The New Day (wrestling)

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
The New Day
The New Day WrestleMania 32 Axxess.jpg
From left to right: Woods, Big E and Kingston in April 2016
Stable
Members Big E
Kofi Kingston
Xavier Woods
Name(s) The New Day
Heights Big E: 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Kingston: 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Woods: 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Combined
weight		 702 lb (318 kg)
Debut July 23, 2014
Years active 2014–present
Promotions WWE

The New Day is a professional wrestling stable performing in the WWE, composed of Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods.

The trio are the current WWE Tag Team Champions, in their second reign. During their reigns, The New Day defends the titles under the Freebird Rule, with all three members being recognized as champions. As of June 1 2016; The New Day have held the WWE Tag Team Championships longer than any other team in history.

The stable originally debuted in a July 2014 episode of Raw, but made their official television debut as The New Day in November 2014. They won their first WWE Tag Team Championship in 2015 at Extreme Rules, with Big E and Kingston gaining the victory. They became two-time tag team champions by winning the titles again later that year at SummerSlam.

The early months of the stable were marked by overwhelming negative reactions to their personas from fans and critics alike, but after turning heel in April 2015 they began to receive acclaim for being entertaining, as well as for their in-ring performances.[1][2][3][4] In 2015, the trio were collectively named "WWE Wrestler of the Year" by Rolling Stone, while also becoming the first trio to win the Pro Wrestling Illustrated award for Tag Team of the Year and being recognized as the Best Gimmick of the year by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.[5][6] The trio later converted back into faces in early 2016 and remain arguably the most over act in WWE.

History

Early careers and formation

Kingston made his debut on ECW in January 2008 and has since won many championships in WWE such as the Intercontinental Championship, United States Championship, World Tag Team Championship and WWE Tag Team Championship. Big E began his career in NXT, becoming the second NXT Champion after defeating Seth Rollins.[7] On the December 17, 2012 episode of Raw, he made his main roster debut attacking John Cena and aligning himself with Dolph Ziggler and AJ Lee. In October 2013, he won the Intercontinental Championship. Woods signed to WWE in 2010 and worked in NXT until the November 18, 2013 episode of Raw, when he made his main roster debut.[8]

On the July 21, 2014 episode of Raw, after Big E and Kingston suffered another loss as a tag team in a recent losing streak, Woods came down to address the two and he declared that they could not "get ahead by kissing babies and shaking hands", and that it would be "their time to shine".[9] The duo then joined Woods and on the following day on Main Event, Woods managed Big E and Kingston to a decisive victory over Slater Gator (Heath Slater and Titus O'Neil).[10] However, the group disappeared from television soon after (although they continued to make appearances together at house shows).[11][12][13][14]

From the November 3 episode of Raw, WWE began airing vignettes for Big E, Kingston and Woods, with the stable now being billed as "The New Day", displaying a babyface black gospel gimmick.[15] The New Day made their in-ring debut on the November 28 episode of SmackDown in a winning effort against Titus O'Neil, Heath Slater and Curtis Axel.[16] On the December 1 episode of Raw, Woods and Kingston competed in a tag team turmoil match to determine the number one contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championship, eliminating Goldust and Stardust, before being eliminated by Tyson Kidd and Cesaro.[17] On the December 5 episode of SmackDown, Woods and Kingston defeated Kidd and Cesaro with a pendulum backbreaker and diving double foot stomp combination.[18][19] At the TLC kickoff show, Big E and Kingston defeated Goldust and Stardust.[20]

On the January 5, 2015 episode of Raw, while Big E was on his way to a victory against Adam Rose, the team of Tyson Kidd and Cesaro, masquerading as Rosebuds, interfered by laying out Woods on the outside and performing their finisher on Big E in the ring.[21] At the Royal Rumble, The New Day's winning streak came to an end when Cesaro and Tyson Kidd defeated Big E and Kingston.[22] On the March 27 episode of Superstars, The New Day defeated The Ascension with their pendulum backbreaker and diving double foot stomp combination.[23] A fatal four-way for the WWE Tag Team Championship took place on the WrestleMania 31 pre-show, with the New Day included, but they failed to win the titles.[24]

