10 WWE Disasters That Saved Themselves
5. The New Day
Whether you like their act or not, The New Day are over as hell. They usually draw big crowd reactions, their merch sells by the bucketload, and their brand power is such that it's hard to see Vince McMahon ever splitting them up. Why throw a marketable commodity on the bonfire?
That they've been able to stay so successful for so long is borderline miraculous, considering their early disasters. Their formation wasn't smooth at all. They came together under the assertion that they were done "kissing babies and shaking hands," and would now take "their time to shine," before disappearing for a couple of months. Videos portraying them as clapping, singing positivity beacons then started airing, and they were atrocious, making Big E, Xavier Woods, and Kofi Kingston look more cartoonish than uplifting.
The project reached a nadir when the "New Day rocks!" chants turned to "New Day sucks!" with the group still technically babyfaces. Demonstrably, it wasn't getting over, but WWE were smart. They used this heat to turn the trio heel. Fast-forward four years and one babyface later to the present day, when The New Day remain amongst WWE's most bankable acts.