Transcript
Don't think there was ever any doubt. I don't think we had any choice. We had to be here. Why? Because you and I both have feelings. Welcome to a Not Sam Wrestling emergency podcast. And why do we have feelings? Because Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston of the new day just turned on Biggie. The new day as we know it no longer exists. It exists as something else now, and I I don't recall when I last had feelings like this. I mean, to me, this New Day breakup was a and maybe there's some recency bias here, but a forever moment. This this is, to me, going back to the shield. This is I mean, I think already people immediately on on on my in in my algorithm were bringing up Sean and Marty. We're bringing up the New Day as one of these tag teams. And you felt that. Right? We've been in the midst of this story that's lasted the better part of the last 3 or 4 months. And the story has been the New Day coming to the realization that they are not as relevant or formidable as they once were. And this is something that seems to not sit well with Xavier Woods at all, and something that that Kofi Kingston is a little bit more able to digest and understand where he ranks. But tonight, that all changed. The announcement was made in advance that tonight would be the 10th anniversary of of New Day celebration on Raw. And we got it right there in the middle of the show, and boy did they deck the place out. The big Booty O's box, the Xavier Woods crown, the original tag team championships that they wore, the, you know, the the bronze nickel championships that they wore, the, you know, the the bronze nickel version of the of the tag team championships. Everything. All these items, the rainbow balloons. That music still echoing through. And it it brought me back to a time I think it brought a lot of people back to a time where just the visuals allowed you to really appreciate how much the new day has done. And I think that that appreciation was slowly building over the last month or so, but, really, in the last week and the days leading up to Monday Night Raw and especially, to on Monday, in the buildup to to the evening show, the amount of New Day recollection that was going on was beautiful. Biggie had this amazing article that he wrote for Players' Tribune. It was incredible. If you haven't read it yet, seek it out and read it. How anybody doesn't support this guy, is baffling to me. But you start thinking about why this is such an important tag team to so many fans, and I think that's because this is a tag team that felt like it represented pure wrestling fandom, and also one that was only successful because of the same pure wrestling fandom. You go back to the origins of the New Day. You had Big E, who had been NXT champion at a time when NXT was strictly developmental, but he had established the 5 count. You know, the old King Kong Bundy gimmick was given to him. Then he came out of the main roster as Dolph Ziggler's bodyguard. He had, at one point won the intercontinental championship, but it it just nothing had clicked for Biggie. You had Kofi Kingston, who had had a run in WWE. You know, he showed up with the Jamaican accent, luckily lost it very quickly thereafter. But he had proven that when given the opportunity, the fans would get behind him. I'll never forget the rivalry that Kofi Kingston had with Randy Orton, the original stupid, stupid, stupid moment when you realize Kofi Kingston was on this ascension. I remember being in the audience at Raw in Madison Square Garden where Kofi put Randy Orton, I think it was through the table. He jumped off the the the the wall section in the crowd, and it was just it was a magical thing, but that magic had kind of drifted away from Kofi Kingston. And Kofi Kingston had become lost. Kofi Kingston kind of existed in the WWE without a purpose. And then you had Xavier Woods, who is fairly new to the scene on the main roster, but really just coming out as kind of R Truth's buddy. Nondescript buddy that was good at dancing. That's what Xavier Woods did. And these 3, in real life, came together out of this friendship that had been built, but the commonality as well, which was, what are we doing? None of us know what we're doing here. We gotta make this work. And they came together and they got noticed and they were put together as this trifecta called the new day, and they were based upon these old school preachers. And the vignettes would air with the music that they still use, by the way, but it was it was far more of of Biggie not kind of being funny necessarily even, but just really taking on that that preacher vibe and Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston being right with them and having a a a choir behind them and the whole 9 yards. And people were like, I don't even know what this is. I don't get it. I don't know what purpose it serves, and it really didn't serve a purpose. And very quickly, people started booing them. And I don't believe that they came in as villains. People started booing them. And the original, like, Xavier Woods would be on the outside of the ring going to rev up his teammates, and the audience would chant new day sucks, New day sucks. They were chanting new day sucks so much that they wanted to put out new day socks. New day sucks. And then, eventually, you started to realize this turn was happening, and then as the sort of preacher ish gimmick started to die down, and I think the people that were behind this original that were trying to guide everything that Kofi and Xavier and Biggie did started to kinda go like, I don't know. I guess it's not working. And Biggie and Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston could do it themselves and were kind of given the freedom to do whatever because nobody was really paying attention, fans started to notice. Oh, there's a real friendship here. Oh, there's a real camaraderie here. Oh, there's a real bond here. Oh, these guys are having fun. That's why I like wrestling because it's fun. Oh, these guys have fun. And all of a sudden, New Day Sucks became New Day Rocks. New Day Rocks. They got the response that they were waiting for. And from that point on, they were up on a rocket ship, and they never looked back from the from the booty o's coming out to the to the unicorn horns. Remember they sold