5 reasons why Big E, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods are future Hall of Famers

Cast your minds back to 28 November 2014. After four months of waiting and five weeks of vignettes, The New Day had their first match together as a three-man group when they defeated Curtis Axel, Heath Slater and Titus O’Neil on an episode of SmackDown.

It wasn’t the most memorable or well-received of debuts, with many wondering why someone as highly rated as Kofi Kingston was aligning with Big E and Xavier Woods – two Superstars whose careers hadn’t exactly gone to plan following their call-ups from NXT.

However, since that day the trio have held four WWE Tag Team titles, hosted WrestleMania 33 and quickly become one of the most popular factions of their generation.

In this article, to celebrate their three-year anniversary as a team, we look at the top five reasons why Big E, Kofi and Xavier are almost certain to be future Hall of Famers.

#5 Continue to reinvent their characters

Whether it’s their in-ring personalities, entrances, merchandise, attires, or even the delivery of their promos, The New Day has constantly evolved during their three-year run as one of WWE’s top tag teams.

Remember their early days as a trio? Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods were a babyface faction whose positivity preaching had gotten so tedious that fans soon turned against them.

But, New Day being New Day, they turned it into a good thing, and before long they became obnoxiously happy bad guys who the WWE Universe couldn’t help but appreciate for their in-ring skills and entertaining promos.

Every veteran Superstar will tell you that the key to staying relevant for so long in WWE is the ability to reinvent yourself, and The New Day has been the leading act for doing just that over the last three years. Maybe we'll soon get to see the heel side of the faction again.

#4 Best use of a manager in modern-day WWE

More often than not, a tag-team feud in WWE will see one member of a team face a rival in a largely meaningless singles match on Raw or SmackDown, while the tag partners not involved in the match will stand at ringside and maybe get involved towards the end.

Well, you don’t get that with The New Day, and you especially don’t get that with Xavier Woods, whose antics on the outside of the ring are just as important to a match as Big E and Kofi Kingston’s antics on the inside.

With the obvious exception of Paul Heyman, Xavier has been the best manager we’ve seen in WWE since The New Day’s debut, which is made all the more impressive by the fact that he is only 31 and has plenty of years left in him as a pro wrestler.

When he decides to stop lacing up the boots, don’t be surprised if Woods, along with Francesca II: Turbo and whatever else he has in his locker by then, remains in the business as a manager for many years to come.

#3 They’re incredibly popular

Of all the performers in modern-day WWE, The New Day appeal to a wider variety of the audience than perhaps anybody else. Kids, grown-ups, grandparents – nobody will leave a WWE arena without having an opinion about the four-time tag champions.

While some Superstars find it difficult to get a reaction from the crowd, Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods simply have to say the word “Who?” and they’ll quickly have the audience getting involved in their promos.

And whether they’re selling t-shirts, unicorn horns or cereal, you can see by the trio’s merchandise numbers – as of May 2017, they had the fifth-highest sales in WWE – just how popular they are.

The New Day’s fandom has grown to such an extent that WWE is releasing a book based on their positive way of life, appropriately titled ‘The Book of Booty’, which will be available on 13 March 2018.

#2 The best tag team of their generation?

Now, the word ‘best’ is obviously subjective, but The New Day tick almost every box needed to be considered the best tag team of their generation.

They deliver every time when it comes to promos, their matches are consistently good, they’ve held the tag titles on four occasions, and they’ve been a constant presence on our screens ever since they debuted.

Excluding The Shield, whose first run as a trio ended just as The New Day formed, only The Usos can lay claim to being as successful as Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods over the last three years, but even Jimmy and Jey had spells when they weren’t being used on television.

Of the many up-and-coming tag teams we’ve seen in WWE since 2014, The New Day has undoubtedly been the best of the bunch.

#1 Record-breaking tag team

The New Day held the tag titles for 483 days

The main reason why Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods deserve to be future Hall of Famers is obvious: they are the longest-reigning Tag Team champions in the history of WWE.

The trio won the Tag Team titles from The Prime Time Players at SummerSlam 2015 and retained them for 483 days until they were finally defeated by Sheamus & Cesaro at Roadblock: End of the Line in December 2016.

Along the way, they defeated the Dudley Boyz, the Lucha Dragons, Los Matadores, The Usos, the League of Nations, the Vaudevillians, The Club, Enzo Amore & Big Cass, Chris Jericho & Kevin Owens, and Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins.

The historic reign saw them pass Demolition’s long-standing record of 478 days as World Tag Team Champions, as well as Paul London & Brian Kendrick’s record of 331 days as WWE Tag Team Champions.

This run truly cemented the trio as one of the greatest teams of their era, and it leaves us questioning just one thing: who (WHO? WHO? WHO?) should induct them into the Hall of Fame?

Edited by Nishant Jayaram