wrestling / News
New Day Talks Bryan’s Retirement, Forming Their Team and More at Wizard World Portland
* The New Day had a panel at Wizard World Portland on Friday, ahead of their appearance at WWE Fastlane this weekend. Moderator Mo Lightning introduced the group with an imitation of their entrance, after which the Xavier Woods plugged his appearance later in the day playing Street Fighter V against fighting game veteran Justin Wong. Woods talked some trash, saying Wong thought he was a great Street Fighter champion but that he had his UpUpDownDown channel and was going to “crush it.” He said he had a psychological advantage with his fellow New Day members by his side, much to the crowd’s joy.
* Kofi then said that Mo didn’t do the entrance with any bass in his voice and proceeded to do so, complete with music as you can see below.
* Mo then said that he never thought after the way Kofi was booked for so many years that he could be a heel. Kofi cut in with “A what?? Insider terms, sir!” He said “Look, I’ve been doing the same exact thing that I was doing before I was involved with the New Day. That’s clapping and promoting positivity. It’s not my fault that people don’t like it all of a sudden.”
* Mo then turned it over to the audience for questions. The first guy said that he considered the New Day to be one of the top tag team over the past several years along with Team Hell No. He wanted to know with all the teams they’ve beaten as of late, who they look forward to facing next. Big E said that the crop of talent in NXT is very deep and impressive. He singled out both Cass and Enzo, which he said have made themselves unique, and American Alphas. He put over the rest of the NXT tag roster and said that while New Day has been able to separate themselves with their promo work, Cass and Enzo would give them something that’s new and fresh and said you’re only as good as your next opponent. Woods said that all of those teams are great and all they want is to get in the ring so they can beat them and talk about how much better they are.
* The next person thanked Xavier for Francesca, saying Rest in Peace for Francesca and good luck for Francesca Two. Woods joked that he and Francesca Two met at Francesca One’s funeral and “things just kinda happened.” The guy asked a question Mo had suggested before the panel, which was whether any of them collected action figures of themselves. Big E. said he’s different from Kofi, who he said holds onto all of his gear and is a “classic hoarder.” He said he’s a minimalist and doesn’t hold onto any of his gear, but the one thing he holds onto is the Mattel action figures of him. He said it was cool to have the kind of stuff you play with as a kid and that having the video game come out and seeing himself in the game was a surreal moment. He said the commemorative plaques that they get (which he used to plug WWE Shop), he gave to one of the writers who is really close to them because he doesn’t want any of the non-action figure stuff in his house.
* Kofi objected to being called a hoarder and said he prefers the term “collector.” He said he collects all of his action figures, as well as those of the people he came up with in Deep South, FCW and so on. He said he keeps all of his gear except one he sold on auction, which was his favorite piece and sold for a quarter of what he paid for it and he’s still mad about selling to this day. He mentioned his shoes, which are customized to what he wears and he doesn’t call it hoarding; he calls it collecting. He said, “One of these days, I’m gonna be an old man trying to tell all the little kids in the neighborhood who I was and they’re not going to believe me so I’m gonna show them. I’m gonna dress up, all messed up. ‘Oh, those were the days, get off my lawn.'”
* Xavier Woods said that he collects figures, but not like boxed figures. He has a game room in his house and has a bunch of action figures of him and people he’s enjoyed in wrestling. He said “And we’re all intertwined with like, Mega Man and Street Fighter figures. It’s like an epic battle of us all coming together with a Mega Man helmet right in the middle because I’m kind of a nerd.” He said he’s also begun collecting Funko Pop! figurines too, saying “It hurts so bad…I used to have this thing called a savings account, and not anymore.”
* When the moderator asked if any of them have been busted collecting themselves, Kofi said yes. He said that in Boston one of his friends who works security sent him a text saying he saw Kofi buying an action figure of himself on security cameras. He said “It’s a good problem to have, I guess.”
