8 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Raw (20 Jan - Results & Review)

1. An Underwhelming Failure

When the New Day turned heel several weeks ago by verbally bashing and dismissing Big E from the group, the incident garnered widespread praise for its execution and the premise of turning Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods heel for the first time in nearly a decade.

But everything hinged on the follow-up, which seemingly was delayed by the holidays and timing issues on Raw. They were relegated to promo segments, both backstage and in-ring, where they struggled to get their message out amidst fans’ boos and interruptions. The one constant: they were universally hated by everyone, including villains on the roster.

Monday, they finally had their first match since the turn, with Kofi facing “locker room leader” Rey Mysterio. To be fair, Kingston looked very different, wearing black jeans and sneakers rather than the bright, almost iridescent gear. They cut off the familiar entrance music and walked out just to their voices and a chorus of boos. So far, so good.

And then the bell rang.

While Kofi stifled a lot of his usual antics, he still wrestled the same basic match, just with more headlocks and stomps. Worse, Kingston lost when Mysterio countered an SOS with a roll-up. Kofi and Woods (who had been ejected for interfering) attacked Rey and then got a sneak attack on Joaquin Wilde.

Had this come a couple of weeks after the heel turn, it would have felt like a continuation of the turn away from everything New Day. But after nearly two months of delays and waiting, this scanned as more of a letdown, a small series of tweaks rather than the overhaul one might expect. Fairly or not, the lengthy layover meant that they needed to really deliver something after making fans wait so long for the reveal, and this wasn’t it.

There’s always next week, and Kofi and Xavier are pros, but it’s hard to call this a success.