One of AEW’s newest stars, Kofi, has revealed how Prince Nana’s work in Ring of Honor influenced his decision to debut as a Jamaican character in WWE.
Kofi first signed with WWE back in 2006 and initially worked in the promotion’s then-developmental territory, Deep South Wrestling. Despite being from Ghana, he decided to create a Jamaican character known as Kofi Kingston.
The star left WWE earlier this year alongside his longtime New Day partner Xavier Woods, and the pair made their AEW debuts at All In London, allying themselves with Swerve Strickland and his manager, Prince Nana.
During an interview with TMZ Sports, the former WWE Champion revealed that it was actually because of Nana that he went with a Jamaican persona, despite it angering both Jamaicans and Ghanaians.
“I don’t think I’ve ever told this, but initially, when I first debuted as an on-screen character, I was Kofi Kingston, from Kingston, Jamaica. People on MySpace were really mad at me, Jamaicans were mad at me, and then Ghanaians were also mad at me because I wasn’t representing.
“They knew that Kofi is, it’s like Mike in Ghana. If your name is Kofi, you’re from Ghana, we know that. ‘How come you’re representing Jamaica? You don’t want our culture?’ or whatever.
One of the big reasons that I went away from a Ghanaian character was because Prince Nana was already doing it in ROH. So I was like, ‘I don’t want to just come out and be another guy. I gotta do something different that hasn’t been done.'”
The star’s Jamaican gimmick lasted until 2009, when he stopped using his fake accent, and was officially announced as being from Ghana.
Kofi Believes Prince Nana Is Underrated
Kofi went on to praise Prince Nana, saying that the veteran is underrated, particularly when it comes to his knowledge of the wrestling business.
“He and I have crossed paths a little bit throughout the duration of my career. So to have it come around and to have him be involved in an elimination spot in a battle royal and to actually have it work, we actually ended up winning the match after all these years, it was really cool, he’s been really awesome”
“Just a great personality, very knowledgeable about the business. I think underrated in a lot of different ways, but really cool to be alongside of him. It’s just crazy how everything always comes back around.”
At AEW All In London, The New Level captured the World Trios Titles alongside Swerve Strickland, and later in the night made it clear that they would also be pursuing the Tag Team Championship, currently held by Adam Copeland and Christian Cage.