The following night on Raw, they were involved in an eight-man tag-team match alongside The Lucha Dragons against Cesaro, Kidd and The Ascension.[25] During the match, the live audience responded negatively to The New Day with loud "New Day sucks!" chants which carried over into the following weeks.[26] When asked about the crowd's disapproval of them in a backstage interview on the April 6 episode of Raw, The New Day claimed that they were hurt and responded in a more aggressive tone, but maintained their upbeat nature; however, during their following match against The Lucha Dragons, Kingston attempted a cheap shot from the outside, though he wasn't actually involved in the bout, and this act would solidify the trio as comedic heels and mark Kingston and Woods' first heel turns in their WWE careers.[27] On the April 20 episode of Raw, The New Day defeated The Lucha Dragons to become number one contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championship at Extreme Rules after Woods held onto the feet of Sin Cara, thus preventing him from answering the 10 count.[28]

WWE Tag Team Champions (2015-present)

At Extreme Rules, The New Day defeated Tyson Kidd and Cesaro to capture the WWE Tag Team Championship; Big E and Kingston were the participants in the match, but WWE also recognized Woods as champion under the Freebird Rule, in which any two members of a stable can compete for the titles.[29] At Payback, Big E and Kingston defeated Cesaro and Kidd in a two-out-of-three falls match.[30] At Elimination Chamber, all three New Day members competed in the first ever tag team Elimination Chamber match, where they lastly eliminated The Prime Time Players (Darren Young and Titus O'Neil) to successfully defend their titles.[31] However, at Money in the Bank, Big E and Woods lost the titles to The Prime Time Players.[32] The New Day would then win the titles for a second time after they defeated The Prime Time Players, Los Matadores, and The Lucha Dragons in a fatal four-way tag team match at SummerSlam.[33] The New Day then started a feud with the returning Dudley Boyz, setting up a title defense against The Dudley Boyz at Night of Champions, where Big E and Kingston lost to The Dudley Boyz by disqualification and retained their titles.[34] Big E and Kingston then went to defeat The Dudley Boyz via pinfall at Hell in a Cell to retain the championship, thus ending their feud.[35] The New Day led their own team at Survivor Series including King Barrett and Sheamus, but left the match prematurely to tend to Big E after his elimination.[36] The New Day's next title defense was at TLC against The Lucha Dragons and The Usos in a triple threat ladder match, which The New Day won.[37] The New Day then successful retained their titles against The Lucha Dragons on the special December 22 episode of Super SmackDown Live![38] and against The Usos in January 2016 at the Royal Rumble.[39]

At Fastlane, The New Day began mocking The League of Nations (Alberto Del Rio, King Barrett, Rusev and Sheamus, calling them the "league of booty".[40] They then continued to mock The League of Nations in various segments and skits while simultaneously feuding with other teams and turning face.[41] The New Day retained their titles both at Roadblock (against Barrett and Sheamus)[42] and the following night on Raw (against Del Rio and Rusev), but were attacked after the match.[43] This led to a six-man non-title tag team match between the two stables at WrestleMania 32, where The New Day was defeated,[44] but Big E and Kingston retained their championship once again against Barrett and Sheamus the following night on Raw.[45] At Payback, the final match of the tournament to determine the number one contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championship between Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady and The Vaudevillains ended in a no contest after Amore suffered a legitimate concussion during the match.[46] As a result, The New Day faced The Vaudevillains for the WWE Tag Team Championships at Extreme Rules, where they successfully retained their belts.[47] On the May 30 episode of Raw, The New Day defeated The Vaudevillains in a non-title match via disqualification after they were attacked by Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, sparking a feud between them.

