Big E Says New Day Knew Of The Split Two Days In Advance, Initially Were Not Pleased

New Day as fans have come to know them are no more due to the 2020 WWE Draft.

Big E was drafted to SmackDown while Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods were drafted to Raw. The group will continue to represent each other on both brands, but they won’t be whole for the foreseeable future. 

Speaking to Fox Sports, Big E revealed when the group learned that they were going to split. 

“We probably got two days in advance. Which, I think a lot of it was to ensure that we didn’t show up to work and if we heard the news then, I assume that people just imagine that we would be tearing up the halls, knocking down doors, crying in public, just fits of rage. So I feel like they decided, let’s give ’em a couple of days to simmer down at home before we had to actually do this on TV,” he said.

When asked what their reaction was, Big E replied, “Initially, obviously, we were not pleased. I’d heard some rumors maybe a month prior that it was something discussed. But I’ve heard rumors for years that we’re gonna be broken up, that one of us is gonna turn on the other, and we’ve been able to weather a lot of those storms. But it felt like there was more momentum towards some kind of a split. So I had an opportunity to talk to one of the writers and say, ‘Hey, just so you know, I heard one of these rumors. Is this a viable option?’ And I was told, like, ‘Hey, there are many options being presented,’ and they would neither confirm nor deny. But we just wanted to let them know that we feel like there’s still a lot of cache in us as a trio.”

Big E went on to say that fans never saw the militant New Day or aggressive heel New Day. 

Despite the split, Big E isn’t as sad as he would have been if the world and WWE were operating under normal circumstances.

“But, with some time, it’s something that obviously we didn’t want to happen … but I think about the fact that we’re in an era right now where we don’t have live events. So I’m not being broken up from my riding crew. That would’ve been painful. The guys that I’m on the house shows with four-to-five days a week, every single week that we drive from town-to-town, that’s where we came up with so many of our ideas. Where we really got to bond. Now I’m seeing them maybe a dozen days a year, so at least that kinda softened the blow. I’m glad that it wasn’t one of us taking a steel chair to the other. I’m glad there was no permanent split. We got to do something that I think was emotional, but was unique in that I can’t think of another time we got to see a faction that had as much staying power split up in the way that we did. In a way, that’s loving,” he said.

New Day got their farewell match and moment last Friday on SmackDown and the trio continues to do their podcast each week as well. 

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