It’s been 10 years since The New Day changed the landscape of WWE forever.
In November 2014, the company aired vignettes for a new gospel-inspired group featuring Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods preaching the power of positivity.
Speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk to celebrate a decade of The New Day, Kofi recalled their extraordinary journey from rejects to 12-time tag champs and all round legends.
‘It’s wild to see how far we’ve come, even from the people rejecting us. When you think about it, we came out and just told everyone to be the best version of themselves, that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it,’ he recalled.
‘People booed us out of the building and told us that we suck! What is going on in this jaded world that we live in where you tell people to be the best that they can be, and they say, “Nah, we don’t want to hear that, man, you guys suck!”‘
New Day came at a perfect time for Kofi, 43, who had debuted on WWE’s ECW revival in 2008 but now felt stagnant.
‘I was going to come out and be the happy go lucky guy, make everybody have a good time, do a few cool moves, and then lose the match,’ he recalled. ‘I was like, “I don’t know if this is really fulfilling.”‘
The New Day’s shaky start began with being ‘almost forced into a church going gimmick’, which Kofi had his doubts about, despite faith the trio’s ‘chemistry’ would ‘shine through’.
‘We became so good at being bad guys that the people started loving us again,’ he laughed. ‘It’s been a roller coaster of emotions for sure.’
Their goal was always to make people ‘react’, and show them ‘it’s okay to be yourself’.
‘You wanna talk about how much you love pancakes, that’s fine,’ he said. ‘If you wanna twerk in the middle of the street, that’s fine too. To be able just to embrace unicorns and wear bright colours, just to be yourself!’
Every great team needs a perfect rival, and The Usos helped define New Day’s legacy, as they helped each other thrive over the years.
‘They were trying to step out from behind the traditional Samoan characters that they were playing with the face paint, and they were coming into themselves,’ Kofi said of that period.
‘They wanted people to see who they were. Every time we had a match, they wanted to kill it. That was always our perspective, too.’
Hailing them one of New Day’s ‘favourite’ and ‘most formidable’ opponents, Kofi recalled being at ringside for a career-defining Hell In A Cell match between the teams in 2017.
‘It was pretty awesome,’ he said, adding with a smile. ‘I’m still a little jealous of the fact that I was on the outside.’
New Day morphed as time went on, with the trio exploring solo ambitions while staying strong as a unit, culminating in 2019 as KofiMania took WWE by storm and he finally won a world championship at WrestleMania.
‘When I won that match against Daniel Bryan, yes I was in the match, yes I beat him, but it was really like all of us winning that WWE Championship,’ he explained. ‘If we didn’t come together, it would have never been possible.’
Lifting each other up and being ‘multifaceted’ was always something the trio strived for, being ‘more than just a group’.
‘I wouldn’t have had that moment [KofiMania] if it were not for them,’ he said. ‘Before getting involved with the New Day, I really was not allowed or given the chance to talk much and show personality.’
He said the quality of his matches was ‘a curse’, explaining: ‘The office was like, “He doesn’t really need the mic time, because we can get Kofi character across without it. Let’s give it to somebody else who needs it.”‘
Three years after KofiMania, New Day’s story took a tragic twist when Big E suffered a broken neck on SmackDown, and he’s not wrestled since.
Kofi, who was in the ring when the ‘scary’ accident happened, admitted there was no ‘hesitation’ about New Day ‘soldiering on’.
‘The power of positivity is something that we all believe in. He might come back at some point. We don’t know,’ he said. ‘It’s up to us to keep the torch burning… and [make] The New Day one of the greatest factions in the tag teams of all time. That’s still the goal.’
He pointed out that Big E is ‘living’ and ‘loving life’, with a new girlfriend and plenty of exciting jobs away from the ring to keep him busy, and they’ll take the future as it comes.
For now, New Day can reflect on their best moments, from winning over the fans at SummerSlam 2015 and bringing back The Hardy Boyz at WrestleMania 33 to breaking records as tag champions.
‘It’s pretty incredible to have had that level of impact on the industry,’ Kofi said. ‘I actually sent Woods a text this morning about how appreciative I was of him, of being my tag team partner. I never lose sight of how rare and special our bond is.’
But there’s more to come.
‘WWE right now is the hottest it’s been in so long,’ he beamed. ‘The whole anniversary, we’re really excited to celebrate it, but at the same time, we got a lot more work to do.’
WWE celebrates 10 Years of The New Day throughout November. Visit wwe.com and WWE social channels for exclusive content.
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