The New Day (professional wrestling)
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The New Day is a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods. They are signed to WWE, where they perform on the Raw brand. One of the most popular and decorated teams in WWE history, The New Day holds several records, including the most reigns as SmackDown Tag Team Champions at seven, and the longest-reigning Raw Tag Team Champions at 483 days. As a team, they also hold the record for most WWE-branded tag team championship reigns at 13 (seven WWE, five World, and one NXT)—the only team WWE recognizes with more is Dudley Boyz at 18, but this includes their eight Extreme Championship Wrestling and one World Championship Wrestling tag team title reigns. While performing as a trio, The New Day defended their tag team titles under the Freebird rule, with all three members being recognized as champions. The stable was prominently formed by Xavier Woods with Big E and Kofi Kingston on the July 21, 2014, show of Raw, but made their debut as The New Day on the November 28, 2014, episode of SmackDown. In April 2015 at Extreme Rules, they won their first WWE Tag Team Championship. Their second reign, which began at that year's SummerSlam in August, became the longest male tag team championship reign in WWE history until it was surpassed by The Usos (Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso) in 2022. The team also won the SmackDown Tag Team Championship a record seven times and after winning NXT Tag Team Championship, they became the third WWE Tag Team Triple Crown Champions. As singles wrestlers, both Kingston and Big E won the WWE Championship, while Xavier Woods won the King of the Ring tournament. In January 2022, Big E would be moved to SmackDown, thus becoming a trio again with Kingston and Woods; however, an injury incurred in March has kept Big E out of action indefinitely. In December 2024, after being away from the stable since his injury, Big E was removed by Kingston and Woods in the stable's 10-year anniversary celebration. The early months of the stable as stereotypical black gospel babyface characters were marked by largely negative reactions from fans and critics alike, but after transitioning their characters into heels fanatically obsessed with the nostalgia-style "power of positivity" in April 2015, they began to receive acclaim for their entertainment value, as well as for their in-ring performances. In 2015, the trio were collectively named "WWE Wrestler of the Year" by Rolling Stone, while also being recognized as the "Best Gimmick" of the year by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Additionally, they became the first trio to win the Pro Wrestling Illustrated award for "Tag Team of the Year", doing so in 2015 and 2016 (the first two wins in a row in this category for two decades). Their new-found popularity resulted in the trio reverting to babyfaces in early 2016, which they remained as until December 2024, when Kingston and Woods reverted back to being heels after Big E’s removal from the group. The three, who are close friends in real life, also appear or work together outside of wrestling, notably writing the 2016 book The Book of Booty: Shake It. Love It. Never Be It, and hosting a weekly podcast, Feel the Power (named after one of their catchphrases), from 2019 to 2023. In 2021, The New Day topped WWE's list of the "50 Greatest Tag Teams" in the promotion's history.