The New Day wasn’t always the fun-loving group they are today. Over time, the New Day members were able to add their own inflection onto their WWE characters, eventually turning into the trio known and loved today, becoming a group that may just be around forever.
That’s not to say, however, that New Day has always been popular amongst the WWE Universe.
New Day member, Xavier Woods, recently sat down with Corridor Cast. They spoke about a time when the group were starting to get booed, receiving ‘New Day Sucks’ chants. Wishing to lean into that momentum, Woods wanted to turn the group heel. Vince McMahon, however, didn’t believe that would work — primarily because of long-time babyface, Kofi Kingston.
Xavier would then make a unique bet with Vince: if he couldn’t get Kofi booed in four weeks, he would relinquish his place within the New Day.
“If I Can’t Make Good On This, Then I Don’t Deserve To Be Here”
“When they let us make the group, we were good guys. For the industry terms, we were babyfaces, and we thought we should be bad guys, heels, and after a while, some things happened and people were chanting, ‘New Day sucks,’ and it’s like, ‘Ok, yes, cool. They’ll let us turn a corner and we can be bad guys now,’ and they thought that since Kofi had been a babyface for so long that they wouldn’t boo him, and so, to me, I was like, ‘No, we’re in control of that. I guarantee you…’”
He continued, “I went to Vince McMahon and I was like, ‘If you give us — if you give me a microphone four weeks in a row, I guarantee you that they’ll boo Kofi Kingston, and he was like, ‘You really believe in this that much?’ I said, ‘Yes, I believe that I can do it’, and he goes, ‘Four weeks? And if you don’t do it in four weeks then what happens?’”
Woods’ response?
“I said if I don’t do it in four weeks, you’ve got 60 dudes in developmental that deserve this spot more than I do. [Vince responded with], ‘I can send you home? Get ready,’ and I said, ‘You should if I can’t do it. If I can’t make good on this, then I don’t deserve to be here,’ and he’s like, ‘Alright.’”
Thankfully, his gamble paid off as The New Day would eventually turn heel before establishing themselves as one of the top babyface groups in the company.
