Kofi Kingston

Kofi Nahaje Kingston

Kingston made his first appearance in the WWE, as **Kofi Nahaje Kingston**, in a dark match loss to Montel Vontavious Porter on September 21, 2006.

In 2007, 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. He also worked live events, defeating Shelton Benjamin on May 5, and Val Venis on May 6.

A series of vignettes for Kingston's television debut began airing on 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 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 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.

As part of the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, Kingston was drafted to the Raw brand. In his first match as a member of Raw roster, and first championship match in WWE, he defeated Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Championship at Night of Champions, after Shawn Michaels, whom Jericho was feuding with, attacked Jericho's valet 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 Beth Phoenix and Santino Marella.

At Unforgiven, he appeared backstage, coming to the aid of then-World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk, who had been attacked by Manu, Randy Orton, and the World Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. Soon after coming to his rescue, Punk and Kingston were paired together more often, and on the October 27 *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 the side of Team Batista, but was eliminated by Orton. Kingston and Punk lost the World Tag Team Championship to John Morrison and The Miz at a WWE live event on December 13.

At No Way Out 2009, Kingston was scheduled to compete in the World Heavyweight Championship Elimination Chamber but was unable to officially enter the match as he was ambushed by Edge, who took Kingston's place and eventually won the match.

Kingston defeated Chris Jericho, after interference from Ric Flair, to earn a spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania XXV, but the match was won by CM Punk. After winning a triple threat number one contender's match the week before, Kingston defeated Montel Vontavious Porter on the June 1 *Raw* to win the United States Championship. 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 the championship to The Miz on the October 5 *Raw*, ending his four-month reign at 126 days. On the October 12 *Raw*, Kingston defeated Evan Bourne to qualify for Team Raw at WWE Bragging Rights. On the October 19 *Raw*, Kingston spoke without a Jamaican accent during a televised segment for the first time in his career and subsequently dropped the Jamaican character and began being billed from his home country of Ghana.

At Bragging Rights, Team Raw lost the match after the *Raw* team member Big Show betrayed them by chokeslamming Kingston, allowing Chris Jericho to pick up the win for Team SmackDown. During WWE Bragging Rights, Kingston and Raw teammate Cody Rhodes argued about Kingston losing their match. So, when Rhodes and Ted DiBiase interfered on Randy Orton's behalf during his WWE Championship match, Kingston ran out with a chair and chased them out of the arena. Orton later lost the match. On the October 26 *Raw*, Kingston began a feud with Orton, who believed Kingston cost him the WWE Championship. This led to the two leading 5-men Survivor Series team against each other where Kingston's team won after he was the sole survivor, last eliminating Orton. On the November 30 *Raw*, Kingston was scheduled to face Orton in a one on one match, only to be assaulted from behind by Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. Despite the assault, Kingston still wished to continue, and was quickly defeated by Orton. The following week, Kingston defeated Orton in a rematch where guest referee Mark Cuban, who had a grudge against Orton since their encounter at Survivor Series in 2003, gave Kingston a fast count. With one victory apiece, the two wrestled again at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, and Orton won. On the December 28 *Raw*, Orton interfered in Kingston's match for the United States Championship. On the January 4 *Raw*, Orton once again defeated Kingston and ended their feud. The next week, Kingston and John Cena lost a Triple Threat match, which determined a challenger for Sheamus' WWE Championship at Royal Rumble, to Randy Orton, who pinned Kingston.

On the February 1 *Raw*, Kingston won a qualifying match by defeating the Big Show via disqualification to advance to the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match at the inaugural Elimination Chamber event. Kingston, however, failed to win after being eliminated by Sheamus. The following night on the February 22 episode of *Raw*, Kingston teamed up with Yoshi Tatsu and Evan Bourne against Randy Orton, Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes in a six-man tag team match. During the match, Orton turned face by attacking Rhodes and DiBiase, which allowed Kingston, Tatsu and Bourne to win. On the March 22 episode of *Raw*, Kingston defeated Vladimir Kozlov to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania XXVI. At the event however, Kingston was unsuccessful as the match was won by Jack Swagger.

