The New Day

General

Event history

Image gallery

File:-theNewDay.png
The New Day
Statistics
Members	Kofi Kingston Big E Xavier Woods
Height	Kingston: 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) Big E: 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) Woods: 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Weight	Kingston: 212 lbs (96 kg) Big E: 290 lbs (130 kg) Woods: 207 lbs (94 kg)
Billed	Kingston: Ghana, West Africa Big E: Tampa, Florida Woods: Angel Grove, California
Promotions	WWE
Debuted	July 21, 2014

The New Day is a professional wrestling stable consisting of Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods. They originally debuted on the July 21 episode of Raw, however, made their debut as The New Day on the November 28 episode of SmackDown.

History

Early careers and formation

Kingston has worked for WWE since early 2008 and has won multiple titles in his career. Big E began his career in NXT, becoming the second ever NXT Champion after defeating Seth Rollins. He made his main roster debut on the December 17, 2012 episode of Raw, attacking John Cena and aligning himself with Dolph Ziggler and AJ Lee. Woods signed in 2010 and worked in NXT until the November 18, 2013 episode of Raw, when made his main roster debut.

On the July 21, 2014 episode of Raw, after Big E and Kingston suffered a loss as a team, Woods confronted them, declaring that they could not "get ahead by kissing babies and shaking hands". Instead, it would be "their time". The duo accepted Woods' offer, and on the following day on Main Event, Woods managed Big E and Kingston to a decisive victory over Heath Slater and Titus O'Neil. However, the group disappeared from television soon after but continued in their separate endeavours.

The New Day (2014–present)

From the November 3 episode of Raw, WWE began airing vignettes for Big E, Kingston and Woods, 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 Titus O'Neil, Heath Slater and Curtis Axel. On the December 1 edition of Raw, Woods and Kingston competed in a tag team turmoil match to determine the number one contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championship, eliminating Gold and Stardust, before being eliminated by Tyson Kidd and Cesaro. At the TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs Kickoff Show, Big E and Kingston defeated Gold and Stardust. On the January 5 episode of Raw; while Big E was on his way to a victory against Adam Rose the team of Tyson Kidd and Cesaro masquerading as Rosebuds interfered by laying out Xavier on the outside and performing their finisher on Big E in the ring. For the second time in a row; The New Day is set to Kickoff the PPV, only this time in a six-man tag team elimination match to cap off their feud against Kidd, Cesaro and Adam Rose at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. A Fatal Four Way for the WWE Tag Team Championship took place on WrestleMania 31 kick-off, with the New Day included, but they failed to win the titles. The following night on Raw, they were involved in an 8-man tag-team match alongside The Lucha Dragons against Cesaro, Kidd and The Ascension. During the match, the live audience responded negatively to the New Day, with loud "New Day sucks!" chants. When asked about the crowd's disapproval of them in a backstage interview on the April 6 episode of Raw, obviously hurt The New Day responded in a more aggressive tone but withholding their upbeat nature. During their following match with Lucha Dragons, Kofi Kingston attempted a cheap shot from the outside though he wasn't actually involved in the bout. This act would solidify the trio as heels.

At Extreme Rules, The New Day defeated The Brass Ring Club to capture the WWE Tag Team Championship. Despite Big E & Kofi Kingston actually won the match, WWE also recognized Xavier Woods as champion under the Freebird Rule, in which any two members can defend the titles in a match.

WWE (Raw) Tag Team Champions (2015–2016)

