As unlikely as it may seem in the late stages of 2024, New Day is suddenly one of the most buzzworthy acts in wrestling once again. Indeed, a decade in, the team far surpassed what anyone could have expected when Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Big E first assembled under an ill-defined gospel gimmick Vince McMahon tried to foist upon them.
New Day went on to enjoy a meteoric rise before struggling over most of the last four years as injuries, bad luck, and sheer duration all caught up to them.
The prevailing belief was that the team was going to split up for good as Kingston and Woods arguing with one another paved the road to their advertised ten-year celebration on Raw. The two men rallying and collectively turning on Big E was a sharp turn, officially marking the start of a new chapter. At this inflection point, it’s worth looking back on some of the unit’s greatest accomplishments in its first ten years together.
New Day Facilitated KofiMania And Big E’s Cash In
With two out of three members of New Day winning the WWE Championship, they have a valid claim to be in the conversation among the most successful factions ever in WWE. Kofi Kingston’s surge of popularity in 2019 that carried him to WrestleMania 35 was very much linked to New Day—the team that had kept him relevant and working featured matches. Indeed, while Kingston earned his moment, it’s telling that Xavier Woods and Big E winning a tag team gauntlet was the angle chosen to finally get their partner to his ‘Mania title shot.
Two and half years later, Big E would have his crowning moment as he, too, won the WWE Championship, arriving at the big win via Money in the Bank cash-in. New Day was less involved in this triumph given E had been separated from his teammates via a brand draft, only to briefly reunite when he won the title. Just the same, there’s reason to believe E may not have been in this position—or perhaps even under WWE contract anymore—without the successes he’d enjoyed with New Day protecting him from getting lost in the shuffle.
New Day Had The Longest WWE Tag Team Championship Reign Of All Time
While world title glory was the high-water mark for New Day in its first decade, the team also enjoyed the single longest WWE Tag Team Championship reign of all time at 483 days, surpassing a record Demolition had established twenty-eight years earlier.
More than reigning by default when there wasn’t a strong division around them, New Day elevated their titles, putting on excellent matches and entertaining fans with their antics. While reigns to follow shored up their spot as an all-time great team, this was the one that immediately put Big E, Xavier Woods, and Kofi Kingston in the conversation among WWE’s greatest tag teams ever.
New Day Was Part Of The Best Non-Singles Hell In A Cell Match Of All Time
Hell in a Cell has an uneven history. For every classic like Mankind facing Shawn Michaels or The Undertaker, there are throwaway encounters in the Cell like The Undertaker vs. The Big Boss Man at WrestleMania 15, Triple H’s slog with Kevin Nash, or CM Punk trying to pull a decent Cell match out of Ryback.
There have been good tag team Hell in a Cell bouts like DX vs. Legacy and good multi-man affairs like the main event of Armageddon 2000. The best of the best of these non-one-on-one matches, though, has to go to New Day vs. The Usos in 2017. The two teams were creative, brutal, and had a long, compelling feud to pay off.
New Day Hosted WrestleMania 33
At WrestleMania 31, New Day was a new tag team, and the component members filled totally forgettable spots in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. It’s telling that just two years later, they were tasked with hosting WrestleMania 33.
The record of WrestleMania hosts has grown a bit checkered and increasingly random, but at that point, it was an honor that had only previously been bestowed upon The Rock at WrestleMania 27 and Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 30.
New Day hadn’t achieved the legendary status of their predecessors, but trusting them with this role bespoke that they were one of the most popular acts in the company and WWE trusted their abilities as entertainers on the mic enough to make them the recurring stars of the show. Needless to say, they delivered.
New Day Turning On Big E Was An Instant Classic Moment
While there’s a bit of recency bias in ranking such a new moment in the top five, there’s little question Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston turning on Big E represented one of the greatest things the New Day crew has ever pulled off.
The trio tapped into all the emotional investment they’d built up from fans during the preceding ten years to create an incredible emotional charge. Fans watching one of wrestling’s most special bonds crumble before their eyes was truly one of the most heartbreaking scenes in WWE history and has charted a new course for Kingston and Woods as a genuinely special heel act.
