Kofi Kingston explains why Jamaican WWE gimmick was dropped

Kofi Kingston has commented on his infamous Jamaican accent and recalled it was an article on the BBC that saw his mother ‘out’ him as not being from the Caribbean. 

Kofi made his WWE debut in 2008, but instead of being billed from Ghana where he was actually born, he was given a Jamaican character, complete with music, attire and a fake accent linked to the country. 

Speaking on Ryan Satin’s Out of Character podcast, Kingston revealed the gimmick wasn’t just for WWE TV and that Vince McMahon ordered him to carry the character both on and off screen, including during interviews for the company’s own in-house magazine. 

“It was an emotional rollercoaster. Initially when I came in, Vince was like ‘look, you’ve got to do everything in character, I want you to do every interview in character.’ At the time, we had WWE magazine and they would call me. I’d get a 203 number so I’d answer the phone like ‘Hello?’ ‘Yeah this is Scott Dorsey and I’m calling for Kofi, is Kofi there?’ I’m like ‘oh, yeah, he’s here, hold on.’ [Speaks in his Jamaican accent] ‘What’s going on, Kofi Kingston here, what’s up?’

“Then he’d ask me all the questions you know? It was a silly situation because you know that I’m not Jamaican and I know that you know that I’m not Jamaican, but Vince said that I have to put this accent on and now we’ve got to play this game and I’ve got to interview with you with this accent on.”

While Kingston pressed on with the character, the 40-year-old revealed it was only an article on the BBC, where his mother was interviewed about her son’s WWE career, that eventually put an end to Kofi’s Jamaican gimmick. 

15 minutes later my mom calls me and goes ‘oh Kof, some guy just called me and asked me about your career and asked if