At Extreme Rules, The New Day defeated Tyson Kidd and Cesaro to capture the WWE Tag Team Championship; Big E and Kingston were the participants in the match, but WWE also recognized Woods as champion under the Freebird Rule, in which any two members of a stable can compete for the titles. At Payback, Big E and Kingston defeated Cesaro and Kidd in a two-out-of-three falls match. At Elimination Chamber, all three New Day members competed in the first ever tag team Elimination Chamber match, where they lastly eliminated The Prime Time Players (Darren Young and Titus O'Neil) to successfully defend their titles. However, at Money in the Bank, Big E and Woods lost the titles to The Prime Time Players. The New Day would then win the titles for a second time after they defeated The Prime Time Players, Los Matadores, and The Lucha Dragons in a fatal four-way tag team match at SummerSlam. The New Day then started a feud with the returning Dudley Boyz, setting up a title defense against The Dudley Boyz at Night of Champions, where Big E and Kingston lost to The Dudley Boyz by disqualification and retained their titles. Big E and Kingston then went to defeat The Dudley Boyz via pinfall at Hell in a Cell to retain the championship, thus ending their feud. The New Day led their own team at Survivor Series including King Barrett and Sheamus, but left the match prematurely to tend to Big E after his elimination. The New Day's next title defense was at TLC against The Lucha Dragons and The Usos in a triple threat ladder match, which The New Day won. The New Day then successful retained their titles against The Lucha Dragons on the special December 22 episode of Super SmackDown Live! and against The Usos in January 2016 at the Royal Rumble.

At Fastlane, The New Day began mocking The League of Nations (Alberto Del Rio, King Barrett, Rusev, and Sheamus), calling them the "league of booty". They then continued to mock The League of Nations in various segments and skits while simultaneously feuding with other teams and turning face for the first time since 2015. The New Day retained their titles both at Roadblock (against Barrett and Sheamus) and the following night on Raw (against Del Rio and Rusev), but were attacked after the match. This led to a six-man non-title tag team match between the two stables at WrestleMania 32, where The New Day was defeated, but Big E and Kingston retained their championship once again against Barrett and Sheamus the following night on Raw. At Payback, the final match of the tournament to determine the number one contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championship between Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady and The Vaudevillains ended in a no contest after Amore suffered a legitimate concussion during the match. As a result, The New Day faced The Vaudevillains for the WWE Tag Team Championship at Extreme Rules, where they successfully retained their championships.

On the May 30 episode of Raw, The New Day defeated The Vaudevillains in a non-title match via disqualification after they were attacked by Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson of The Club, sparking a feud between them. At the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, The New Day defeated Anderson and Gallows, The Vaudevillains, and Enzo Amore and Big Cass in a fatal-four way tag team match to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship and, as of that victory, they hold the record for the longest combined reign as a tag team. On the June 20 episode of Raw, The New Day confronted the returning Wyatt Family and interrupted Bray Wyatt's promo, thus starting a feud between the two teams that would lead to a non-title six-man tag team match at Battleground, where they would lose.

During the 2016 WWE draft, The New Day were drafted to Raw, making the WWE Tag Team Championship exclusive to the brand. In parallel to a lengthy feud with Gallows and Anderson for the titles, New Day became the longest reigning WWE Tag Team Champions in the title's history, breaking the old record of 331 days previously set by Paul London and Brian Kendrick, and, after the creation of the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship for SmackDown, became the last people to have held their championship as the sole tag team title in WWE and the first to hold it under its new name of WWE Raw Tag Team Championship. The New Day would continue to successfully retain their championships against Gallows and Anderson in the following months, such as SummerSlam, Clash of Champions, and on Raw, ending their feud in the process.

After their feud with Gallows and Anderson, The New Day began feuding with Cesaro and Sheamus, and at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, The New Day were defeated by Cesaro and Sheamus via disqualification after Kingston hit Sheamus with the Trouble in Paradise, but they managed to retain the titles as a result. On the October 31 episode of Raw, The New Day revealed that they were made captain of Team Raw for the 10–on–10 Survivor Series Tag Team Elimination match at Survivor Series on November 20. At the event, they made the first elimination, but were then eliminated themselves by The Usos. Team Raw, however, still managed to win the match thanks to Cesaro and Sheamus.[53] The two following Raws, The New Day successfully retained their titles against Cesaro and Sheamus, then and Gallows and Anderson.

On the December 12 episode of Raw, after successfully defending their titles in two successive Triple Threat tag team matches–first against Cesaro and Sheamus and Gallows and Anderson and then against WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho and Seth Rollins and United States Champion Roman Reigns–The New Day broke Demolition's 28-year old record to become the tag team to procure the longest single-run as tag team champions in WWE history. Demolition held this record with WWE's original World Tag Team Championship. At Roadblock: End of the Line on December 18, 2016, however, their reign ended at 483 days after they lost the titles to the team of Cesaro and Sheamus.

