match, which was won by Mysterio, who last eliminated Kane. On the April 12 episode of Raw , Eve Torres beat Maryse for the Divas Championship. When Maryse attempted to seek revenge at Over the Limit, she was defeated by Eve. On the May 17 episode, Gail Kim teamed up with Evan Bourne to defeat Alicia Fox and Zack Ryder . After this, Kim and Fox started to feud for several weeks. On

12236-466: The match. The main event was for the WWE Championship between defending champion John Cena and R-Truth . During the match, Cena applied the STF on R-Truth only for R-Truth to touch the bottom rope to void the submission. R-Truth then performed a scissors kick on Cena for a near-fall. As Cena attempted to perform an Attitude Adjustment on R-Truth, R-Truth countered and performed a Shut Up on Cena for

12369-518: The match. On the November 8 episode of SmackDown , Kingston and Big E defeated The Revival to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, becoming four-time champions as a team, and record fifth reign for The New Day as a stable. At TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs , Kingston and Big E successfully defended the titles against The Revival in a ladder match. On January 26, 2020, at the Royal Rumble , Kingston participated in

12502-568: The move and performed a falling inverted DDT on Orton for a near-fall. Christian performed a spear on Orton for a near-fall. The match ended when Orton performed an RKO on Christian to retain the title, despite Christian's foot being under the bottom rope (which the referee did not see). In the penultimate match and also an impromptu match, Jack Swagger faced Evan Bourne . In the end, Swagger applied an ankle lock on Bourne only for Bourne to counter and pin Swagger with an inside cradle to win

12635-411: The next match, The Miz faced R-Truth for the United States Championship . The match went at a quick pace throughout and ended when Miz reversed R-Truth for a pin attempt to retain the title. In the next match, Unified WWE Tag Team Champions The Hart Dynasty ( Tyson Kidd , David Hart Smith and Natalya ), faced The Usos and Tamina Snuka . The Hart Dynasty won after Natalya pinned Tamina after

12768-494: The other three concentrated their offense mainly on him taking him out for some time. The match was then contested evenly until Punk delivered a GTS to Swagger, but before he could pin him, Kane interrupted them, attempting to put Punk in a casket but Punk escaped with Kane in pursuit. Mysterio took advantage of the situation and delivered the 619 to Swagger and covered him to win the World Heavyweight Title. In

12901-483: The pay-per-view. Ezekiel Jackson started to grow apart from The Corre , and wanted to pursue a singles career away from the group. Wade Barrett , Heath Slater , and Justin Gabriel didn't take kindly to Jackson's new aspirations, and promptly beat him down backstage, thus ousting him from the group. Jackson was given multiple opportunities at Barrett's Intercontinental Championship , but each time he got Barrett in

13034-583: The post-show for SmackDown Live on May 23, however, they did not wrestle or make an appearance on SmackDown Live itself due to Kingston's injury. The New Day made their official return on May 30 episode of SmackDown Live , announcing their objective to defeat The Usos and win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship. The two teams faced off at Money in the Bank , where Big E and Kingston emerged victorious when The Usos purposely got themselves counted out, thus keeping their titles. A rematch took place at Battleground , where Kingston and Woods were successful in capturing

13167-469: The pre-show. In the main event, John Cena defeated R-Truth to retain the WWE Championship . In other prominent matches, Randy Orton defeated Christian to retain the World Heavyweight Championship , Ezekiel Jackson defeated Wade Barrett to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship , and Dolph Ziggler defeated Kofi Kingston to win the WWE United States Championship . As WWE 's June 2011 pay-per-view (PPV) event, which featured wrestlers from

13300-408: The process, Kingston is the only person to have won the original World, Raw, SmackDown, and NXT Tag Team Championships. At NXT Vengeance Day , Kingston and Woods lost the titles to Gallus ( Mark Coffey and Wolfgang ) in a Fatal four-way tag team match ending their reign in 56 days. As part of the 2023 WWE Draft , Kingston, along with teammate Woods, was drafted to the Raw brand. As part of

