Are The New Day The Most Successful Stable In WWE History?

Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods. Those are three names that when mentioned in 2014 wouldn’t have been followed by the words ‘headliners’. The creative powers that be had little for these three fledging athletes, so instead opted to build them into an evangelic stable known as The New Day. At first, the audience totally rejected any attempt for the trio to generate momentum, the white meat babyface act just wasn’t cutting it for a fanbase that were already jaded by the monster push given to Roman Reigns and the lack of fresh talent to get behind.

Something drastic needed to happen to change the direction of The New Day’s individual careers, otherwise it’s likely they would have ended up receiving their pink slips. So, that’s precisely what the three superstars did, they bet on themselves and attempted to overhaul their gimmick completely, ramping their personalities up to eleven and turning the rabid hatred of their gimmick into something that fuelled their unstoppable rise to the top of the card.

Less than 6 months after their debut, the New Day were one of the most popular featured acts on Monday Night RAW. They were Tag Team Champions and pushing more merch than any other superstar in the company. The New Day were here to stay and the fans were eating up every skit, match and promo they were involved in.

As time went by, The New Day cemented themselves as one of the greatest stables of the modern era, putting together critically acclaimed feuds with the likes of The Usos and The Bar and a record-breaking amount of championship wins. It was a rare success story in the tag division, where most partnerships are either forgotten about or dissolved within a few years of forming.

Naturally, as the New Day gimmick grew stale and lose relevancy in the ever-expanding roster, fans started to suspect that a heel turn might be in the mix and an inevitable split was on the cards — how very wrong we were. Instead of going down the typical route, WWE decided to move The New Day into the singles ranks, giving in to the seething popularity of Kofi Kingston and booking him into a marquee WrestleMania match against Daniel Bryan. Kingston culminated a beautifully-told story by winning the WWE Championship, becoming the first African-American champion in the company’s history. It was a powerful moment for all fans to be in awe of and a testament to just how far the New Day had come as a faction.

A concern many had at the time was whether or not Kofi’s success would ripple down to both Big E and Xavier Woods, who were relegated to the tag division once again while Kingston enjoyed main-event feuds with Randy Orton and Kevin Owens. This wasn’t exactly a downgrade for the other New Day members, but perhaps a telling sign for their individual futures now that Vince McMahon had decided to go all in with Kofi’s singles appeal. Alas, we were proven wrong once more.

Fast forward to 2020 following a few untimely injuries, a global pandemic and a shocking split as part of the annual Draft. The powerhouse of the trio, Big E, was sent packing to SmackDown Live, where he started to enjoy the singles spotlight that Kofi was once given. Rather than building towards a WrestleMania championship bout though, E was given a more gentle road to the top, competing for the Intercontinental Championship and winning it on the New Year’s Eve episode of SmackDown Live. This was a great moment in of itself and shouldn’t be understated, the fans were overjoyed to see Big E getting some singles success, a stark comparison to his first IC title win in 2013.

Big E would head into Rumble season as one of the favourites to win the Men’s 30-man match and penned as a potential threat to Roman Reigns’ Universal Championship. This wasn’t to be, but Big E would still make it to his hometown WrestleMania and defend his championship against Apollo Crews. The reception he received was major enough to warrant him a springboard into the next stage of his career, that being the Money in the Bank ladder match and a future cash-in on Bobby Lashley. Big E’s rise to the top came to a head in the fall of 2021, standing on top of the mountain as WWE Champion alongside his two New Day brethren.

E’s stardom has only continued to grow, having defended his title valiantly against heavy-hitters like Drew McIntyre and closing out shows across the UK during their end-of-year tour. Big E is a certified star and the flag-bearer for Monday Night RAW — definitely not the image everyone expected they’d see when the New Day first formed.

All the while, Xavier Woods was left by the wayside, being the only member of the New Day yet to receive any form of singles success. This naturally started a grassroots movement, in similar vein to KofiMania back in 2019. With the King of the Ring tournament returning in time for the Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia, Woods started a social media epidemic that led him to being booked into the 8-man bracket and saw him through to the finals against Finn Balor, Woods’ biggest singles match to date.

It’s hard not to get behind Xavier as a babyface star, his charm shines through in everything he does and was the key component in securing New Day’s initial success as heels back in 2015. Woods, along with his arsenal of musical instruments, was the perfect hype-man for the faction as they clawed their way through the ranks of the WWE roster. His charismatic presence was a big reason as to why so many fell in love with the group, as well as lent their support to both Kofi Kingston and Big E as they each set their sights on singles glory.

So it was that night in Saudi Arabia that Woods would finally be rewarded for all that hard work, when he stood tall as the new King of the Ring. Since that victory, Woods has found himself heavily featured on SmackDown Live, feuding with the Universal Champion Roman Reigns and captaining the SmackDown Live Survivor Series Men’s team. A huge step up from simply being the wrestler-turned-manager act.

With all this in mind, it’s hard to find another tandem that have found as much success as The New Day has over the years. Even when looking back at the legendary stables of the Attitude Era, I’m talking your DX’s and NWO’s, not all members of those factions shared in the same success as each of The New Day have. After Shawn Michaels had fulfilled his time as WWE Champion, the spotlight wasn’t handed to Billy Gunn nor Road Dogg, whereas there has been a continuity between Kofi, Big E and Xavier.

Looking at their accomplishments, the trophy cabinet must be looking pretty full compared to a lot of others’, and that’s a mighty feat for WWE in the modern era. To build a trio of superstars that didn’t have much going for them at the time as three, individual, singles stars is a huge thing to celebrate.

The Power of Positivity has truly prevailed.

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