The New Day

From left to right: Xavier Woods, Big E, and Kofi Kingston.

About

The New Day is a tag team comprised of the professional wrestlers Big E, Xavier Woods, and Kofi Kingston. Formed in 2014, they are best known for their memetic promos (talk segments), internet references and bizarre antics in the world of WWE. The New Day have amassed a strong following online in wrestling fandom and through their social media activities. As of 13th December 2016, they are also officially the longest-reigning WWE Tag Team Champions, overtaking the previous record holders Demolition's reign of 478 days, and Kingston is the longest reigning WWE Tag Team Champion from all combined reigns, including his previous teams.

Online History

All three members of the team are gamers, as are several other WWE wrestlers, and Woods in particular runs a Let’s Play gaming YouTube channel called UpUpDownDown,^[1] the name of which is a reference to the Konami Code. The channel, founded on 18th March 2015, has over 600,000 subscribers as of 21st July 2016. Woods tends to operate under the moniker Austin Creed rather than his ring name on the channel, but other wrestlers will appear under their ring names, so most of its content is in a strange limbo as to whether it is “canon” to WWE. The channel is occasionally referenced on-air during WWE broadcasts.

All three members can be found on Twitter: Woods at @XavierWoodsPhD,^[2] wherein he describes himself as ”Senpai” and “Mario kart savant and real life bard”, active since May 2009 with 355,000 followers; Big E at @WWEBigE,^[3] active since March 2012 with 477,000 followers, and Kingston at @TrueKofi,^[4] active since June 2009 with 1.78 million followers.

Reputation

The New Day were originally received very poorly for being what fans perceived as forced characters,^[5] playing on the gimmick of a “black gospel” stereotype. However, in April 2015, they turned into heels, or villainous characters, and started playing their characters much more closely to their actual selves. They incorporated strong elements of nerd culture and internet culture, and these traits caused their unpopularity to reverse itself and skyrocket over the latter half of 2015 and throughout 2016, which resulted in their turning back into faces (good guys), essentially by default. As of mid-2016 they are still one of the most “over” (popular with the crowd) acts on the current WWE roster and are partially credited, along with other popular active teams, with the resurgence in popularity of tag team wrestling with WWE fans.

The stable is considered to serve as a good example of what happens when the creative department allows wrestlers to bring fresh ideas to the table, and of a "hatedom" managing to completely reverse itself into a fandom. At the end of 2015, wrestling reviewer Dave Meltzer gave the team the year’s “Best Gimmick” award.^[6]

Fandom

The New Day are the frequent subject of fan art, which will often stylise them in a cartoony or even anime-like fashion, because of their important status as fellow nerds.

For artist names and their sources, please click the images to view their pages in the image gallery.

Related Memes

Francesca and Francesca II

Francesca was the name of Woods' trombone and the New Day's official fourth member, according to her eulogy by Big E.^[7] He brought her to ringside while supporting Kingston and Big E and would frequently play along to the group's entrance music, using Francesca to start the "New Day Rocks" chant, and incorporating short instrumentals into some of the moves performed by his partners. Woods has even gone as far as to play the Final Fantasy "Victory Fanfare" as can be seen in a YouTube compilation video below:

Francesca was destroyed by Chris Jericho on 11th January 2016 episode of Raw. Later, Woods debuted a second trombone named "Francesca II" in honour of the fallen Francesca. Francesca II was revealed to have been cheating on Woods with another WWE wrestler, Enzo Amore, on the 13th June 2016 Raw. However, Woods has continued to bring Francesca II with him to the ring, suggesting that all is forgiven.

"Don't You Dare Be Sour"

Don't you dare be sour is a catchphrase that forms part of the New Day's entrance routine. Every time the New Day are about to enter the ring, Big E is backstage with a microphone. He will address either the crowd or his opponents, followed by this catchphrase before the entrance music starts. "Don't you dare be sour" is now occasionally used in online wrestling discussions to poke fun at someone who is considered to be salty.

Booty

Booty is a term for things that aren't cool. In short, serious opponents who hate fun and have no time for the New Day's hijinx can be considered "booty". Many of the New Day's opponents have been referred to by the team as booty.

At Wrestlemania 32, the New Day did a special entrance in which they hid inside a giant box of "Booty-O's Cereal", only to emerge dressed as characters from hit anime series Dragon Ball Z. The entrance was widely circulated online in the form of gifs and screen captures. So popular was the Booty-O's entrance that it was turned into official merchandise. A Booty-O's cereal box can be purchased from WWE's online store, however, it contains a New Day-themed T-shirt rather than cereal.^[8] On 21st July 2016, fye.com announced that they would sell an actual cereal based on the New Day's Booty-O's, serving as an example of deficitionalised merchandise.^[9]

References to Other Memes & Subcultures

In addition to loving gaming, popular anime, and things from the 90s, Woods is also a brony and as such, the New Day incorporate colourful unicorns into their ring attire. They also frequently don glowing "unicorn horns" which members of the crowd were eventually able to purchase as merchandise and also wear.

While a singles wrestler in NXT, WWE's developmental brand, Woods wore tights that were emblazoned with the memetic statement "Over 9000".

In a promo in 2016, Big E made reference to "putting respeck on the name" of the New Day, and in another promo that same year, Xavier made reference to sliding into the DMs of Beyoncé Knowles.

On the 18th July 2016 edition of Raw, Woods made reference to Pokémon GO and proclaimed his allegiance to the game's Team Valor to an amusingly heated reaction from the crowd.^[10] People online jokingly claimed that this constituted a heel turn for Woods.

Search Interest

References