10 Last Minute Changes That Saved Wrestling Stables

When you think of The New Day you think of bright splashes of enthusiasm, Xavier Woods’ trombone playing and the power of positivity. This is a stark difference from the three men’s first appearance together.

After suffering several losses as a tag team, Big E and Kofi Kingston were approached by Xavier Woods who claimed they won’t get ahead by “kissing babies and shaking hands”. It implied that the group was to take a militant edge, similar to the Nation of Domination from the 1990s.

Vignettes began to air that at the time seemed very confusing and to this day still feel totally at odds with the finished product: Woods, in a tie and braces, speaking like a preacher man and riling up a gospel crowd who drape him in a sparkling robe and drag him away from the microphone. We were all left baffled and assumed that the gimmick was dead on arrival.

Suffice to say that when the New Day hit the ring as a unit for the first time their momentum began for real and it only grew and grew. Whatever it was that WWE was trying to impose on them, the men behind the idea superseded it and instead played the energetic and excitable characters that we know and love.

Today The New Day are recognised as one of the most successful stables in wrestling history.