* The next fan asked about their thoughts on Daniel Bryan’s retirement. Woods said that it’s very sad because Daniel Bryan is one of his favorite people to watch and he watched Bryan even before WWE in the indies and ROH. He said that being a smaller guy himself, it was difficult to wrap his mind around how he was going to “live in this land of giants” and obtain an emotional connection with the crowd. Bryan being able to do it inspired him to do it as well. He said, “it hurts but at the same time he’s setting another example for in the business to say, ‘If you are injured and you’re not supposed to be going on, take the time to think about yourself, and your family and your future and your possible grandkids, and don’t be addicted to the sound of the crowd. It’s amazing but you have to put other things first.” He said he applauds Bryan for being able to do that because a lot of people aren’t.
* The next guy mentioned their singles runs before the New Day and how creative wasn’t doing much with them at the time, and asked what the highs and lows of that were and how they got New Day over. Kofi said that would be a six to eight-hour story just explaining from the formation of the New Day to the time they turned heel. He said there were a lot of ups and downs and that the difficulty of putting it all together and get it off the ground helped them grow closer as a group. He noted that they had spent months working the live events before they became the New Day and are about two years in in that point. He said that there were so many ups and downs of putting stuff together, pitching stuff and being laughed down or mocked and that they have a list of guys who didn’t have their backs, saying “and there are a lot of guys…old guys, writers, agents, higher-ups who said a lot of terrible things.” He said he doesn’t hold grudges, at which bout Woods said he does. Kofi said it was a difficult process which made it that much more rewarding when they turned things around.
* Big E. said that they came up with the idea of being “clap-happy preachers” after months of pitching better stuff. He said they didn’t just pitch stuff; they came in for pre-tapes on their own time between matches when they could, having bought stuff so they looked like a team. They would write stuff, text writers and such because they believed in themselves. Woods said it affects him deeply because while you can talk about Kofi and Big E’s singles highs and lows in WWE, his is more like lows and lows. He said he’s just happy that the other two were “kind enough to listen to my outlandish idea and back me up on it.”
* Next up was a young boy who said he’s been a fan for a long time and wanted to know what inspired them to become WWE Superstars. Kofi said for him it was growing up watching Saturday Morning Superstars and guys like Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Owen Hart and Ricky Steamboat. He said “I was just obsessed with wrestling” and he always knew this was what he wanted to do. He said that when he told people he wanted to be a WWE Superstar in high school weighing less than 100 pounds, he would get laughed at. And fast-forward to fifteen-plus years later, those same people are asking him for autographs for their kids. He said it’s a matter of believing in yourself and staying the course. He said he was working full-time and training, which meant a lot of long days and nights knowing that this was the goal. He says when people have a dream, they owe to themselves to at least try and the worst thing that can happen is that it doesn’t happen. He said, “This is my job right now, to wear a unicorn horn and have a shirt where I’m riding a unicorn with my friends.” It wouldn’t have happened if he didn’t try to follow his dreams.
* Woods said that his was along the same lines as a smaller guy and people told him that he couldn’t make it, but he started training right out of high school and doing it throughout college because his parents said education is the most important thing. He said what they do is dangerous; they have to go wrestle tomorrow and something could happen that ends his career but because he has an education, he has something to fall back on. He said wrestling’s always been his first love and that it’s so outlandish, but that once he realized as a child that “Oh, these guys get to wear shiny pants and fly around the world and the company will pay you to fly around the world? Why would you not?”
* Big E. said his story is not uplifting like theirs; he was a failed college football player and someone came up to him and said “Hey, do you want to do this?” and he said yes. He said he was a fan as a kid and watched WWE and WCW, but it never occurred to him that this is an actual job people do. He said that every time he’s asked the question, the other two have these great inspiring stories and he’s just some guy who lucked into a pretty cool job.
* The last question was from a young boy who asked who their favorite wrestler was as a kid. Woods said 2 Cold Scorpio, who he liked because there was one time where he came out for his entrance and they went to commercial break; when it came back he was only halfway down the ramp. “And I said, that’s awesome” and he talked about Scorpio’s moonsault legdrop. Kofi reiterated they he always liked guys like Shawn Michaels, Owen Hart, Rey Mysterio and Ricky Steamboat and that whenever he’s asked the question it’s always different. And Big E. said “I like meatheads.” He cited Goldberg and Vader — noting “his WCW stuff, not so much his run, uh, in this company.”
* The panel ended with Paige sneaking out ahead of her own Q&A and crashing the panel briefly to have some fun with Xavier Woods (which you can also see below).