13433-660: The promotion purchased World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The 2009 event was titled The Bash . In 2010, WWE discontinued The Bash and replaced it with Fatal 4-Way. The event took place on June 20, 2010, at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions . Tickets went on sale on April 24 through Ticketmaster . The card included matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes , villains , or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in

13566-416: The public. The following months, Kingston was involved in a storyline during the road to WrestleMania, known as KofiMania, where he tried to win the WWE Championship, but Mr. McMahon put obstacles. At Fastlane, Kingston was apparently granted a title match by McMahon, but it was instead a handicap match against The Bar, which Kingston subsequently lost. After Fastlane, Mr. McMahon told Kingston he would earn

13699-467: The record for the longest tag team championship reign in WWE history when they held the WWE (Raw) Tag Team Championship from August 2015 to December 2016, defending the titles under the Freebird rule . In total, Kingston is a 15-time tag team champion in WWE. In April 2019, Kingston defeated Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 35 to win the WWE Championship , giving him 23 total championships in WWE. He

13832-541: The referee into believing that Cena had said "I quit". The decision was reversed again and Miz went on to lose the encounter. On the May 23 episode of Raw , after the anonymous Raw general manager denied Miz's request for another WWE Championship match, he blamed Riley for him not regaining the title and fired him. Riley then assaulted Miz, turning face for the first time. The next week, Riley's interview with Michael Cole ended with Cole insulting Riley and Riley attacking Cole. Miz then came out and attacked Riley, but he got

13965-483: The returning Dolph Ziggler , retaining the title at Super ShowDown in a singles match and at Stomping Grounds in a steel cage match . At Extreme Rules , he retained the championship against Samoa Joe, while Big E and Woods won the SmackDown Tag Team Championship for a record-tying fourth time for New Day (which also technically made Kingston a double champion, as WWE counts all of New Day's Tag Team Championship reigns as individual reigns for all three members under

14098-422: The second time since 2005. The next week, Christian again challenged Orton to a World Heavyweight Championship match at Capitol Punishment, which Orton accepted. Later that night, Sheamus defeated Orton in a non-title No Disqualification match after Christian interfered and hit Orton with the title belt again. On the June 17 episode of SmackDown , Sheamus faced Christian with the stipulation that he would be added to

14231-415: The side of Team Batista , but was eliminated by Randy Orton. Kingston and Punk lost the World Tag Team Championship to John Morrison and The Miz at a live event on December 13. When asked about his reign with Punk, he stated that "Punk took him under his wing when he didn't have to and he was always grateful for that friendship". At No Way Out on February 15, 2009, Kingston was scheduled to compete in

14364-563: The stable now being billed as The New Day. The New Day made their in-ring debut on the November 28 episode of SmackDown in a winning effort against Curtis Axel, Heath Slater and Titus O'Neil. They started a brief feud with Gold and Stardust , which Kingston and Big E defeated Gold and Stardust at the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pre-show on December 14. At the WrestleMania 31 pre-show on March 29, 2015, they failed to win

14497-480: The title to Dolph Ziggler. Kingston faced Ziggler in a rematch for the title on the June 20 episode of Raw in a 2-out-of-3 falls match, but Ziggler retained the championship as the match ended with Ziggler being disqualified. On the August 22, 2011 episode of Raw , Kingston won the WWE Tag Team Championship with Evan Bourne, when they defeated David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty . On

14630-432: The titles at Crown Jewel event. In November 2018, The New Day made up part of "Team SmackDown" in a five-versus-five tag-team elimination match at Survivor Series , in which they defeated Team Raw. At TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs , The New Day failed to win the championship from The Bar, in a triple-threat tag team match, also involving The Usos. At Royal Rumble , Kingston was eliminated by Drew McIntyre . On

