Kofi Kingston on New Day vs. The Bloodline on Tonight’s WWE Raw, How Big E’s WWE Championship Win Compared to His Own

The New Day’s Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods and Big E haven’t been able to compete as a trio in a WWE ring since the 2020 WWE Draft sent Kingston and Woods over to Raw while keeping the team’s powerhouse on SmackDown. That finally changes on tonight’s Monday Night Raw when the three will reunite to take on The Bloodline. Big E arrived on Raw last week and successfully cashed in Money in the Bank to become WWE Champion, only for The Usos to attack him backstage on last week’s SmackDown. 

Kingston spoke with ComicBook on Monday morning ahead of the six-man tag match and talked about its importance, given that The New Day has a history with their opponents that stretches back nearly a decade. 

“Oh man, I can’t wait for it, man. I really can’t wait. I think a lot of people weren’t expecting to get it so quickly, but here we are,” Kingston said. “And that’s the thing about being, I don’t want to say being on top, but as soon as Big E became the WWE Champion and then we heard that he was going to be on Raw a lot more, I knew that business was going to pick up real, real quick.

“And then you start thinking about like, ‘Okay, who can we face?’ and then all of a sudden everyone starts coming out the woodwork,” he added. “And I’m glad that The Bloodline was the first one to come out of the woodwork because, our history with The Usos has been amazing. We have put on awesome matches. Gosh, I don’t think we’ve been in the ring together since 2019.”

Check out the full interview with Kingston below!

What do you make of the changes Roman Reigns and The Usos have made over the past year?

I love it. I think that, like you said, a lot has changed, but I think it’s changed for the better, they have found themselves. Initially, when you said we’ve been doing this for about a decade, when were going back and forth with The Usos, they were at a point where they were trying to find themselves. Where they had gotten rid of their traditional Samoan looks, and they got rid of the face paint and the garb and all of that, and they just started being more themselves. And they found themselves. They were trying to figure out just the nuances of those characters and personas. And, at the same time, so were we. We were three guys, myself, Woods and E, who were struggling and trying to get on TV. We got put on a television in a gospel-type role, we had to navigate that.

And you fast forward, and here we are. We got to find ourselves from that experience. So, first, to be able to go through that with The Usos as they were going through their thing, it really helped both of us because we got to solidify the fact that when we are in the ring together it’s going to be something special. All those matches that we had with The Usos got better and better exponentially with each progressive match.

And now here we are, and here they are. The Bloodline, it’s like fine-tuning yourself, fine-tuning your, quote-unquote, character. And they have done that to a T. Even just the inception of The Bloodline, pay respect or acknowledge the head of the table, that was amazing. What a story. And now they have such an incredible bond, this real bond, because they’re actually family who grew up together, they played football together, they went to family gatherings together, they gathered together on the grandest stage at them all.

And now, myself, Woods and E, guys who came together and we stayed together and we probably have maybe the strongest bond in WWE. I don’t know if there’s anybody else in WWE that’s had as strong a bond as we have. So it’s almost like, I don’t want to say a family feud, but yeah, like the Hatfields and the McCoys. Just us going back and forth with these guys, as we keep refining ourselves, we get better. They refine themselves, they get better and we come at it, and we go at it again. So tonight it’s going to be what I’ve been calling a banger, it’s going to be a banger for sure.

Last week you and Woods got to celebrate E’s WWE Championship win to close out Raw. How did that feeling compare to when you won the WWE Championship back at WrestleMania 35?

Well, for me, it was totally different. Number one, because I was 10 times more nervous for E than I was for myself. Because like I said before, everything is always changing. I was sure that something at the last minute was like, “Okay, we’re going to go this route now, we’re not going to have you go out and cash or whatever.” So sitting in Gorilla, I’m just sitting there with butterflies in my stomach, nervous, rocking back and forth. I look over at E and he’s cool as a cucumber, just ready for what is about to come. And it was just so awesome to see, because at that time, and especially once he beat Bobby, you can see it in my eyes, first of all I couldn’t contain my excitement. I couldn’t stop moving, I couldn’t stop jumping around. But then a few times I really had to take a step back and just look at him. And just be like, “Wow, he did it, man. All the hard work that he has put in over the years has finally paid off.”

He is a guy who never rests on his laurels. He’s a guy that is always trying to get better, literally every single day, not only as a performer, but as a person, it was just awesome to see that culminate, and in my hometown nonetheless. So a little extra icing on the cake, man. It was awesome. It was awesome and so well-deserved. And when we got back through Gorilla, we came through the curtain, all of his peers were there, all the roster was there. Everybody was just so happy. And that’s just a Testament to show you the kind of impact that Big E has on the roster and what kind of person he is, that he has a personal connection with everybody. Not a single person was mad that E was champion. Everyone was extremely elated and happy that he got what he deserved.

I remember how angry everyone was when they split you guys up in the Draft last year. Were there any assurances from the higher-up at the time that you would all be put back together down the road?

