Big E gives props to Xavier Woods.
Over the past decade, the New Day has been involved in a plethora of memorable moments, storylines, and matches. Specifically, the group shined during the later part of the 2010s, as they had a historic feud with The Usos and won a huge amount of gold in the tag team division.
One of the group's most iconic moments came on a July 2017 edition of SmackDown, as they engaged in that rap battle with The Usos. As it turns out, the segment was from the brain of Xavier Woods.
Despite the fact that Woods had came up with a few successful segments before, Big E still wasn't entirely sold on the rap battle, as he thought it had the potential to be trash.
"Only now we got to do it in a way that felt like us. Like, our WrestleMania 32 entrance — that’s just Woods being Woods. He had an idea based on Dragon Ball Z (he and Kofi are both fans), and this talented designer named Mikal Mosley helped us bring it to life: where not only would our gear be inspired by Dragon Ball Z characters … our entrance would look like we’re toys being poured out of a cereal box. (I still can’t believe they pulled it off.) Or like — Kofi, he’s a massive sneaker head. And one day on Twitter there was this “controversy” brewing around Steph Curry’s new “dad shoe.” Immediately we thought, Yeah. That’s a segment. So we found the nearest Foot Locker, picked up a pair of hospital-white Curry 2 Lows, and cut a promo on TV that’s literally just Woods and I roasting Kofi for wearing these shoes. Man … or even the rap battle segment. Like, we’re all such big hip-hop fans. But one of the rare times I’ve doubted Woods was during our feud with the Usos, when he said we should do a rap battle with them. I know rap well enough to know I shouldn’t be rapping. I’m thinking, This has a chance to be hot trash. But it wasn’t!!! And I think the reason why is how much LOVE went into it — and how clear it was that we were having fun doing it." Big E said in his recent Players Tribune piece.
Elsewhere in the piece, Big E talked about his in-ring career potentially being over and how he's excited to explore other opportunities if that's the case. Click here to learn more about those comments.
Check out the current lineup for Monday's edition of WWE Raw by clicking here.
Special thanks to The Player's Tribune and Big E for providing the quote(s) in this article.