On April 26, as part of the 2010 WWE draft, Kingston was drafted to the SmackDown brand. In his debut match for the brand, he defeated Chris Jericho. On the following *SmackDown*, Kingston was entered into a four-man tournament for the vacant Intercontinental Championship after Drew McIntyre had been stripped of the title earlier in the show. He went on to defeat Dolph Ziggler in the first match of the tournament. Christian defeated Cody Rhodes in the second match. As a result, Kingston faced and defeated Christian in the finals of the tournament to seemingly win his second Intercontinental Championship on the May 14 *SmackDown*. However, moments later, McIntyre came out with a letter, signed by Vince McMahon, saying that Theodore Long was irresponsible and abused his power. The letter also stated that McIntyre was reinstated to the active roster and that Kingston was stripped of the Intercontinental Championship, which returned to McIntyre.

At Over the Limit, Kingston defeated McIntyre to win his second official Intercontinental Championship. Kingston mentored Michael McGillicutty on the second season of *WWE NXT*. At Fatal 4 Way, Kofi defended the Intercontinental Championship against Drew McIntyre. On July 18 at Money in the Bank, Kingston lost the SmackDown Money in the Bank ladder match when Kane grabbed the briefcase. The following *SmackDown*, Kingston lost to Dolph Ziggler in a non-title match. On the July 30 *SmackDown*, Kingston faced Ziggler in a rematch but lost via disqualification, resulting in Ziggler earning a title match. On August 6 *SmackDown*, Ziggler defeated Kingston to win the Intercontinental Championship. Kingston got his rematch for the title on August 15 at SummerSlam, which ended in a no contest after The Nexus interfered. On the August 20 *SmackDown*, Kingston faced Ziggler once again for the Intercontinental Championship defeating Ziggler by disqualification, but by rule, Ziggler retained his Intercontinental Championship. At Night of Champions, Ziggler again faced Kingston for the title where Ziggler retained by pinfall.

On the October 15 *SmackDown*, Kingston defeated Drew McIntyre to earn a spot on Team SmackDown at Bragging Rights. Team SmackDown won the match. On the December 3 *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, Swagger and Dolph Ziggler had a ladder match for the Intercontinental title which was won by Ziggler.

On the January 7, 2011 *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 a feud with Alberto Del Rio, which culminated in a non-title match at Elimination Chamber, which Kingston lost. On March 22, at the tapings of the March 25 *SmackDown*, Kingston lost the Intercontinental Championship to Wade Barrett. On April 1 *SmackDown*, Kingston won his rematch against Wade Barrett by disqualification. After Vladimir Kozlov was injured at the hands of The Corre, Kingston was chosen as Kozlov's replacement in an eight-man tag team match involving Kofi, Kane, Big Show and Santino Marella versus The Corre at WrestleMania 27, which Kingston's team won. On April 26, Kingston was drafted back to the Raw brand as part of the 2011 Supplemental Draft. On May 1, Kingston defeated Sheamus in a Tables Match at Extreme Rules to win his second United States Championship, in the process returning the title to Raw. On the May 9 *Raw*, Kingston successfully defended his championship against Jack Swagger. At WWE Capitol Punishment, Kingston lost the title to Dolph Ziggler. Kingston faced Ziggler in a rematch for the title on the June 20 *Raw* in a 2-out-of-3 Falls match, but Ziggler retained the United States Championship as the match ended with Ziggler being disqualified.

On the August 22 *Raw*, Kingston won the WWE Tag Team Championship with Evan Bourne when they defeated David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty. On 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 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 was suspended again for his second violation of WWE's Wellness Policy.