Characters and reception

Initially characterized as stereotypical black gospel characters, The New Day received overwhelming negative reviews from fans and critics alike. Jim Ross noted that "today's wrestling fan may be a little hard on the talented trio" due to them "espousing such positivity." ProWrestling.net wrote that The New Day "seem to be all about smiling and dancing; one of the three racial stereotypes WWE assigns to their African-American performers". Entertainment website The A.V. Club called the gimmick "racist" because "they literally pantomime shooting dice when they get into the ring".

Xavier Woods' trombone "Francesca", "Booty-O's" cereal, and unicorn horns (all three appearing here on Woods) are an integral part of The New Day's gimmick.

Upon transitioning away from the gospel aspect, The New Day developed their own unique identity of frequently excited proponents of positivity, which sees them usually encourage live audiences to clap along with them. In 2015, Woods began bringing a trombone to the ring and playing it during the group's entrance and matches, later naming the trombone Francesca; after "she" was destroyed by Chris Jericho, Woods replaced her by her sister Francesca II in January 2016; he also introduced her Scottish cousin Agnes (bagpipes) at a Scotland show on November 2016. Following Francesca II's destruction, she was replaced by Francesca II: Turbo, a nod to Street Fighter II: Turbo. Also in late 2015, a unicorn pony was incorporated into The New Day's newest shirt, and the trio began making unicorn gestures, using their fingers as horns and even having interviewers claiming to perceive them having "unicorn magic". The group later began wearing plastic unicorn horns during their ring entrance. One of their assault tactics was also named after this theme. Also in 2015, The New Day began using the word "booty" as their catchphrase and began occasionally using it to mock other wrestlers and the host city where WWE events would take place, such as calling Birmingham "Bootyham". In 2016, The New Day introduced their "Booty-O's" cereal, while claiming that "They make sure you ain't booty", and even had a giant "Booty-O's" box at WrestleMania 32 as part of their entrance, and later "Booty-O's" shirts were created and were a very lucrative success.

In vast contrast to the gospel-based version of The New Day, the new positivity-based version of the group began to receive a much more positive reception from fans and critics in mid-2015 after they turned heel and had a series of strong in-ring performances and promos. At times, crowds would chant "New Day rocks" along with the team even though they continued to portray villains on-screen. Kenny Herzog of Rolling Stone named the group as WWE's Wrestlers of the Year for 2015, describing them as "a hat-trick of pro-wrestling awesomeness" having "transformed from preachy dreck to a source of constant entertainment". In early 2016, Aaron Oster of The Baltimore Sun described them as "the most entertaining wrestling act of the past few years". Former WWE Champion CM Punk praised The New Day for getting over on their own. At the end of 2015, the group won Wrestling Observer's Best Gimmick award. However, some remained critical of the group, with both Jim Ross and Jason Powell from ProWrestling.net suggesting that The New Day should be trying to gain "heel heat" as opposed to being comedic and in January 2016, following the Royal Rumble, James Caldwell of PWtorch noted that the group's babyface opponents came out "mainly to boos since New Day was too entertaining", adding that the group "don't act overly-heelish to get heat. So, their opponents continue to suffer opposite New Day". The New Day were so over that they had a presence in the WrestleMania 32 main event between Triple H and Roman Reigns, with the crowd chanting, "Roman sucks", in the same rhythm as "New Day rocks".

In wrestling

• Double-team finishing moves:
  • Kingston and Big E
    • Diving double foot stomp/pendulum backbreaker combination
    • Midnight Hour (Diving DDT/Big Ending combination)
  • Woods and Big E
    • Midnight Hour (Diving DDT/Big Ending combination)
  • Woods and Kingston
    • Diving double foot stomp/pendulum backbreaker combination

• Entrance themes
  • "New Day, New Way" by Jim Johnston (November 28, 2014–present)

Championships and accomplishments

• WWE
  • WWE Tag Team Championship (2 time) - Defended under the Freebird Rule, in which any two members can defend the titles in a match.