Friday Night SmackDown superstar Xavier Woods reacted on Monday to the recent comments from CM Punk and Booker T suggesting that his longtime New Day stablemate, Big E, should ditch the faction and drop his erstwhile comedy gimmick as a singles wrestler.
As quoted by WrestlingNews.co on Monday, the second part of Woods’ interview on the Battleground Podcast saw the grappler address the issue of Big E potentially leaving the group he’s been with since 2014. After admitting that he feels it’s “great” that people are passionate enough to discuss the topic, he said that he hasn’t had the time to truly think about the possibility, especially since he’s currently “burning the candle at both ends” while recovering from the Achilles tendon injury that sidelined him last year.
In addition, Woods mentioned that the friendship shared by all three faction members will always come above everything else. This, he explained, is similar to how everything turned out fine when stablemate Kofi Kingston was given a big singles push last year, en route to his first-ever WWE Championship victory at WrestleMania 35 .
Woods went on to say that he wants Big E to enjoy success during his singles run.
“I want Big E to hold all of the titles, I want Kofi to hold all of the titles. I want to hold all of the titles. The way that we get there is going to be in our own way,” he related.
“We’ve always wanted to be different and we’re going to get there by being different.”
As reported by Ringside News , Punk and Booker made the comments about Big E potentially leaving The New Day during last week’s SummerSlam 1992 watch party. After Booker said that the former bodybuilder should part ways with Kingston and Woods, Punk agreed with these sentiments, noting that the faction has been together for several years and that Big E should “kick those guys to the curb” at some point in the future.
Separately, Booker discussed the issue on a recent episode of his podcast, suggesting that Big E might have to “shed a few things” before he can be considered a credible world champion. According to Wrestling Inc ., the Hall of Famer opined that it wouldn’t be a good idea for the multiple-time tag team champion to keep wearing The New Day’s colors and keep working a similar gimmick if he wants to be WWE’s “main attraction.” These remarks similarly drew the attention of Woods, who sarcastically tweeted that following other people’s suggestions “worked so well” for the group’s members prior to its formation.
