WWE News: The New Day Open Up About Their Original Preacher Gimmick
The New Day will go down in history as one of the most successful factions to ever grace a WWE ring, but their original gimmick left much to be desired. Prior to their current incarnation, Big E, Xavier Woods, and Kofi Kingston were portrayed as dancing preachers, which didn’t warm them to the WWE Universe at first. The stable members weren’t fans of the gimmick either, and they opened up about their experience on the latest episode of the Feel the Power podcast.
As quoted by 411Mania, the three superstars pretended to like the idea when Vince McMahon proposed it. According to Kingston, they had been waiting for a storyline for months at the time, and they didn’t want to turn down a chance to get on television.
“So we’re just sitting there smiling and nodding at Vince. But we can all hear each other in our heads, like, ‘NOOOOOO! This is never gonna work!’ What are you doing?!?! Preachers, nooooo!’ We’re just smiling and nodding, like, ‘Yep! We’ll take the opportunity, Vince!’ Like, the biggest contrast in what was happening.”
Woods also went on to discuss how black superstars were given stereotypical gimmicks in wrestling, which they’d all portrayed individually on television. Big E had been depicted as a powerful bodyguard, Kingston started out as a foreign character, and he had been given a dancing gimmick. With The New Day, they wanted to do something different.
However, the early days of The New Day saw some stereotypical ideas thrown their way. Before they became church preachers, they briefly teased becoming a militant faction who were tired of African-American superstars being mistreated by the company. Their early segments were reminiscent of the Nation of Domination stable, but WWE shelved the idea shortly after introducing it.
The superstars also revealed that, despite their initial hesitation, they vowed to work with the material they’d been given and get over with the fans. The gimmick was too corny in the eyes of the WWE Universe, which resulted in the team turning heel and eventually winning the crowd over with their comedic personalities.
The team has found success easy to come by since forming five years ago. They have won the Tag Team Championships multiple times, while Kingston enjoyed a stint as the WWE Champion earlier this year.
The team hopes to find more solo success down the line as well. As The Inquisitr previously reported, Kingston thinks that Big E should be given a World Championship run at some point as he has all the tools to be a top star in the company.
