10 Most Surprising WWE Veterans

Bo Dallas has been around for how long?!

By David Cambridge /

Hear the phrase "WWE veteran", and you probably think of Undertaker, Triple H and Chris Jericho, and perhaps to a slightly lesser extent John Cena and Randy Orton.

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If WWE had a canteen where the wrestlers eat their lunch together, then these five would probably sit at a table separated from everyone else by a stanchion, manned by a pair of burly security guards who are instructed to turn away everyone whose last name isn't McMahon.

But, after that, there's another group comprised of employees who have been on the company's payroll just slightly over a decade. They're not quite at the point where they can sit with the cool kids, granted, but they've earned the grudging respect of their elders through years of hard work.

Included in this group are the likes of Sheamus, The Miz and Dolph Ziggler, wrestlers who began appearing on TV in the mid-to-late 2000s and whose veteran status isn't likely to arouse any surprise. However, you may be a little shocked to find out who else is sitting at this table...

Note: we're only including wrestlers whose WWE tenures have been continuous and uninterrupted. Those who left briefly and then came back (looking at you, Nikki Bella) don't count.

10. Kofi Kingston (12 Years)

Kofi Kingston's veteran status is marginally more surprising than the likes of Dolph Ziggler, The Miz and Sheamus, primarily because they all look like they're in their mid-30s, while he could still probably pass for a 25-year-old.

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The four-time IC Champ earned his first WWE contract as long ago as 2006, initially being assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling before getting the call up to ECW the following year, where he became known as "The Jamaican Sensation".

After briefly flirting with the main event - he came perilously close to beating then-world champion Randy Orton in late 2009 - he dropped the Jamaican part and became a drifting mid-carder for a couple of years until finding unprecedented acclaim with The New Day.

And the rest is history. Since 2014, Kofi has been a pivotal part of one of the hottest tag team acts this side of the Attitude Era, and he's pretty much guaranteed a job for as long as they keep getting mega pops from the crowd.

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