Hours after news broke that Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods parted ways with WWE, AEW talent has wasted no time openly reacting to the news. MJF, Cash Wheeler, Renee Paquette and Ricochet all posted public messages referencing The New Day on the same day the team’s exit was reported, with each post reading as a clear nod toward Kingston and Woods potentially landing in AEW.
Both wrestlers are now free agents working through 90-day non-compete clauses before they can sign anywhere else. According to Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline, Kingston and Woods turned down restructured TKO deals and were granted their releases. Alvarez wrote: “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.”
A Long-Teased Young Bucks Match Now On The Table
The dream match the wrestling business has flirted with for the better part of a decade — The Young Bucks vs. The New Day — is suddenly possible for the first time. Kingston, Woods and Big E first crossed paths publicly with Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson and Kenny Omega during a Street Fighter exhibition at E3 in 2018, and the two trios have referenced each other in interviews and on social media many times since. Matt and Nick Jackson have updated their Twitter bio over the years to publicly hype a future match with the team.
Up until this week, the dream booking was blocked by the obvious problem: the two teams worked for direct competitors. That barrier is now gone. With Kingston and Woods clear of WWE and the Bucks holding the AEW World Tag Team Championships, the match the internet has been pitching for years finally has a runway in front of it.
MJF Fires The First Shot
The first AEW name to publicly reference The New Day after the news broke was MJF. The former AEW World Champion went straight to Instagram Stories with a quote of the team’s own catchphrase.
MJF posted: “It’s a new day…. yes it is.”
Cash Wheeler Adds A “Cot Damn”
FTR’s Cash Wheeler chimed in next, posting on X with a callback to a New Day song lyric.
Wheeler wrote: “Cot damn It’s a new day Cot damn”
Wheeler’s nod carries some history. He and Dax Harwood — then known as The Revival — wrestled The New Day in WWE several times in 2019, including a SmackDown episode where Big E and Kingston defeated The Revival to win the SmackDown Tag Team titles in November of that year, plus a rematch at the TLC pay-per-view that December. A Young Bucks vs. New Day match is the headline pitch, but FTR vs. New Day is a sequel AEW could just as easily put together with both teams now working under the same roof.
Renee Paquette Posts An Old Raw Throwback
AEW broadcaster Renee Paquette, who interviewed The New Day repeatedly during her years on WWE television as Renee Young, posted an old photo of herself with the trio to her Instagram Stories. The image is from one of the team’s Raw interview segments she conducted during her WWE run, which spanned 2012 to 2020.
Ricochet Drops A Tekken Reference
AEW’s Ricochet, who shares the team’s well-documented love of video games, fired off the most personal of the public reactions. Posting on X, Ricochet wrote: “Gonna be able to kick their ass in @Tekken again. It is indeed a New Day. 👌🏽 #Ahaa”
None of this is confirmation that Kingston and Woods are signing with AEW. Both men are bound by 90-day non-compete clauses, which keeps the situation in the rumor phase until at least early August.
The New Day debuted in 2014 as a trio of Kingston, Woods and Big E, and went on to hold WWE-branded tag team championships 13 times — the most in company history. Big E has not wrestled since suffering a broken neck in March 2022. Kingston and Woods continued the act as a duo, most recently as heels. According to Fightful Select, “WWE sources were shocked by the departure of the New Day, with many sources assuming they’d be WWE lifers, especially Kofi Kingston.” The departures came one week after WWE’s mass roster cuts that included Kairi Sane, Aleister Black and The Wyatt Sicks.