14763-413: The titles from The Usos at Clash of Champions in a Fatal-4-Way tag team match also involving the team of Rusev and Aiden English , and Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin . At the Royal Rumble on January 28, 2018, Kingston entered the match as the 16th entrant, but was eliminated by Andrade "Cien" Almas . At Fastlane , The New Day faced The Usos for the Smackdown Tag Team Championships, but went to

14896-630: The titles from the new champions the following night on Raw . Both Kingston and Truth were defeated by The Prime Time Players in the first round of the Tag Team Tournament to determine the number one contenders for the Tag Team Championships, causing both Kingston and Truth to disband as a team and each returning to being single competitors. On the October 17, 2012 episode of Main Event , Kingston defeated The Miz to win

15029-405: The titles to AJ Styles and Omos . On the May 17 episode of Raw , Kingston defeated Randy Orton, and then WWE Champion Bobby Lashley on the same night. The following week on Raw , he faced Drew McIntyre in a singles match with a stipulation in which the winner will face Lashley for the WWE Championship at Hell in a Cell , and the match ended in a no contest. A rematch between him and McIntyre

15162-459: The titles, thus making Kingston the first wrestler to hold the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, Raw Tag Team Championship (both its previous and current incarnations), and the original World Tag Team Championship . A month later at the SummerSlam pre-show, however, The New Day (represented by Big E and Woods) dropped the titles back to The Usos, ending their reign at 28 days. On September 12 at

15295-482: The two at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs , which Kingston won. At the Royal Rumble on January 26, 2014, Kingston participated in the Royal Rumble match, where he avoided elimination by landing on the crowd barricade and made an 11-foot jump to get back in the ring, but he was later eliminated by Roman Reigns . At WrestleMania XXX , Kingston competed in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal , where he would have

15428-443: The upper hand and chased Miz out of the arena. A match between the two was then made official for Capitol Punishment. The United States Championship was also defended at the event, with Dolph Ziggler challenging champion Kofi Kingston . On the May 30 episode of Raw , Ziggler defeated Kingston in a non-title match, thus earning a championship match at the pay-per view. The actual pay-per-view opened with Kofi Kingston defending

15561-401: The weekly ECW on Syfy television show starting on December 6, 2007. During this introduction phase, his videos, the official website and commentators noted he would be the first Jamaican to wrestle for WWE, but he does not have any Jamaican ancestry, nor any connection to Jamaica. He is, however, the first African-born performer in WWE history. He debuted on the January 22, 2008 ECW as

15694-420: The win and retained the title. The WWE Divas Championship was defended next by Eve against Alicia Fox, Maryse, and Gail Kim in a fatal four-way match. Eve performed a moonsault on Maryse, but her pin attempt was broken up by Fox, who threw Eve out of the ring. She then covered Maryse and won her first title in the WWE. Chris Jericho cut a promo, challenging Evan Bourne to an impromptu match. Jericho executed

15827-407: The win for Team SmackDown. After Kingston interfered in a match between Randy Orton and John Cena for Cena's WWE Championship match, Orton and Kingston feuded, including a 5-men Survivor Series team against each other where Kingston's team won after he was the sole survivor, last eliminating Orton. and TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs , where Orton defeated Kingston. They also participated in

15960-411: The winner facing Orton for the title the next week. Sheamus won the match after the referee missed Christian's pinfall on Sheamus due to Orton's interference. The following week, Christian asked to be added to the title match that night, but Long instead made him the special guest referee . Christian would help Orton retain the championship, but struck him with the title belt afterwards, turning heel for

16093-463: The year, in which "WWE" became an orphaned initialism . The parody of a White House Presidential press conference is intended to publicize WWE's (World Wrestling Entertainment) pay-per-view television event known as Capitol Punishment, which emanates from our Nation's Capital on Sunday, June 19. The promotional poster for the event also featured the President, where Obama is acting as a referee in

16226-467: Was Shawn Michaels . In a June 2019 interview, he stated that Dolph Ziggler was "one of my favorite opponents of all-time, if not my favorite. Not to toot my own horn or our horn, our matches have always been off the chain. We have really good chemistry." Sarkodie-Mensah has tattoos of Ghanaian Adinkra symbols along his spine. His first name (Kofi) is the traditional name in Ghana for people born on

