While Xavier Woods is most well known for his main roster run with New Day, his Youtube Channel/time on G4 as Austin Creed, and even for his early indie runs as Consequences Creed, before he was flipping pancakes and eating Booty-Os, Woods was working on his craft in FCW and eventually NXT well before the show was being broadcast on USA Network for a half million or so people each week.

Though Woods isn't exactly an NXT legend, as he never held a strap with the brand until NXT Deadl1ne, when he won the belt in this Year 17 of his professional wrestling career, the former King was an instrumental part in the initial success of the brand, as he detailed to Kelly Kincaid immediately after winning the tag title with Kofi Kingston versus Pretty Deadly.

“Can we talk about something real quick?” Woods asked. “So, years ago, we were in FCW. That was over yonder in Tampa. And you know what? They say one day Triple H came down with some storyboards and said, ‘this is what I’m going to build, essentially a college campus, I’m going to call it the Performance Center,’ and I sat in that room and I thought, ‘this is gonna be great, this is going to be incredible.’ And he took a group of us, and we started tearing down walls in the building so they could have that nice gym over there, people could have that nice arena they’ve got, so they could have the CIL, the place we’re in right now. We did that. And then they brought all of the press here in Orlando, and they said, ‘who is going to speak and tell the world that this is our new home?’ They picked me, I was chosen with my scraggly, crazy mustache – I was having a crisis at that point in life. I stood at the podium, and I was like, ‘this is our home,’ and then what happened? ESPN followed me around and watched me come from the Performance Center to the main roster. The evolution.”

“It feels good,” Kingston added. “The Prodigal Son has returned, we came back. Built this very building brick by brick, tore it down, and then built it with his bare hands, and he said, ‘I’m gonna be back one day. I’m gonna come back one day,’ and people said, ‘is he gonna come back? He said he was gonna come back when the time was right' and now, what time is it? It’s the right time!”

Are Woods and Kingston correct? Is this the return that has been fated for Wood for almost a decade? Or was this simply a perfect chance for Paul “Triple H” Levesque, his DX buddy, Shawn Michaels, and company to put that final cherry on top of New Day's incredible career before they make their way into the WWE Hall of Fame? Only time will tell, but based on HBK's comments after Deadl1ne, it's clear NXT has some plans for the tag team moving forward.

Shawn Michaels had an easy time bringing New Day to NXT.

So why, you may asked, are New Day on NXT? Well, Michaels explained during his post-Deadl1ne media scrum with a rather interesting story transcribed by Fightful.

“We had a call the other day, and I genuinely and sincerely was — we weren't sure what we were going to do,” Michaels said. “I'm always pretty honest with you guys. You know, it's one of those things like I'll send a couple of texts and I'll see what we can do.

“Once again, none of it has been finalized yet, but I have every intention because, as best that I understand it right now, The New Day is still a part of SmackDown, so our titles should definitely be represented. That crossover that we had in the last several months is going to continue. I'll say this, sometimes I think we lose concept of the fact that — I guess I'm always conservative, and I don't ever want to bother anybody, and I don't push more than I should. But every now and then, heck, all I have to do is ask a question, and Hunter [Triple H] says, ‘Yeah, sure.' Then, we have to talk to talent and just see if it works for everybody.”

RECOMMENDED (Article Continues Below)
Big E with a text bubble reading “Thanks guys!” next to Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods with the New Day logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

Big E with a text bubble reading “It's really this push-pull” with The Rock on his left and Roman Reigns on his right with the WWE logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

Big E with a text bubble reading “ I want a good life” with the WWE logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

Wait, seriously, that's all it took? A phone call? Goodness, two years ago, Vince McMahon was squashing Karrion Kross on RAW before his big match against Samoa Joe, and now the second-ranked tag team in WWE is about to go on a run in NXT to help elevate the brand and maybe even sell a few tickets to Vengeance Day in February based on a phone call. Per Michaels, it really was that simple.

“The thing is, I'm thinking about Vengeance Day, but that isn't, obviously, finalized, but I absolutely have to think about selling those tickets in Charlotte and finding out what we can do to best help that,” Michaels said. “At this point right now, I can't say that I know that New Day is going to be a part of that, but I can promise you I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that they are because that's something that's going to be beneficial in making that premium live event in Charlotte something special.”

Will New Day serve as simple transitional champions, or is there a long and expansive run with the promotion in the unicorn-loving tag team's future? If Michaels can get everyone on the same page, the answer to that question could very well be the latter, much to the chagrin of wrestling fans the world over including Big E.