New Day didn't believe fans would treat them as babyfaces when they debuted as positivity preachers in 2014. But Vince McMahon did.
When discussing the early stages of the gimmick on the New Day: Feel The Power podcast, the group revealed their conversations with Vince McMahon that finally allowed them to turn heel. Despite being babyfaces, New Day was booed by fans almost immediately upon their debut, but Raw after WrestleMania 31 was so overwhelmingly negative that it could not be ignored.
"Those night after WrestleMania crowds are very vocal. They boo'd us so badly that we were able to go to Vince and say, 'Please, we have to do something.' And he listened," said Big E.
Kofi Kingston continued, "He said like, 'I really thought the people were going to cheer for this thing.' All of us just started laughing. Because there was no way people we going to cheer three positivity preaching preachers in this day and age. People aren't coming to the show to cheer for religious, anything, really. We all started laughing and he goes, 'I'm serious. I thought this was going to be something the people were going to get behind.' We were like, 'Oh my God, he's the only one who actually thought this was going to be an accepted dynamic.'"
Xavier Woods wasn't sold that Vince really thought the gimmick would work with the trio as babyfaces, believing Vince was just testing them to see how long they'd put up with it.
"I remember we were in the office and talking about the genuine pain in his face. 'Oh, you guys really don't think this is going to work?' To this day, I still think it was a test to see if we would try to nut up and change things. We said this is what we didn't want to do. He said, 'Okay, let's do this. You guys are gonna be the biggest babyfaces on the show.' And we're like, 'What.' I still feel like it was a test like, how much do these guys want it and how much are they willing to endure before they come to me and say, 'No, it needs to be like this.' I have to believe that," said Xavier.
But Kofi isn't buying Xavier's theory.
"I find it hard to believe that someone is going to put this terrible idea on TV to test these three individuals for four months. 'I'm going to put this product on my TV screen just to see if they come up to me.' Essentially, he's saying, 'We're gonna make the show worse' if he didn't believe in the product. Knowing what I know, I wish things were that well thought out. But I know how little thought goes into some things and all of a sudden something happens and we go with it," replied Kofi.
New Day officially made the switch from faces to heels while working with Cesaro, Tyson Kidd, and Natalya, who they credited for helping get them over as heels. You can read their full comments by clicking here.
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