The New Day will once again be a complete unit on SmackDown Live this week, as WWE announced that Big E will wrestle for the first time since tearing his meniscus the week after WrestleMania.
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E will team up with Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston to take on Dolph Ziggler, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn in a six-man tag match on the Blue Brand this week. The match will serve as a chance for revenge for the big man, as it was implied several weeks back that Owens attacked E backstage on an episode of SmackDown, prolonging his absence from the group.
Back in mid-April, Kingston and Woods offered Owens a spot in the group as an honorary member while E recovered, which the former Universal Champion accepted at the time. But just one week later Owens turned heel and betrayed the group, leading to a WWE Championship match against Kingston at Money in the Bank. The New Day continued to feud with Owens and Zayn following the event, but then Dolph Ziggler inserted himself into the equation by viciously attacking Kingston from behind.
Saying that Kingston’s championship opportunities up to and including WrestleMania should have gone to him instead, Ziggler challenged Kingston for the title at Super ShowDown. He lost after being distracted by Woods on the apron, then cut a promo after the match calling Kingston a coward for needing help to win. WWE quickly booked a Steel Cage match between the two for the Stomping Grounds pay-per-view on June 23.
In a recent interview with ComicBook.com, E stated that he, Woods and Kingston have no interest in ever breaking up as a group.
“I’m not saying that Kofi doesn’t get a world title reign without The New Day, but you don’t get that same moment of brotherhood, that same story of two guys who are able to go through the gauntlet and get their brother his title match,” he said. “All of the things we’ve been able to do the last couple of years, that is unique and special, you don’t get any of those moments. We listen to people that say “Actually, you should turn heel,’ or ‘It’s my time, I should really make this time about me.’ That’s not something that even remotely interests us.”
