Over the past decade, the tag team division in the WWE has been rather inconsistent. However, over the past few years, the company has experienced an upswing as a whole in their quality of tag teams and tag team matches. While teams such as The Shield, The Usos, The Prime Time Players, Goldust & Cody Rhodes, and Tyson Kidd & Cesaro kept the division interesting a few years ago, one team brought the interest to another level. In fact, their interest led to unchartered territory regarding tag team accomplishments.
Before The New Day formed, Kofi Kingston, Big E, and Xavier Woods were trying a maintain popularity on their own. Kingston was involved in the midcard scene winning multiple championships, Big E went from being Dolph Ziggler’s muscle to becoming a babyface and winning the Intercontinental Championship, and Xavier Woods was gaining steam competing for NXT. Although each person had a decent spot in the company, none was breaking the glass ceiling and ascending the rankings. This all changed when they came together and formed The New Day.
The team became so well-liked backstage, that the WWE Network special, WrestleMania Dallas , showed Vince McMahon behind the curtains of a business investment meeting laughing hysterically as Big E did his New Day entrance. GiveMeSport confirms McMahon’s love for The New Day, as Xavier Woods told IGN that the Chairman is a huge fan .
Originally having the appearance of a nouveau Nation of Domination, the trio were immediately received with a high level of criticism. Appearing on the Chris Jericho Podcast , The New Day explained how they did not want to be viewed as simply three black angry guys, and Woods shared his thoughts on the direction it appeared to go at the beginning (h/t Uproxx ).
“After talking about it for a while we kind of approached them with what we wanted to do and rather than being this group that everyone thought it was going to be, just three angry black guys, it’s like, no, it’s three guys who have come up from the same background who just want more from life, more from their jobs, more from their friends, more from everything around them. So we tried to take that mentality and get it across on TV as best we could.”
Kingston shared his thoughts on wanting to remain distant from the Nation of Domination feel, even though it appeared to be heading that way.
“For about two weeks, we did. [Then] we got taken off. We got on and everyone thought we were going to be like the second coming of the Nation. ‘You guys are the New Nation of Domination.’”
However, when they returned, their characters were revolved around the “power of positivity.” Unfortunately, the fans did not buy into it, and the fun-loving, jovial trio who urged the crowd to chant “New Day rocks!” were on the receiving end of the crowd chanting, “New Day sucks!” Thankfully, the trio were able to ride the wave of this fan disdain and use it to their advantage all the way to a WWE Tag Team Championship reign.
During their second reign is when it all came together. The group was still playing the role as bad guys, until shortly before WrestleMania 32 . Then, they commenced a feud with the League of Nations faction of Sheamus, King Barrett, Rusev, and Alberto Del Rio. With their witty phrases and Woods’ trumpet named Francesca, The New Day became one of the most popular names in all of WWE. This popularity led to becoming the longest reigning tag team champions in WWE history, breaking the record of 478 days by Demolition.
The New Day is still on WWE Raw entertaining the crowd with their Booty-O cereal promotion, and “Who?” references. While there is nothing cemented in the future for the team, keeping them together could very well be their ticket into the WWE Hall of Fame.
[Featured Image by WWE]
