New Day on Vince McMahon’s Shock At Their Failed Babyface Run, Xavier Woods Putting His Career on the Line to Turn Them Heel

– The New Day talked about their initial, poorly-received run as babyfaces on the latest Feel the Power, and how shocked Vince McMahon was by the reaction. Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston and Big E. discussed how McMahon geniunely expected that they would get over as “positivity-preaching preachers” which, obviously, didn’t happen. The group was booed initially despite being booked as babyfaces, and Woods recalled that he put his job on the line while pitching the idea of turning heel because McMahon didn’t believe Kofi Kingston could be viewed as a heel.

Highlights from the discussion, and the full podcast, are below:

Kofi on McMahon being surprised it didn’t work as a babyface gimmick: “He said that, ‘Oh, I really thought that people were gonna cheer for this thing.’ So all of us just started laughing, you know? Like, ‘AHH!’ Because there’s no way that people are going to cheer three positivity-preaching preachers in this day and age, you know what I’m saying? In the wrestling world, like people aren’t coming to the show to cheer for religious anything, really. And we all started laughing, and he’s like, ‘No, no, guys. I’m really serious. I thought that this was gonna be something that people were gonna get behind.’ And we were like, ‘Oh my god! He’s the only one who actually thought that this was gonna be an accepted dynamic!’ But I don’t know. I’m glad that we got to do it, though.”

Woods on believing it was a test by McMahon for them: “I remember when we were in the office and we were talking to him about that, the genuine pain in his face. Like, ‘Oh, you guys really don’t think this is gonna work.’ And we were like — I still to this day think it was like a test to see if we would try to nut up and change things. We said, ‘Okay, this is what we don’t want to do. And he’s like ‘Okay, cool. Let’s do this.’ And it was like, ‘What?’ And then saying, ‘Oh, you guys are going to be the biggest babyfaces on the show.’ It’s like, ‘WHAT?’ I still feel like it was a test, like ‘How much do these guys want it? How much are they willing to endure before they come to me and they say no, it needs to be like this?’ I have to believe it.”

Woods on putting his career on the line to try and get Kofi over as a heel: “So I ended up going to He Who Shall Not Be Named [McMahon’s] office and asking him again about us turning heel, and giving all the points on why I feel like in this day and age — especially with very specifically what we are doing — is not going to get us that babyface reaction. But, if we lean into it a little more and we allow it to be taken as heels, then I think that’s what’s really gonna get us.’ And he told me that ‘Kofi Kingston is the consummate babyface. He’s always been a babyface, this is what people know, this is what people love. This is Kofi Kingston. People will never buy him as a heel.’ Good old dark meat babyface.

“And so that’s when I asked him if we could get a microphone. And I said, ‘If people don’t boo Kofi by the fourth week, when we’ve talked four weeks in a row, then I’m not good at my job and I shouldn’t be here.’ And he said, ‘So that means that you’d be fired?’ I said, ‘Yeah. If I can’t talk well enough, if I’m not good enough on the microphone to make them boo Kofi Kingston, who you think is this consummate babyface, who will never be booed. Then I don’t deserve to have this job and you’ve got 70 dudes in NXT that should have my spot.’ He said, ‘All right. You guys will talk tonight.’ And that’s when we started getting those in-ring promos.”
Woods on that four weeks of promo time: “First week we came back, I remember, where they’d kind of boo me, they’d boo E. a little bit because they liked him too. And then they wouldn’t boo you [Kingston]. Second week, same thing. Third week, I think I talked, then E. talked, then when you got the mic there was a [weak voice] ‘Booo…’ Like a little bit, and I was like ‘[Gasp] Please, please, please!’ And I remember we walked in the back and Vince stood up from behind the monitor and just shook his head, like an approval, like, ‘Hell yeah.’ And I was like, [Happy gasp] My job, my job!'”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE’s Feel the Power with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.