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Speaking on the final 2019 episode of The New Day’s Feel The Power podcast, Xavier Woods revealed that he once told Vince McMahon that he could fire him if he failed in his task to get fans to boo Kofi Kingston.
At the time, The New Day were five months into their run as a babyface faction and they had just competed in a Tag Team Championship match on the WrestleMania 31 kickoff show. However, fans did not take to their preacher gimmick and all three members of the group were keen to turn heel.
Woods had a conversation with McMahon about allowing The New Day to be bad guys, but the WWE Chairman did not believe it could work because he could not see fans booing Kingston.
In a bid to change McMahon’s mind, Woods told his boss that he could replace him with someone from NXT if he failed in his new role as a heel.
“I asked him [McMahon] if we could get a microphone. I said, ‘If people don’t boo Kofi by the fourth week and we’ve talked four weeks in a row, then I’m not good at my job and I shouldn’t be here.’
“He said, ‘So that means you would 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 seventy dudes in NXT that should have my spot.’ He goes, ‘Alright, you guys will talk tonight,’ and that’s when we started getting those in-ring promos.”
Woods admitted it was difficult in the first two weeks to encourage fans to boo Kingston, but he received a nod of approval from McMahon backstage after the third week when the crowd gave the four-time Intercontinental Champion a mixed reception.
Listen to one of Xavier Woods' former on-screen rivals, Fred Rosser (fka Darren Young), discuss WrestleMania 30 in the latest episode of The Rosser Rewind on Sportskeeda!