unicorn horns? They would all come to the ring wearing these unicorn horns, wearing pink and turquoise outfits. The the the Francesca and Francesca 2, the horns that that Xavier Woods would play. Remember when he came out the night after SummerSlam in Brooklyn, playing New York, New York on the on the on the trumpet, and the whole crowd was singing along with him. That fun never died down. And then, by the way, on top of all the fun, they were just having these classic tag matches and ended up racking up tag team title win after tag team title win, having classic matches with every team from The Usos to everybody else that was wrestling at the time. And people started to to to get behind them like nobody else, one of the top good guy acts in the WWE to the point that they all found singles glory as well. Xavier Woods had tweeted out that he dreamed of one day becoming the king of the ring. He fulfilled that dream by winning the king of the ring tournament and becoming king Xavier Woods. Big e was able to become mister money in the bank, cash it in, and become the w w w w e champion. Do we remember the sweeps that would the the hips that would swivel? Do we remember the, aw, Washington? And, of course, Kofi Kingston, who, again, just like the rise of the New Day, there was a rise behind Kofi Kingston. Kofi Kingston wasn't KofiMania was never supposed to happen. In the quest for Daniel Bryan's, opponent at WrestleMania. There was an injury. That injury needed to be filled. And on the way to the, elimination chamber match, Kofi Kingston had a gauntlet match. And Kofi Kingston performed so well in that gauntlet match and won it to get into the elimination chamber that people took notice. And people brought that energy to the elimination chamber match. And that energy was so infectious and so undeniable that they moved on from the elimination chamber match and said, Kofi, you're getting the shot at WrestleMania. And this was at a time when, as I said on the podcast this week, we didn't get everything that we wanted as wrestling fans back then, but we wanted Kofi mania so bad. We wanted to see Kofi Kingston win the one that he had never won, the WWE championship. We knew he could do it. And at WrestleMania 35, he did it. Kofi Kingston became the WWE champion. So we go forward now to what happened on Monday night Raw. When Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston come out for their 10th anniversary celebration, they they entered the arena separately. And I've gotta tell you, I was holding my breath this entire segment. I was so tense going into this segment because I just cannot picture the New Day going their separate ways, and there were so many different ways I saw this going. I saw a version where where Kofi Kingston I'm I'm where where Xavier Woods would be the Seth Rollins of the group. That Biggie would show up and Xavier Woods would pretend that they were all on the same page and and turn on both of them. Up until Xavier Woods mentioned Brock Lesnar last week, I thought that the idea was gonna be that they were gonna get right to the brink of breaking up only to turn around and everything was gonna be okay. That's what I honestly thought the whole time, that the result of this would be an interesting road to get to a place where everything is okay. And, ladies and gentlemen, everything is not okay. Woods and Kingston were in the ring, and they were talking about everything they've been through. And the fans are chanting biggie, biggie, and they go, yeah. We miss him too and kept it moving. And Kofi gave us a classic, whoo. Whoo. Whoo. Sorry. My voice is going. I just came off of doing the 3rd hour of Monday night raw on Peac**k. You can watch it. And then Xavier Woods grabs the microphone, and he says, you know, we love you guys. And he's very he's with the fans. We appreciate everything you've done for us, everything you've given us, and that's why we want you to know that this is not your fault. And I went, oh, no. No. No. No. No. Oh my god. And the fans go, oh. There's a gasp. And just as Xavier Woods is about to say the things that we don't want him to say, and Kofi Kingston is about to say the things this is like your parents. This is where it gets scary. It's one thing when your parents fight. Nobody likes that. But when your parents aren't fighting anymore and they're just there to calmly tell you that we're on the same page and we want you to know this is not your fault, that's when you run out of the house and go, I can't have this conversation. I can't have this. That's what we were getting until Biggie's music hit. And Biggie came out and and reminded them of who they were and reminded them of the relationship that they all had, reminded them of of the tears that Xavier Woods shed on co on on on Biggie's flesh after Xavier Woods was crowned king of the ring, talking about how how Xavier and Kofi were the 2 people that were there for Biggie in the scariest moment of his life, of course, talking about his broken neck, how how how Kofi was there with his daughter, how how you know, all of this. And Biggie said, and that's why I'm here to remind you guys of who you are and who we are, and I'm never gonna stop doing that. As a matter of fact, until I am cleared to wrestle again, I will be here every single week, and I will be your manager. And the fans are going nuts. We love this. We thought we were gonna get a sad ending. We got a happy ending. Big e is coming back, and the family's gonna stay together. And Xavier Woods picks up the microphone and allows the fans to chant almost in a cruel way. New day rocks. And he says, you left us, Biggie. And everybody's like, what? Xavier, I know that you got this mean streak in you these days, but what? He goes, you left us. And then Biggie is like, I broke my neck. And this is where it gets serious. Kofi Kingston goes, you left us e? I don't care if you broke your neck. And I'm like, when Kofi starts saying you left us e, when Kofi starts doing the mean stuff, when Kofi turns to a villain, I go, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And he says, you left us. He goes, I don't care if you broke your neck. Stone Cold Steve Austin broke his neck, he came back. Kurt Angle broke his neck, he came back. Edge broke his neck, he came back. As big and as strong as you are, and you don't even