Why Xavier Woods Put His WWE Career on the Line in Bet With Vince McMahon

While we've never been WWE Superstars, we've long heard that Vince McMahon loves it when his [...]

By Jeremy Snodgrass

While we've never been WWE Superstars, we've long heard that Vince McMahon loves it when his wrestler's grab the proverbial "brass ring."

But in the infant stages of The New Day, Xavier Woods not only reached for the brass ring but put his career on the line.

In an interview with the Corridor Cast, Woods explained how he banked his future on the evolution of The New Day. Originally, the trio of Woods, Kofi Kingston, and Big E acted like good guys, but Woods made it his mission to turn them heel. However, McMahon was skeptical of the idea and it wasn't until Woods wagered his career until the WWE boss gave him the green light.

"When they let us make the group, we were good guys. For the industry terms, we were baby faces, and we thought we should be bad guys, heels, and after a while, some things happened and people were chanting, 'New Day sucks' and it's like, 'Ok, yes. Cool. They'll let us turn a corner and we can be bad guys now', and they thought that since Kofi had been a baby-face for so long that they wouldn't boo him, and so, to me, I was like, 'No, we're in control of that. I guarantee you…' I went to Vince McMahon and I was like, 'If you give us… if you give me a microphone four weeks in a row, I guarantee you that they'll boo Kofi Kingston, and he was like, 'You really believe in this that much?' I said, 'Yes, I believe that I can do it', and he goes, 'Four weeks? And if you don't do it in four weeks then what happens?' I said if I don't do it in four weeks, you've got 60 dudes in developmental that deserve this spot more than I do, [and Vince is like], 'I can send you home? Get ready', and I said, 'You should if I can't do it. If I can't make good on this then I don't deserve to be here', and he's like, 'Alright'." Xavier recalled.

McMahon's reluctance is easy to understand. Kingston is arguably the purest babyface in all of WWE and Big E's loose hips and charisma are hard to boo. However, Woods knew that their wholesome image could only go so far and a run as WWE villains was their only path to success.

Woods was right, too. Supremely so. It didn't take long for the WWE Universe to turn on the New Day, which immediately launched them into the top of the tag division. While The New Day are good guys in 2019, those chapters as bad guys made them legitimate, paving the way for a sackful of tag team titles.

[H/T Fightful]

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