Big E has revisited the origins of The New Day, revealing that the beloved trio was very nearly a starkly different, and far more controversial, act.
Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, the former WWE Champion explained that the group’s roots trace back to FCW, where the original concept was a militant faction in the vein of the Nation of Domination. “The original pitch was for us to be the new Nation of Domination,” Big E said, noting the early version was led by the talker Abraham Washington and also included Byron Saxton and Xavier Woods.
According to Big E, the group’s first proposed name raised immediate red flags with the office. “We originally called the group the Klan, and it stood for Citizens Liberation of American Nationalism. It was supposed to be this militant black group,” he said. “The office said we’re not doing that. So we exchanged Citizens for Peoples.” The concept was ultimately killed in FCW.
The idea resurfaced on the main roster in 2014, at a time when both Big E and Woods were struggling. Big E recalled dropping the Intercontinental Title to Bad News Barrett and being booed, while Woods had a rough main-roster debut.
“Woods goes in and pitches the writers that day, pitches them this idea of doing a new Nation of Domination. They essentially laugh him out of the room,” Big E said. Afterward, Woods approached him about teaming up. “He said, ‘What do you think about starting this group?’ And I said, ‘I got nothing, I got nothing else, man.'”
Big E noted that creative had little planned for him at the time. “I was told by Road Dogg, ‘Look, we like you, but we got nothing for you. We need you to go into pre-tapes and just try stuff,'” he said. It was there that Big E leaned into the preacher-style delivery he grew up with in his father’s church.
The trio added Kofi Kingston, though Big E had reservations. “My fear is they would never let him turn heel, and I thought, for us to work as a group, we needed to be heels,” he said, adding that Kingston had been weighing early retirement before getting on board.
They pitched the militant version for months and even briefly aired it, with Woods debuting a white-and-red suit and declaring the group would no longer be “glad-handing and kissing babies.” That version lasted about a week before being shelved, eventually evolving into the New Day fans came to love. Big E credited writer Mike Notarile for fighting for the group in creative meetings. “If it wasn’t for him, we never would have gotten off the ground,” he said.
