Thank you New Day – I do see them signing with AEW

A surprising piece of news came out yesterday when it was reported that The New Day left WWE over TKO wanting to restructure their current deal. I’m not going to dwell on the bureaucracy part of this release because, personally, that’s not really my style. So if a certain someone wants to complain some more about TKO and how they screwed over The New Day, go for it. Instead, I will just pay tribute to The New Day for everything they did for us fans in WWE and what the future holds for them.

So let’s start with their debut in 2014. When this started, Kofi was floundering in the midcard even though he was a multi-time tag team and singles champion, Big E was barely doing anything after a successful Intercontinental Title run, and Xavier was just starting on the main roster but was doing absolutely nothing. So the idea was to take those three guys and form a heel faction with some sort of cult-like gimmick. Obviously, that didn’t work, and fans cheered them immediately, which made Vince completely change his plan and let them just be themselves.

So for over a year, they continued to establish themselves as one of the best tag teams in wrestling, and in 2015, after they had just turned heel again because of negative fan reactions, they beat Tyson Kidd and Cesaro to win their first tag team title, which also marked the beginning of their record-breaking tag title reigns.

Then somehow fans got back into them, and they turned face again and became one of the most popular acts in WWE, which is hard to do for a tag team in WWE.

So let’s fast forward to 2019 and KofiMania, which led to Kofi winning the WWE Title at WrestleMania. You could tell that fans were truly behind Kofi at the time and wanted him to win the big one, and probably thanks to Daniel Bryan—because let’s face it, I doubt Vince would have ever given the belt to Kofi if it wasn’t for Bryan—Kofi became WWE Champion. Sadly, that was the high point of KofiMania, as his title reign was so badly booked that fans started to stop caring. Then when SmackDown made its debut on Fox, he lost the title to Lesnar in five seconds, and that was it for Kofi as champion. In fact, they even made him act like he didn’t care that he was humiliated by Lesnar, and they never gave him a rematch.

So after that little experiment, they decided to reform The New Day, and they went on to win the tag team titles again as a duo.

In 2021, Big E won the WWE Title and became the second member of the group to win the WWE Championship, and sadly, just like his partner Kofi Kingston, he dropped the title to Brock Lesnar on January 1st, 2022. That started a string of bad luck for Big E, as a few months later he wrestled Ridge Holland and suffered a career-ending neck injury, which left Kofi and Xavier forced to continue as a duo.

So after just coasting off their popularity for two years and putting over other teams, in 2024 on the first Raw on Netflix, The New Day turned heel by completely humiliating Big E with an awesome heel promo. This was the start of the rebirth of The New Day, even winning the World Tag Team Titles yet again. But that was also the beginning of the end for The New Day, as even by adding Grayson Waller to the group, fans started to not care about their heel antics, and they started to be featured less and less.

In February of 2026, Xavier was put on the shelf with a shoulder injury, and Kofi was pretty much left to himself, which is never a good sign for a tag wrestler in WWE. So as expected, WWE decided to stop featuring him on TV, and outside of a few backstage segments trying to start a program with Je’Von Evans—which was quickly dropped—and a tag title match, Kofi wasn’t being used at all. And this leads us to today, with The New Day leaving WWE.

Personally, I wasn’t a big fan of The New Day, but I understood the appeal of the gimmick, and quite frankly, they did something that’s really hard to do in WWE, and that’s become one of the top acts in the company as a tag team. They had a Hall of Fame-worthy career and will surely be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame when their careers are over.

As for what the future holds for them, it all depends on how well Xavier recovers from his shoulder injury, but if everything goes well, I do see them signing with AEW once the 90-day non-compete is over. And while they won’t be able to use their WWE names—because I’m sure WWE has trademarked everything—they will still be one of the biggest signings in AEW history and will probably have one last great run before calling it quits in a few years.

So it doesn’t matter what your thoughts are on The New Day or how they left, you have to recognize their legacy as one of the best tag teams in WWE history. And while this is the end of The New Day in WWE, it’s not the end of the team in pro wrestling, and the future is bright for fans of The New Day.