So first thing, and you see this when it happened, I’m really, really upset, I was pissed. I was like, “Why would you break us up? We sell an incredible amount of merchandise. The thing that we do, we bounce off each other so well to the point where there’s no one that can do what we do, why would you put us on different shows?” I was really, really hot.

But after I calmed down a little bit, I realized that it was really for the better, because Big E, and I said this for a while, he has always deserved a chance to shine, he’s always deserved a chance to be the face of the company. And in order for him to do that, you really had to allow him to show that he could do it on his own, that he could be on his own and go out and perform at a high level. So, it was for the better. It was for the better for him to be able to go out and step out on his own and do his thing. So, for us, we never looked at it as a breakup per se. A lot of people were, “Oh, you guy have broken up.” It’s like, “No, we’re just diversifying our investments, where Big E goes over to SmackDown, he takes over, over there.” He became Intercontinental Champion with the quickness. Myself and Woods, we became tag team champions, and now we’re doing it again. And then he becomes Mr. Money in the Bank over there. He ends up doing exactly what we planned on having him do, and exactly what he planned on doing, getting to the top of the ladder, and it wasn’t even a pun intended, but being at the top of the food chain at the top of the mountain.

So yeah, man, we come back together now and we’re stronger. We’ve all grown as performers, so that was always the plan. That was always the plan. I never really put stake in what anybody says, because things are always changing multiple times on the daily. You’d be so surprised if you knew how much things would change and how frequent change came with what we do. So, the plan was never to completely be separated, but I don’t believe in things until it happens. Nevertheless, here we are back together again, the boys are back and Big E is WWE champion and all is right with the world.

E has talked in interviews about how he doesn’t view himself as a locker room leader. Is he selling himself short?

I think he’s definitely selling himself short because he’s a leader by example, for sure. Everyone respects E and everyone respects what he has to say. He has the incredible gift of being able to galvanize people with his words, as you’ve seen so many times on Raw and SmackDown.

Yeah, he’s definitely a locker room leader. People look to E’s story and they see, again, that hard work pays off. He came into this industry when someone asked him if, “Hey, you want to be a wrestler?” He said, “Yeah, I’ll try it out. Why not? Give it a shot.” And now look at him. He works hard, he’s busted his chops the entire time. And people see that, people notice that. His matches, the way he puts his body on the line with almost every single match and his dedication, people see that.

When you’re in a spot where you don’t really know what to do to climb the ladder and how to advance your career, you can definitely look to E’s career and you look at it and you say, “Well, this is how he did it. He just kept his head down, his nose down and he kept on working and pushing forward, and now he’s the WWE champion.” So you’d be a fool to not take note of that and apply it to your own craft and sell yourself. So yeah, he’s certainly a locker room leader in my eyes.

You guys had the New Day: Power of Positivity comics from BOOM! Studios drop a few months back. How do you feel about how that turned out? 

So actually, the comic book was supposed to come out last year, and then obviously with the pandemic, and everything shutting down, we had to push it back for a year. I remember being at Comic-Con a few years ago and the artists (Austin Walker and Evan Narcisse) came up to us and they said, “Hey, we’re going to be doing a comic book with you guys and with BOOM! Studios, and this and that.” So, immediately, my mind was blown away. And we had this conversation and they’re talking about putting us in a comic book. And I’m a comic book guy, so my mind is blown and specifically BOOM! Studios. They have a history of having the artwork is amazing and the stories are amazing too. Irredeemable, and some of these other, Power Rangers, they came out with.

So the fact that they were even talking to us about it, I was like, “Oh my gosh. Yeah, of course we would love to do this.” And Austin and Evan, they know us. They nailed the story to the point where we just told them to go do their thing. We had the faith and the trust that they would get it right, and they did to a tee. Reading it, I was like, “Man, this is stuff that I would say and stuff that I would do, and the way that I would act. How do they know me so well?” But yeah, it’s an incredible read.

Between the Mortal Kombat and Outsiders gear, you guys have been killing it with the ring gear lately. Of all the looks you guys have had, which one do you think is your favorite? 

Oh, I can’t, it’s too hard, it’s too hard. I could maybe say the Dragon Ball gear, the Super Saiyan gear.

Obviously, because of the magnitude of that match being at WrestleMania, coming out of a Booty-O’s box, being the tag team champions. Gosh, that may be, but then you talk about the Mortal Kombat ones two, and boy and those are a little crispy man. Scorpion and Sub-Zero, come on, man. Power Rangers looks, amazingly done, Red Lantern stuff, which was significant, as actually we were going up against the Usos and exhibiting a form of rage. Everything is significant, and it’s a real cop-out of an answer, but I really cannot put a finger on a favorite one. I feel like every time that we come up with something new, I’m like, “Oh, this is my favorite.” And then I put on the next, “Oh, this is my favorite.”

And we have such a great team. Jonathon Davenport is our gear designer, he nails all the crazy concepts that we have, he just puts them in digital form. I was going to say, he puts them on paper, but nobody uses paper anymore, it’s 2021. But yeah, he does a great job. And then obviously, Main Event Gear with Robert Adams, he’s the one who makes the gear come to life and makes it a reality.

Monday Night Raw begins at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network