The New Day trio of Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods and Big E have had a lot of success during their three-year run as a WWE tag team. They started out as faces that didn’t get over with the crowd, then they became heels that got a lot of heat while generating a big reaction with their entertaining promos and quality matches.
Last year at WrestleMania 32, they emerged from a New Day cereal box to cement their role as faces, and that’s what they’ve been ever since. In addition to being very good in-ring performers, they have delivered some of the more entertaining promos in the last few years.
The New Day won their first Tag Team Championship at Extreme Rules 2015 in Chicago, which was a show I was at and I was mad that my favorite team, Cesaro and Tyson Kidd, lost the titles to them. That title reign lasted a few months and then they beat the Prime Time Players at SummerSlam 2015 to begin the longest tag team title reign in WWE history.
The New Day would go on to hold the titles from August 23, 2015 to December 18, 2016 at the Roadblock: End of the Line PPV where Sheamus and Cesaro won the titles. It was a title reign that lasted 483 days, and broke Demolition’s 478-day record that started in 1988.
This past Sunday they were part of the SummerSlam Kickoff Show, which felt like a downgrade for two great teams, and they lost the Tag Team Titles to The Usos. It was a weird title change since New Day had just beat them for the titles at Battleground. A lot of fans wondered why WWE would do the title change. Now, we may have that answer.
What’s next for the talented trio? More title reigns, apparently. According to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the main reason New Day lost the Smackdown Tag Team Titles to The Usos (one month after winning them) is because WWE wants New Day to have the most Tag Team Championship reigns in WWE history. Meltzer notes that WWE wants to “establish them as the so-called greatest tag team of all-time down the line by holding the titles more times than any team in history.”
The team with the most Tag Team Title reigns in WWE history are The Dudley Boyz with nine titles followed by Edge and Christian and The Hardy Boyz with seven reigns each. The Dudleys are no longer together since Bubba is in ROH and D-Von works backstage in WWE. Edge and Christian are retired, so they’re not going to add to that number. The Hardy Boyz started their seventh reign at WrestleMania and they could add to that number since they are an active tam in WWE although if WWE really wants New Day to set the record then I doubt the Hardys will win the titles again soon.
For The New Day to get the record, they are going to likely have a bunch of quick title reigns in the next year. Trading them back and forth with The Usos may not be the best idea either because The Usos are ahead of New Day with four title reigns to three.
Good luck to The New Day in their quest to have the most Tag Team Title reigns in WWE history. If it happens, you know they would celebrate with some ice cream pops (what happened to those?) and some Booty O’s cereal.
