Real Reason For The New Day’s WWE Departure Revealed
There are more details about why The New Day are no longer a part of WWE.
For the second weekend in a row after WrestleMania 42, there were WWE releases and wrestlers who were not signing contract extensions.
During the first batch of releases, all five wrestlers from The Wyatt Sicks stable were let go, along with Aleister Black and his wife Zelina Vega, along with over 20 names from the main roster and NXT.
There were four more names announced as WWE departures, with The New Day’s Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods considered among the most shocking names to be let go in a long time. In addition to The New Day, the duo of JC Mateo & Tonga Loa of the MFTs stable were also let go.
After spending the last 20 years in WWE, Kofi Kingston is now a part of the WWE Alumni section, along with Xavier Woods, who signed with WWE 16 years ago, and he’s been on the main roster for the past 13 years.
As a trio, Kingston, Woods, and Big E formed The New Day and went on to win a combined 13 WWE Tag Team Titles during their time on Raw and SmackDown, and they even won the NXT Tag Team Titles once. Kingston was also very successful as a singles wrestler before The New Day. Kingston and Big E also held the WWE Title in their careers.
It was reported by Fightful Select that even though Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods signed new WWE deals in 2025 that would have lasted until 2030, the duo wanted out, even though Fightful added that they make “well into the seven figures.”
The New Day Decided To Leave WWE
A report from Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer noted that The New Day’s Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods declined TKO/WWE’s offer to restructure their deals, and they asked for their release.
“We can also confirm that in the case of New Day, it was their decision to leave based on what TKO was offering for a new deal.”
“To be specific, New Day’s deals were not up. They were asked to restructure to TKO deals, they didn’t like the deals, so they were then granted their release.”
The Fightful report also had similar info about The New Day rejecting TKO’s request to restructure their deals. Their no-compete clauses will expire after 90 days.
Considering The New Day didn’t wrestle on a WWE PLE since WrestleMania 41 over a year ago, it’s understandable why they might have been frustrated with how WWE was booking them.
As a heel team on the Raw brand, The New Day were featured on television regularly, along with Grayson Waller as an ally, but they weren’t heavily pushed, nor has the Raw tag team division been featured as much as most fans would like.
Regarding the future, it’s certainly possible that another company like AEW would show interest in The New Day either as a tag team or as singles stars. Kingston is 44 and Woods is 39, so they still have a lot of years left as pro wrestlers, as long as they want to be.