Kofi on Him Having No Plan For Singles Run In AEW, His Praise of Tony Khan’s Passion and Enthusiasm For Wrestling, & Prince Nana Being Inspiration For His Original WWE Character

Sep 3, 2026

A recent episode of TMZ’s Inside The Ring podcast featured Kofi as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Kofi’s thoughts about him having no plan for a potential singles run in AEW and he approached his signing with the company as a being a shared journey with Austin Creed.

“It was always going to be together no matter what. If I can’t do it with Austin (Creed), then I don’t know if I want to do it. The funny thing is and it’s funny now because we’re employed, but I was like, probably about a week or two weeks into the process, I said, ‘Dude, I would never wish for anyone to lose their job or to be unemployed.’ But the fact that you and I are going through this together, I’m so grateful. It just made everything so much easier to know that we are doing this together whether we wrestle or not.
I couldn’t imagine having gone through all of this alone. You know, to have someone to talk to who knows exactly what you’re going through because they are going through the same thing because they want the same things as you. It makes the process a lot more fun and it makes it a lot easier.
We have a hive mind. We’re always thinking the same things. We’re always on the same page, same thoughts, and this was no different. So, yeah, it was always, it was always going to be together for sure, wrestling wise and otherwise.”

Kofi also gave his thoughts about getting to work for AEW CEO Tony Khan and his praise of Khan for being passionate and enthusiastic about pro wrestling.

“Tony has been amazing the entire time. So enthusiastic and so passionate. When they talk about the energy starts at the top, he has so much energy and so much passion. Throughout the entire duration of the show, he’s jumping out of his seat, he’s really getting into all the matches with super excitement. It feels good to be able to deliver for someone like that, for him to believe in us enough to bring us aboard and be a part of something special they built over here. To be able to like let him know that he made the right decision, it’s good, you know? It feels great. It feels validating in a lot of different ways and it feels like we’re doing exactly what we’re supposed to do.”

Kofi also gave his thoughts about how Prince Nana indirectly influenced him for his original character in WWE.

“I don’t think I’ve ever told this, but initially, you know, when I first debuted as an on-screen character, I was Kofi 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.
But 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.’”

Kofi also gave his thoughts about his past connection with Prince Nana and Nana’s involvement in his Trios Roulette Royale match spot at AEW All In 2026.

“So 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.”

Kofi also gave his thoughts about his praise of Prince Nana’s personality and knowledge about the wrestling business.