16359-472: Was accepted by The Revival , who were moved up from NXT, and lost to them. After the match, Revival attacked Kofi Kingston. On April 10, it was announced that Kingston had suffered an ankle injury due to the attack of Revival which would require surgery. On April 11, 2017, The New Day were moved to the SmackDown brand as part of the Superstar Shake-up . The New Day debuted on "Talking Smack",

16492-449: 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 (OVW), where he was in a tag team dubbed

16625-520: Was chosen as Kozlov's replacement in an eight-man tag team match involving Kingston, Kane, Big Show, and Santino Marella versus The Corre, which Kingston's team won. On April 26, Kingston was drafted back to the Raw brand as part of the 2011 Supplemental Draft . At Extreme Rules , Kingston defeated Sheamus in a Tables match to win his second United States Championship. On the May 9 episode of Raw , Kingston successfully defended his championship against Jack Swagger. At Capitol Punishment , Kingston lost

16758-527: Was defeated by Barrett in a non-title match. Kingston, still the Intercontinental Champion, received a shot at the United States Championship on the December 3 episode of Raw against Barrett, R-Truth, and the champion Antonio Cesaro in a fatal four-way match, but was unsuccessful after Cesaro pinned Kingston for the win. At TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs , Kingston successfully defended his title against Barrett. Two weeks later on

16891-417: Was intended to show Obama answering questions about Capitol Punishment in a press conference. First airing on May 22 at Over the Limit , WWE received criticism for the video. To avoid legal complications with the U.S. government, WWE added a disclaimer at the start of the video for future airings. This included spelling out their acronym as "World Wrestling Entertainment", a name they ceased using earlier in

17024-451: Was replaced by the reinstated No Way Out . Kofi Kingston Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie-Mensah (born August 14, 1981) is a Ghanaian-born American professional wrestler . As of September 2006, he is signed to WWE , where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Kofi Kingston and is part of The New Day . After graduating from Boston College , he decided to pursue a professional wrestling career, and began performing on

17157-401: Was scheduled on Raw next week with the same stakes, where Kingston would lose. On the June 21 episode of Raw , Kingston interrupted Lashley and challenged him for the title, Lashley accepted and the match was scheduled for Money in the Bank . At the event, he lost the match. As a part of the 2021 Draft , Kingston and Woods were drafted to the SmackDown brand. In October, Kingston entered

17290-475: Was suspended again for his second violation of WWE's Wellness Policy. At Royal Rumble , Kingston participated in the Royal Rumble match and although he did not win, he had a stand-out moment when he saved himself from elimination by walking on his hands to reach the ring steps and re-enter the ring. At Elimination Chamber , Kingston failed to capture the WWE Championship after being eliminated third by Chris Jericho. Kingston then began teaming with R-Truth. On

17423-477: Was suspended throughout November for his first violation of the company's Wellness policy. At TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs Air Boom successfully retained their titles against Primo & Epico . On January 15, 2012, Air Boom lost the Tag Team titles to Primo and Epico at a house show. The following night on Raw , Air Boom were awarded a rematch but failed to regain the titles. The following day, Bourne

17556-429: Was that The New Nexus was banned from ringside. In the end, as Punk attempted to perform a GTS on Mysterio, Mysterio countered and attempted to perform a 619 on Punk, however, Punk countered and performed a GTS on Mysterio to win the match. In the sixth match, Randy Orton defended the World Heavyweight Championship against Christian . During the match, Orton attempted an RKO on Christian, but Christian countered

17689-401: Was undergoing elbow surgery and was expected to be out for four to eight weeks. Kingston returned from injury on the August 5 episode of Raw , defeating Fandango . At Night of Champions , Kingston faced Curtis Axel for the Intercontinental Championship, but was defeated. In the following weeks, Bray Wyatt would start delivering cryptic messages to Kingston after his matches, leading to

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