WWE's Xavier Woods: Big E 'Would've Had A Fantastic Time' With New Day Heel Run

It's been over a year since the devastating heel turn of Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods on Big E, effectively ending the New Day stable as fans had known it for 10 years. While WWE viewers were shocked by the move in the moment, it may not have been as big of a surprise following Big E's devastating, and career-ending, as fans would learn, neck injury he suffered in March 2022. Woods tried to explain, in character, on "Cheap Heat with Peter Rosenberg" that the pair tried to get Big E to see the light, going as far as to invoke Plato's allegory of the cave.

"I honestly believe, and E won't say this, but I believe that E's got some demons," Woods explained. "I believe that E would have had a fantastic time running around letting his frustrations out... Let's say we're all in shackles, we're staring up at a blank wall and the light comes down... We see just these shapes, right? Me and Kof break out, boom, we go up to the top of the cave. Now we see that it's the sunlight projecting down, and that triangle that we saw is a tree. That circle we saw is a rock. We tried to go down and tell E, 'Hey, there's real life up here. You're living in the matrix.' He said, 'No. No, I'm good where I'm at. I'm comfortable here.' We here are experiencing the world as it actually is."

Woods said that he believes Big E would have enjoyed being a bad guy, but he made his choice. As for a possible reunion, Kingston said he doesn't think they need a manager, and he doesn't like to deal with speculation.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Cheap Heat with Peter Rosenberg" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.