As crazy as it sounds, it has officially been over a year since the three members of New Day, Xavier Woods, Big E, and Kofi Kingston, were on television together.

While all three performers in the faction have continued to find success since, with Kingston and Woods winning the NXT Tag Team Championship belts late last year and Big E branching out as the MC for the Michigan Panthers and as a representative for WWE's NIL program, there's something that's just not quite right about the trio being apart, as for the better part of a decade, they were the heart and soul, or at least the fun-loving spirit, of WWE.

Well, guess what? While WWE programming may be without the phoenix-like spark of the New Day, that doesn't mean the men behind the faction have grown apart, as per Woods in an appearance on Superstar Crossover with Josh Martinez, they're still as close as ever, with more than a few projects going on behind the scenes.

“So we haven't been on TV in a minute, what, like, a month, two months? The thing that people don't see is all the stuff that we do outside of the ring. So we have been working relentlessly on so many other things. So we'll be back in due time, we'll be back in due time,” Xavier Woods said via Fightful.

“If you look at wrestling, the landscape has changed. I love when it changes because it comes at a slow pace, and then all of a sudden, you see all these faces are faces that have only been there for like six months, or a year, or a year-and-a-half. That's what's kind of happening right now. So many people are filtering in. So, as people filter in and they get established, and the crowd gets to know who they are, then all of a sudden, New Day *claps* we back on the attack.”

The last time New Day was on WWE television was on May 20th, 2022. Since then, dozens of new Superstars have debuted for the promotion, dozens more have chances which brand they work for, and a few familiar faces have even returned after tenures away. And yet when Woods, Kingston, and Big E are all healthy enough to return to television, they will be welcomed with open arms and handed a premium spot on the card. Why? Because they are an unflappable faction that has expanded its popularity outside of the professional wrestling world.

Xavier Woods reveals how he got his start in TNA.

Elsewhere on Xavier Woods' media tour, the creative mind behind UpUpDownDown discussed his first big break in professional wrestling, where worked a match with AJ Styles in an appearance for TNA.

While Woods had wrestled more than a few matches in his professional career up to that point, he revealed to Jeff Zito of Celebrity Jobber how a college kid from Furman University was able to wrestle with the “Phenomenal One” during his prime.

“I was in college, I was a senior, and my goal was to try to get a contract with a major wrestling organization before I graduated. I ended up getting a shot on a big show because a guy by the name of AJ Styles vouched for me. He vouched for me, and I was in this match, sight unseen, and they let me wrestle on TV on the largest show of the year for them and I was in the first match against AJ and his tag team partner, and I was teaming with R-Truth. After that, I got a contract, and I hit my goal. I was a contracted TV wrestler before I graduated college because AJ took a chance on me,” Woods said via Fightful.

“One of my good friends, Sal Rinauro, he hit me up and said, ‘AJ has been in a tag team for a minute, he wants to go back to singles and get in ring shape for that. Do you want to come train with us?' It was about two hours from where I was. I asked my boss, I worked in a daycare at the time, she knew how much I wanted to be a wrestler. She gave me the week off work, and I went up there every day, and we worked out for four or five hours each day. After that, he called me up and said, ‘Are you busy this weekend?' ‘No.' He got me on the show, and we went from there. It's nothing but love to AJ.”

Would Xavier Woods, then working under the moniker Consequences Creed, have found his way to WWE without a valuable run in TNA and the endorsement of AJ Styles that preceded it? It's impossible to know, but after an incredible run in WWE, it's safe to say fans should be shouting “Thank you, AJ” the next time Woods gets in the ring.