WWE News: Plans For The End Of The New Day’s Reign As ‘RAW’ Tag Team Champions
The New Day is one of the more remarkable phenomena in the WWE’s recent history if you consider how their gimmick was received at its onset. Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods debuted as a faction in November of 2014 with designs to spread the power of positivity as a babyface team. But the WWE Universe rejected them almost immediately.
More than two years together as a group (which is an accomplishment in and of itself in the modern era of professional wrestling) and The New Day are about to embark on history. That initial rejection led to an abrupt heel turn before WWE fans finally warmed up to the stable, making them one of the most popular acts in all of sports entertainment.
That history began (when The New Day were heels) at the 2015 edition of SummerSlam when they captured the WWE Tag Team Championships for a second time. They haven’t relinquished them since and have December 14 circled on their calendars. It’s on that day that The New Day will break Demolition’s record of 478 days as the longest-reigning tag team champions in WWE history.
The only unfortunate part, in WWE’s mind, about the record falling on December 14 is that it’s a Wednesday, and it won’t be properly celebrated, at least on television. RAW falls two days prior to the date in question, as the go-home show for the brand’s final pay-per-view of the year, Roadblock: End of the Line.
And it’s at that show where fans may finally see a title change, believe it or not.
The New Day recaptured the WWE Tag Team Championships more than seven months before Enzo & Big Cass debuted on the main roster, but there have been plenty of discussions regarding the newcomers being the ones to finally beat the trifecta for the gold. In fact, one original plan saw Enzo & Cass winning the belts from The New Day at WrestleMania 33, an additional three and a half months after breaking Demolition’s record.
As you can imagine, plans have been changed and re-written. Now, according to Sports Illustrated, it appears that The New Day are set to drop the titles shortly after breaking the record, perhaps as early as Roadblock, but not to Enzo & Cass.
What started out as an experiment has blossomed into a legitimate piece of WWE programming on Monday nights. That would be the unlikely pairing of Cesaro and Sheamus. The two competed in a best-of-seven series of singles matches that saw no conclusive winner, and then they were forced to team together by Mick Foley. The Inquisitr reported back in September that the reason the two were paired up was because of the uncertainty of Cesaro’s future.
WWE officials originally wanted Cesaro to emerge as the victor in that program with Sheamus but had concerns he was going to leave the company. They decided to put them together until a clearer picture was made available and then make the appropriate decision. If he decided he wanted to leave, he would have put Sheamus over on his way out, further solidifying the Celtic Warrior as a heel.
But the oddball pairing has worked for the most part, and some WWE officials are pushing for the two to dethrone The New Day as soon as the record is broken. Whether that spells the dissolution of The New Day in the aftermath is unclear, but it should mean that Cesaro is committed to staying, despite recently conveying some frustrations publicly.
In front of live WWE audiences, Cesaro has been portraying a babyface while Sheamus continues to play the part of the heel. However, the company’s goal this past Monday was to complete the Sheamus face-turn when he and Cesaro fought together in a bar room brawl. The scene was a replica of the 1974 movie The Wrestler, in which Sheamus and Cesaro were “reprising” the roles originally played by Dusty Rhodes and Dick Murdoch.
It remains to be seen whether the fans will completely buy it on television, but it appears as if Cesaro and Sheamus will finally be the ones to dethrone The New Day.
[Featured Image by WWE]