Characters and reception

Initially characterized as stereotypical black gospel characters, The New Day initially received overwhelming negative reviews from fans and critics alike. Jim Ross noted that "today's wrestling fan may be a little hard on the talented trio" due to them "espousing such positivity."[48] ProWrestling.net wrote that The New Day "seem to be all about smiling and dancing; one of the three racial stereotypes WWE assigns to their African-American performers".[3] Entertainment website The A.V. Club called the gimmick "racist" because "they literally pantomime shooting dice when they get into the ring".[49]

Upon transitioning away from the gospel aspect, The New Day developed their own unique identity of frequently excited proponents of positivity, which sees them usually encourage live audiences to clap along with them.[50][51][52] In 2015, Woods began bringing a trombone to the ring and playing it during the group's entrance and matches, later naming the trombone Francesca.[53] Also in late 2015, a unicorn pony was incorporated into The New Day's newest shirt,[54] and the trio began making unicorn gestures, using their fingers as horns and even having interviewers claiming to perceive them having "unicorn magic".[55] The group later began wearing plastic unicorn horns during their ring entrance. One of their assault tactics was also named after this theme.[56] Also in 2015, The New Day began using the word "booty" as their catchphrase and began occasionally using it to mock other wrestlers and the host city where WWE events would take place, such as calling Birmingham "Bootyham". In 2016, The New Day introduced their "Booty-O's" cereal, while claiming that "They make sure you ain't booty", and even had a giant "Booty-O's" box at WrestleMania 32 as part of their entrance, and later "Booty-O's" shirts were created and were a very lucrative success.[citation needed]

In vast contrast to the gospel-based version of The New Day, the new positivity-based version of the group began to receive a much more positive reception from fans and critics in mid-2015 after they turned heel and had a series of strong in-ring performances and promos. At times, crowds would chant "New Day rocks" along with the team even though they continued to portray villains on-screen. Kenny Herzog of Rolling Stone named the group as WWE's Wrestlers of the Year for 2015, describing them as "a hat-trick of pro-wrestling awesomeness" having "transformed from preachy dreck to a source of constant entertainment".[1] In early 2016, Aaron Oster of The Baltimore Sun described them as "the most entertaining wrestling act of the past few years".[57] Former WWE Champion CM Punk praised The New Day for getting over on their own.[2] At the end of 2015, the group won Wrestling Observer's Best Gimmick award.[58] However, some remained critical of the group, with both Jim Ross and Jason Powell from ProWrestling.net suggesting that The New Day should be trying to gain "heel heat" as opposed to being comedic and in January 2016, following the Royal Rumble, James Caldwell of PWtorch noted that the group's babyface opponents came out "mainly to boos since New Day was too entertaining", adding that the group "don't act overly-heelish to get heat. So, [their opponents] continue to suffer opposite New Day".[59]

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

1 Big E, Kingston and Woods defend the title under the Freebird Rule.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ http://www.rollingstone.com/sports/features/wwe-wrestler-s-of-the-year-the-new-day-20151214
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  41. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  42. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  43. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  46. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  50. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  51. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  52. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  53. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  54. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  55. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  56. ↑ 56.0 56.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  57. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  58. ↑ 58.0 58.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  59. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  60. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  61. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  62. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  63. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  64. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  65. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  66. ↑ http://www.wrestleview.com/wwe-wrestling-results/wwe-raw-results/56905-wwe-raw-results-11-16-15-live-results-from-greenville
  67. ↑ http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/results/wwe-raw-results-11-16-the-wyatt-wyatt-vs-kane-the-undertaker-lots-more/4
  68. ↑ http://www.1wrestling.com/2015/11/10/what-happened-this-week-wwes-monday-night-raw-15/
  69. ↑ http://www.wrestleview.com/wwe-news/56433-wwe-msg-results-10-3-15-live-results-in-new-york-city
  70. ↑ http://tjrwrestling.net/the-john-report-wwe-battleground-2015-review/
  71. ↑ 71.0 71.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  72. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  73. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  74. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  75. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  76. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  77. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  78. ↑ http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2015-11-23/five-point-preview-28252687/page-4
  79. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (as Sheamus and New Day fall out of the ring)
  80. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  81. ↑ 81.0 81.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=The_New_Day_(wrestling)&oldid=723049113"