10 Things You Didn't Know About WWE In 2014
4. The New Day...
...and how it changed from the first day.
As manager of struggling duo Kofi Kingston and Big E, Xavier Woods was defiant in his stance for how to take the pair forward. In the promo that brought all three together, he said; "You cannot move ahead by shaking hands, kissing babies, singing and dancing like a puppet. You cannot move ahead by always doing what you're told...It is our time to find purpose, because we do not ask any longer. Now, we take."
This was a far cry from what got The New Day over, and indeed ultimately an angle the company didn't press forward with that summer. When the trio returned in November, Vince McMahon had instructed them all to be "preachers". Ever-intuitive, the trio knew how to make the make the cursed babyface role work - by turning themselves heel.
As Kingston put it speaking to Chris Jericho in 2016, "When we were given the gimmick and saw what it was...we figured, if we throw everything that we can - smiling, clapping, happiness, everything - into this babyface gimmick, it will not take long to turn heel." They were spot on - it only took until WrestleMania weekend in 2015 for the vitriol to surface.