Kofi Kingston remembers when The New Day started to catch on
Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods were all at a crossroads in their wrestling careers prior to forming The New Day. While the multi-time tag team champs are among the top factions in all of pro wrestling today, the success of the group didn't come overnight. Kingston remembered the process of the trio getting over during an interview with the AL.com before SmackDown.
A much different group at the beginning
When The New Day initially formed, it was as a serious heel group bent on changing the status quo in the WWE. They wanted more opportunities and were willing to do anything to get them. The group then morphed into a more comedic act while becoming a staple of the tag team division. Kingston looked back on how the group went through some tough times upon forming.
“It’s hard to pinpoint it. I think when we first came out, no one really knew what to expect from us or what we were supposed to be, but it wasn’t long before they decided they didn’t like us. We always point to Detroit and Philadelphia when the crowd was chanting how bad we were so loudly that we decided that we could actually be bad guys."
Since it's better to get any type of reaction from the audience rather than no reaction, the group rode the wave of negativity in order to become a top faction in the company. That would later lead to a face turn.
"It was really when people started to feel for us — we always say in the wrestling business it doesn’t matter if you cheer or boo, as long as you do something, you always want to have some emotion attached to what’s happening in the ring."
"People were definitely emotional when we were in the ring. I think that was the turning point when we knew we were a solid group, and then over time we became so good at being bad guys that people started to cheer for us, and here we are. We always knew we had a strong connection, and regardless of what we were given, we were going to be able to turn it and do something special with it."
"We didn’t know that it would end up being pancakes, unicorn horns, Booty-Os and ice cream and the other ridiculous things that we do, but here are entertaining people, and people like it.”
The road paved with pancakes
The New Day were willing to do whatever it took to get to the level they are at today. It took some hate from the WWE Universe for them to make it big, but that's the same thing that happened with The Rock. Getting a reaction from the crowd is definitely the most important thing.