At the 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 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 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 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 October 17, 2012 on *Main Event*, Kingston defeated The Miz to win the 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 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 *Raw*, against champion Antonio Cesaro, R-Truth, and Wade Barrett 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 the December 31 *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. At the 2013 Royal Rumble event, Kingston had another stand-out moment in the Rumble match. After eliminating Tensai, he was pushed out of the ring, but Kingston jumped on Tensai's back, landed on the announce table and used a commentary chair from John "Bradshaw" Layfield to hop to the ring apron before being eliminated by Cody Rhodes.

On the April 15 on *Raw*, Kingston defeated Cesaro to win his third United States Championship but lost it on May 19 at Extreme Rules to Dean Ambrose. On May 31, Kingston was written out of TV, as he was undergoing elbow surgery and was expected to be out for four to eight weeks. Kingston returned from injury on August 5. At Night of Champions, he faced Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel, but was defeated. In late September, Bray Wyatt would start delivering cryptic messages to Kingston after his matches, leading to a match between the two on October 6 at Battleground, which Wyatt won. At Survivor Series, Kofi was defeated by The Miz. In the upcoming weeks, Kingston would lose to The Miz in multiple matches. Kingston would finally win a rematch against The Miz at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in a No Disqualification Match.

Kingston entered at number 8 at the Royal Rumble, and avoided elimination by landing on the crowd barricade and made an 11-foot jump to get back in the ring. He was later the seventh person eliminated by Roman Reigns. On the February 13 episode of *SmackDown*, Kingston would tap out to Jack Swagger in a number one contender's match for the Intercontinental Championship in a match also featuring Mark Henry and Rey Mysterio; on the March 21 episode of SmackDown, Kingston was announced in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania XXX. Kingston would have 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 Payback, Kingston would compete in a match against Bo Dallas, but he would be assaulted by Kane for his tweets against Stephanie McMahon. Kingston competed in the Intercontinental Championship Battle Royal at Battleground where he again avoided elimination by being caught by Big E and rode his shoulders to the ring. Despite this, he did not win.

During the summer of 2014, Kingston was put in a team with Big E, with Xavier Woods usually as manager. In November, WWE began airing vignettes for Kingston, Woods and Big E, with 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 on the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pre-show on December 14. On the WrestleMania 31 pre-show on March 29, 2015, they failed to win 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 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 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 the Royal Rumble against The Usos.

At Fastlane, The New Day turned face by mocking The League of Nations, starting 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 titles at Extreme Rules against The Vaudevillains, and at Money in 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 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 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 was accepted by the debuting The Revival, 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*, 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 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 on 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 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 the crowd, which led to a 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 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 a no contest after inference 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 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 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 the titles at the Crown Jewel event. Two weeks later, they made up part of Team SmackDown in a 5-on-5 tag-team elimination match at Survivor Series, in which they defeated Team Raw. At TLC, The New Day would again fail to win the championship from The Bar, in a triple-threat tag team match also involving The Usos. On the January 1, 2019 episode of *SmackDown Live*, the entire New Day announced their entry into the Royal Rumble match at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view on January 27. At the event, Kingston was eliminated by Drew McIntyre.

On the February 12, 2019 episode of *SmackDown Live*, one member of The New Day was scheduled to replace Mustafa Ali in the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match at the namesake pay–per–view after Ali suffered an injury, and Kingston was selected as his replacement. Kingston then participated in a Gauntlet match to determine the last entrant in the Chamber match, where he started off with WWE Champion Daniel Bryan. Kingston lasted over an hour all while eliminating Bryan, Jeff Hardy and Samoa Joe, before being eliminated by AJ Styles. At the event, Kingston entered the Chamber match as the third entrant, and managed to eliminate Randy Orton, and lasted until the final two, before being eliminated by Daniel Bryan. After pinning Daniel Bryan in a six–man tag-team match, Kingston was granted a WWE Championship match at Fastlane, but was replaced during his contract-signing by a returning Kevin Owens per the order of Vince McMahon. On March 10 at Fastlane, Kingston was apparently added into the title match by McMahon, but after entering the ring, it was instead announced that he would face The Bar in a handicap match, which Kingston subsequently lost.