need you don't even need surgery. If you really wanted to, you could have come back, but you've been working on your other projects. You chose them over the new day. You chose your girlfriend over the new day. You chose your desk job. He's talking about the preshow like it's a desk job. He said you chose your desk job over us. And then Xavier Woods says, and all those people came back. They didn't even have people waiting for him. We made it comfortable for you. He goes, you've been a burden on us. Everywhere we go, people are saying that they miss Biggie as if we don't miss Biggie, but Biggie doesn't miss us. And I'm, like, oh my god. I mean, Wade Barrett did say when Biggie came out, he's been on preshow, he's been doing all this stuff, but this is the first time in 4 years that he's been on Monday Night Raw. Almost 4 years, I think he said. And then Xavier Woods said, we've been sitting here doing the same thing, wearing the same thing, waiting for you, and you never came. And then Biggie says he's not gonna let it happen. They go, oh, it's happening. And he goes, oh, it's like that, Woods. It's like that. And Kofi's with Woods. Oh, it's like that. And Biggie has to leave the ring. Who could be more beloved than Biggie has to leave the ring with his head hanging down as Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods look at each other, and Xavier Woods is finally the QB, is finally making the play saying, it's just us now. It's just you and me. That's it. No more waiting for Biggie. No more nothing. Woods says we'll call you if we need you. Why don't you go back to your desk? And that's it. And, I mean, the fan it it it's like it's like the the the the wind is completely taken out of you. Like, I can't believe it happened. This was the thing I was scared of. This is why I was holding my breath waiting for this segment. This is why I didn't want this to happen. This is why I didn't even wanna celebrate the anniversary, because I was afraid something terrible like this would happen, and here we are something terrible has happened. I don't necessarily know if I can get behind this idea that Biggie with his broken neck should have come back and wrestled, but I can get behind this argument that they have where he didn't come back at all. He hasn't come back he hasn't even off he hasn't come back to be a manager or a mouthpiece or grab a microphone at all until right now, and it's been forever. I also think the idea of them stagnating because that's originally what this story is all about. The origin of this whole story of the tension that has been built within the new day is the fact that they were stagnating. And because they were still doing the same act, hoping Biggie would be back soon, They've grown a resentment and they've they've they've built an anger towards Biggie for that stagnation. When Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods broke this down, as much as they haven't been getting along lately, it felt like a conversation that these two characters had had before. Now look, you can go back to last week and talk about Xavier Woods saying things that you can't take back about Brock Lesnar and Kofi mania, but that could have also been the thing that woke up Kofi Kingston. This is a risky move that was pulled tonight on Monday Night Raw. The New Day is as beloved, if not more so, than any other tag team in WWE history. The New Day is on that short list of acts that you would just assume would never turn heel. And here we are. Not only have they turned heel, they've done it in the most dastardly way possible. In order for this all to be worth and I worry because Xavier Woods said, let's be honest, you're never gonna be medically healed. And it was, like, oh, I don't know if we've seen the last of Biggie. I don't know if we've seen physicality. The last thing that I wanna see is Xavier Woods or Kofi Kingston to put to put their hands on Biggie. That might be too much. But I wanna know what the presentation of this team is gonna look like. When do they change the music? When do they change the gear? How do they act? You can't just be the new day except now we have scowls on our face. There has to be something magnetic about you as villains that attracts me to watch. It doesn't make me wanna like you. In fact, it makes me wanna hate you, but there's still something that appeals in me that makes me wanna say, what is happening next? Where are these characters going? That's difficult for anybody that's been around that long, but for this 180 to happen is absolutely insane. Of all the scenarios I just never saw Kofi Kingston turning. Of all the scenarios possible, I did not see Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston turning on Biggie. And I think that's because it is so hard to imagine Kofi Kingston as a villain. It is so hard to imagine finding it within yourself to boo Kofi Kingston. But if there was ever a reason to boo Kofi Kingston, him looking right in Biggie's face and yelling, you left us, and then saying, if you really wanted to be by our side, if you really loved the new day, you coulda healed from that broken neck. That's about as dislikable as anything I've ever heard anybody say. So if there was ever a reason to boo Kofi Kingston, maybe we found it. But that's gonna be a grand experiment. Can we turn Kofi Kingston into a villain? And if the feelings that I had tonight are any indication of what the future holds, it seems like it might very well be possible. We'll talk more about this, maybe on next week's podcast. I always worry about, cannibalizing my own podcast feed. So please, if you enjoyed this, make sure you go back and check out, Monday's podcast episode, 258, I think it was. Whatever it was. Monday's podcast. Also, if you're interested, check out our emergency podcast, our feelings podcast that Meghan Murrant and I dropped after survivor series. You can also go to not sam.com and click on the store link and get the emergency podcast logo t shirt, long sleeve, and hoodie. The feelings line, t shirt, long sleeve, hoodie, only available for the rest of the week. Okay? Less than 7 days left, if you're watching this the minute it gets published, to pre order any and all of those items. So get on it right now. Appreciate you guys. We'll talk soon. It's a lot of feelings. Try to have a good one.
Comments