Xavier Woods Discusses Struggle To Break Out As Singles Star In WWE

Fresh off his King of the Ring victory at WWE Crown Jewel, WWE's Xavier Woods spoke with the New York Post about his victory. The first question Woods got was a simple one– how's he feeling coming off this victory?

"I feel royal, I can tell you that," Woods said. "On a real note, this is what I cared about in wrestling. This is the first thing that I ever wanted, this is the only thing I ever wanted. So obviously we're going to use this king situation to take over WWE and gain as much control as humanly possible, which will be total control because the SmackDown kingdom belongs to me now. But as a kid, this is what I was obsessed with. It's so cool to be part of a tournament because every match matters, every match means something. The fact that I even made it to the finals, it means so much in itself. But then to win and be crowned king, something I always dreamed of, and it's just surreal that it just happened."

While Woods has been a staple of WWE TV for years as a member of the New Day, it has mostly been as a tag team wrestler. The King of the Ring victory represents Woods' biggest singles accomplishment to date, and he believes it has shown fans what he is capable of on his own.

"It means everything," Woods said of the victory. "Because as you stated, this was a chance to break out and show everybody in the company that I have worked in whatever capacity that I can be put in. I'm not just a tag team wrestler. I very much am a tag team wrestler, but I very much believe that singles competitors have a harder time transitioning into tag team wrestlers because tag team wrestling is so complicated, and so intricate, and there are so many more bodies. I feel like tag team wrestlers have a much better chance at becoming incredible single performers because they are used to so many more bodies and so many more things coming at you. You got to keep your head on a swivel at all time. You don't know if you're going to get hit from the left or the right. So for me to be able to translate my tag team success into singles success into becoming royalty is, for me, in my career, literally the best case scenario."

Woods was also asked which moment of his victory was cooler– receiving the crown or hearing the phrase, "All Hail King Xavier" following his win. He explained why he was more excited for the former.

"I would say putting the crown on my head, because I refer to myself as King Woods," Woods revealed. "I'm going to have to have work with that man with the microphone because he said it incorrectly. It's going to be very difficult to chant, Hail King Xavier. Too many syllables. So I think Hail King Woods because I want my people to have an easy time."

Woods continued to go on about his excitement over winning King of the Ring. He described it as the inner child coming out in him for achieving a goal he had long sought.

"The five-year-old in me came out putting this robe on and grabbing the scepter, grabbing this crown," Woods said. "That's why it meant so much to me, because this wasn't something that just came about in high school. But this is something that in elementary school when they ask, 'what do you want to be when you grow up?' and I say 'I want to be a pro wrestler', this is what I was thinking about. I wasn't thinking about anything but the crown. And then later on in life, I understood the concept of friendship that became such a big part of my life. That's when I gravitated toward tag team wrestling, but I still always that idea of becoming king.

"And having the crown as the main goal in the back of my mind, that itch that I had to get scratched, the thing that would make me stay awake at night. Seeing Kofi become heavyweight champion, seeing E become heavyweight champion, I'm so happy for my friends and their success. And it's just real love when you're honestly happy for somebody to do something. I'm just glad that I was able to show the world that I'm pulling my weight in this group, too. We all have accolades that we can talk about. We are all success in our own right. It feels good to shut the haters down."