The New Day has been the most successful faction in WWE for years but the original pitch wasn\’t exactly hitting home with the group\’s members.
Together, Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods have had great success in WWE. They have won tag team gold 11 times. In singles action, Big E and Kofi have both had WWE Championship reigns, while Woods won the 2021 King of the Ring.
The initial pitch for The New Day didn\’t exactly give E, Kofi, or Woods the chills but they knew they could knock it out of the part.
Vince McMahon\’s Initial Plan For The New Day
Kofi Kingston was a guest on Out of Character with Ryan Satin. During his appearance, Kofi said that Vince McMahon had serious gospel vibes with The New Day when he first pitched the idea (h/t 411Mania.com).
“When we were given the gimmick of positivity preaching preachers, I’ll never forget it. We had been going back and forth with Vince about what we wanted to be. We wanted to be some guys who were not pleased with our positions in the company.
\”He’s like, ‘Okay, well, how about you guys be preachers and you guys come out here and there’s gospel music.’ We’re just sitting there and we know that the people are going to reject this idea because nobody comes to WWE to go to church.
\”But this is what he wanted us to do. We told him, ‘Whatever you give us, we’ll make it succeed because of our chemistry. We believe in it.’ He’s like, ‘Alright, I’m going to put that to the test. You guys are going be positivity preaching preachers. Go get it over.’
\”We’re just like, alright, this is our chance, and we supported each other. There were a lot of people who took a big dump on our aspirations. They didn’t believe in us. They made fun of us when we were just trying to get over.
\”But now you fast forward, and those same people have come back around, and they admitted that they were wrong. Not that we do it to prove people wrong, but we proved them wrong.”
Kofi certainly isn\’t playing revisionist history. He\’s absolutely right when he says people panned The New Day gimmick at first and didn\’t think it was going to work. The faction quickly turned things around and has become one of the hottest acts in WWE.
Unfortunately, The New Day is currently down a member. On the March 11 episode of SmackDown, Big E suffered a broken neck after landing awkwardly off an overhead belly-to-belly suplex from Ridge Holland.
E recently gave an update revealing that his recovery has hit a snag due to his C1 not healing the way he had hoped. He\’s keeping his neck in a brace for the next month or so in an attempt to avoid fusion surgery.
