Problems With The New Day Faction
The New Day Faction may have gained some fans last Friday night on Smackdown, when they debuted their new gimmick, but I wasn't one of them. No, while The WWE Universe got up and clapped their hands together to the music, all I could do was shake my head and laugh.
I never try to be a critic of WWE. I find that is not a good use for a fans time. It’s not like Vince McMahon will magically read mine or anyone else critique of their product and suddenly decide to change things. To be honest. I think a lot of fan complaints are ignored.
Unfortunately those facts can't prevent me from venting that The New Day Faction, featuring Big E Langeston, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, is just not a good idea. Why WWE would choose to introduce a three team faction, when no other existx is completely bewildering.
No Competition
If The New Day was around when The Shield and The Wyatt Family were running rough shot in The WWE, I could understand the idea to introduce another one into the mix, but not when there is no suitable competition for The New Day Group.
A feud with Gold and Stardust is an okay storyline to start. A stark contrast between good and evil could prove to be a great angle for the two groups, but which members will see ring time? All three members can't be in every match against a two person team, meaning that one will usually have to stand outside the ring and play cheerleader for the team.
I know The WWE can choose to do handicap matches or even introduce another teammate for Gold and Stardust, but that wouldn't really match up with The Rhodes brothers’ bizarreness to suddenly have a new member of their team.
On the other hand, I will admit that another superstar could have a dispute with a member of The New Day Faction, and join The Rhodes Brothers to settle it. Even though this seems like a good fix, I still think this idea will fail without other powerful factions to battle against.
Think about this. The Shield ran roughshod on The WWE roster for eight straight months, all of which were some of the most exciting and jaw dropping storylines fans have seen in years, but all that became just a warm up the day The Wyatt's and The Shield began to do battle in three men tag matches.
Racial Tension
Another issue with The New Day Faction is the obvious pandering to the disenfranchised African-American audience. This is WWE's new idea to stay relevant and newsworthy during the countless protests from The Mike Brown shooting and other current events centering on African Americans.
I understand that the idea for this group was conceived far before the Ferguson riots began, but bringing the group to the main roster right now is oddly convenient, with everything currently going on in the world around us.
Not a Good Career Move
Not only is it pandering to an African-American demographic, its also taking away from the careers these three superstars could be having. Both Kingston and Langston are former champions, and deserve to be in title hunts, not stuck in some church gimmick clapping their hands with the audience.
Woods on the other hand has his whole career ahead of him, but his career will certainly be hindered with this new gimmick. This gimmick has all the classic signs of being for bathroom break matches and mid-card fillers before the main event, giving Woods little chance of being able to mix it up with people higher up on the roster.
It may be a new day in WWE, but it also seems like a dark day as well. A day where WWE just doesn't know what to do with extremely gifted superstars and reduces them to a mid-card faction to fill time in between matches. This gimmick will be just like Fandango's back in 2013. Popular for a while, but easily forgettable after that.