The era of the new day in WWE is over, with Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods leaving the company. For years, The New Day was a staple faction within the tag team division, and the duo is undeniably one of the greatest WWE tag teams ever.
This news comes on the heels of recent WWE releases continuing to take hold of the team. After WrestleMania 42, for example, the entire Wyatt Sicks faction and the Motor City Machine Guns were released from WWE. Similarly, Kairi Sane, who was involved in a storyline following the breakup of the Damage CTRL faction and was involved in the Kabuki Warriors tag team, was released, along with other names such as Aleistar Black, Zelina Vega and Santos Escobar. JC Mateo and Tonga Loa have also been released from WWE, effective May 2.
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The New Day left WWE
On May 2, WWE fans quickly noticed that the company had moved The New Day to the alumni section of the website, meaning they were no longer part of the active WWE roster. However, some fans believed that this was a mistake, as similar things had happened before and were eventually corrected. Shortly after that, however, both Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful and Cory Hays of Blodyslam were able to confirm that the duo of Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods “mutually decided” to part ways with WWE.
In recent years, The New Day has largely been confined to backstage segments, at best, and was not reliably booked within WWE. The New Day's heel turn at the end of 2024 was a monumental moment in their career, especially because they betrayed the beloved Big E with an absolutely ruthless promotion, but WWE failed to capitalize on it. Kingston and Woods have been with WWE since the mid-to-late 2000s, and The New Day first formed in 2014 with Big E (before a neck injury).
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In addition to the week-to-week schedule, The New Day was involved in many commercials for WWE, the UpUpDownDown podcast, and WWE games in general. Xavier Woods has been a mainstay in WWE 2Ks MyGM modes, for example, and that's true from the start WWE 2K26.
What is clear, more than anything else, is that WWE is changing. Recent releases, increased advertising spots and more have changed the company, and while some releases feel understandable, it's a bad day for WWE to lose the New Day. Right now, what's next for either wrestler is uncertain and all speculation as of this writing, but it's hard not to imagine the duo forming a new tag team elsewhere and elevating that promotion's tag team division.
