"I was in a bad way mentally and was kind of rough" - Xavier Woods on his mental state before pitching New Day idea
The New Day is one of the most successful and beloved groups in WWE history, and the credit goes to King Xavier Woods for coming up with the idea for the popular trio. Before pitching it, Xavier Woods said he was 'in a bad way mentally.'
Kofi Kingston and Big E were already established stars on the roster before the New Day was formed. At the same time, Xavier Woods had creative frustrations and wasn't being used in anything significant. This led to him coming up with the idea to change their careers and see them soar to great heights.
During an interview with Daily Star, Xavier Woods opened up about his mental state in WWE before New Day was formed.
“Honestly, I was just trying to figure out a way for us to not get fired," said Xavier Woods. “That was it. I wanted to do something. It was the same night, at Extreme Rules (2014), I had a handicap match with me and R-Truth against Rusev. Before the match Rusev ran me into a hard part of the ring and took me out and had a match with Truth. I was like ‘I’ve been here a month, and this is already happening to me – I’m not satisfied mentally, creatively.’"
“Getting out of developmental was one of the hardest things in the world for me" he added. "So I was just happy to be out and thought ‘finally, I’m gonna get to do some stuff’ and it was like ‘No, no you don’t.’ I was in a bad way mentally and was kind of rough. That night, I just went up to Big E and explained how I felt. He and I were pretty cool up to that point and I had been cooking up the idea, and I took it to him and he was like ‘yeah, I’m clearly not going to be doing anything anytime soon so let’s take a shot!”
Xavier Woods on trying to get Kofi Kingston on board to form The New Day
Looking back at New Day, when it was still a newly formed group, no one would've imagined how successful the three members would become. Both Kofi Kingston and Big E went on to win the WWE Championship, and Xavier Woods fulfilled his long-time dream of winning the King of the Ring tournament.
After approaching Big E with the idea of forming the group, all that was left was to convince Kingston to climb aboard.
“We talked to Kofi, and he was in that spot where he was having good matches with people every week but it would just never amount to anything," said Xavier Woods. "There’s only so many times you can do that before it becomes a situation where you want more for yourself. So, I think Kofi was kinda done, and he’d had a great run until then – a legendary run - before New Day. This was something that we were hoping that would spark a new life and a new fire in each of us, and it very much did, because we were having fun – that was the basis of all of it, having fun.”
The New Day members currently play an important role on RAW and SmackDown, with Big E being the WWE Champion and Woods crowned as the King Of The Ring.
At the moment, they are embroiled in a feud with The Bloodline. Big E will get an opportunity to score a big win for The New Day at Survivor Series when he squares off against Roman Reigns.