After Fastlane, Mr. McMahon told Kingston he would earn a WWE Championship match at WrestleMania if he beat Sheamus, Cesaro, Rowan, Samoa Joe and Randy Orton in another gauntlet match. 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 the WWE Championship for the first time, becoming the first African-born WWE Champion in history, as well as WWE's 30th Triple Crown and 20th Grand Slam champion. Kingston successfully defended the title against Kevin Owens at Money in the Bank. Then, Kingston started a feud with the returning Dolph Ziggler, retaining the title at Super Showdown in a singles match and steel cage match at Stomping Grounds. Next, he retained the championship against Samoa Joe at Extreme Rules in July. He would also become SmackDown Tag Team champion via the Freebird rule. On July 27, He successfully defended the title against Samoa Joe and Dolph Ziggler at WWE Smackville in a triple threat match. Kingston defended his title against Orton at SummerSlam where the match ended in a double count out. Kingston retained the title over Orton at Clash of Champions.

On the following episode of *SmackDown Live*, The New Day defeated Orton and The Revival. Immediately following the match, Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman confronted Kingston and challenged him to a championship match on the October 4 episode of *SmackDown*, the same night the show premiered on FOX. After Kingston accepted, Lesnar attacked him. Lesnar defeated Kingston in under ten seconds to win the championship, ending Kingston's reign at 180 days.

After losing the title, Kingston returned to compete in tag team matches, where he teamed with Big E and Woods to defeat The O.C. on the following week on *SmackDown*. At Crown Jewel, Kingston and Big E competed in a tag team turmoil match for the WWE Tag Team World Cup, but they failed to win the match. On the November 8 episode of *SmackDown*, Kingston and Big E defeated The Revival to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, becoming record five-time champions as a team. At TLC on December 15, Kingston and Big E successfully defended the titles against The Revival in a ladder match. Kingston participated in the Royal Rumble match at the namesake pay-per-view and entered at number six, but was eliminated by the WWE Champion 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 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, making The New Day six-time SmackDown Tag Team Champions. At The Horror Show at Extreme Rules, Kingston and Big E lost their titles to the team of Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura in a tables match, during which Kingston would suffer a legitimate back injury, thus being out of action 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 the *Raw* brand, splitting them from Big E, who remained on the *SmackDown* brand. On the October 12 episode of *Raw*, The New Day would exchange tag team titles with The Street Profits, who were drafted to *SmackDown*. This would mark Kingston and Woods' third reign with the Raw Tag Team Championships. On December 20, at TLC, Kingston and Woods lost the Raw Tag Team Championships to The Hurt Business (Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin). In January 2021, Kingston 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 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 eleventh tag team championship, and Kingston's fourteenth individually. They would hold the championship until WrestleMania 37, where they lost 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. On May 24 episode of *Raw*, He faced Drew McIntyre in a singles match with a stipulation in which the winner would face Bobby Lashley for the WWE Championship at Hell in a Cell; the match ended in a no contest. Later that night, a rematch between him and McIntyre was scheduled on *Raw* the next week with the same stakes, which Kingston would go on to 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, Kingston lost the match.

As a part of 2021 Draft, Kingston and Woods were drafted to the *SmackDown* brand. In October, Kingston entered 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 lose to them at WWE Day 1 and then again in a street fight on the following *SmackDown*. In the 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 to a tag team match at WrestleMania 38, in a losing effort. They would then start a feud with the returning Viking Raiders , who would brutally attack them. They would then once again start 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 the NXT Tag Team Championships at NXT Deadline. The 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. They would lose the titles at NXT Stand and Deliver in April to Gallus (Wolfgang and Mark Coffey). As part of the 2023 WWE Draft, Kingston, along with teammate Woods, was drafted to the *Raw* brand.