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 shortly after recent WWE releases have continued to gut the tag team division. 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 that followed the breakup of the faction Damage CTRL and was involved in the Kabuki Warriors tag team, was also released alongside other names like Aleistar Black, Zelina Vega, and Santos Escobar. JC Mateo and Tonga Loa have also been released from WWE, as of 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 this to be a mistake, as similar things had happened in the past and were eventually corrected. Shortly after that, though, both Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful and Cory Hays of Blodyslam were able to confirm that the duo of Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods had “mutually decided” to part ways with WWE.
For the past few years, The New Day has largely been restrained to backstage segments, at best, and were 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 promo, but WWE failed to capitalize on that. Kingston and Woods have been with WWE since the mid-to-late 2000s, with The New Day first forming in 2014 with Big E (prior to a neck injury).
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Beyond the week-to-week programming, The New Day was involved in a lot of commercials for WWE, the UpUpDownDown podcast, and WWE gaming at large. Xavier Woods has been a mainstay in WWE 2K‘s MyGM modes, for example, and that’s true as of WWE 2K26.
What’s clear, more than anything, is that WWE is changing. Recent releases, increased ad spots, and more have changed the company, and while a few releases feel understandable, losing the New Day is a bad day for the WWE. Right now, it’s uncertain what’s next for either wrestler and it’s 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.
