Kofi Kingston and Big E faced off in a match in 2013. Kofi would win, but would start a feud with the Wyatt Family shortly thereafter. In early 2014, Kingston and E would be put together in six-man tag matches, later becoming a permanent tag team. Unfortunately, that pairing wouldn’t go anywhere until July.
After a lengthy losing streak, E and Kingston were approached by Xavier Woods. Woods had debuted in 2013 as part of the Funkadactyls an unsuccessful comedy stable that saw almost every member released one-by-one. Woods left the stable and eventually ended up in singles with no real noteworthy matches. The yet-to-be-named group would work some dark matches together before disappearing to work out a new gimmick.
The WWE started playing Vignettes ahead of Thanksgiving that year to promote the group and they would debut a few weeks later as The New Day, a babyface black preacher gimmick. To say the fans didn’t like this would be a huge understatement.
New Day was almost unanimously rejected by WWE fans and were widely panned online. While few questioned the team’s in-ring skills, few enjoyed the borderline racist characters they portrayed.
Eventually, however, the team would start to gain traction…
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