Xavier Woods Comments On ‘Freebird Rule’ Being Active With New Day On Different Brands

Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston are currently running the tag team division on WWE Raw while Big E holds the Intercontinental Title on SmackDown. But could the New Day trio switch it up at WrestleMania?

When the three men were together on one brand, they would often rotate who would defend the WWE Tag Team Titles when they held the gold. Now that they are on different brands, inquiry minds want to know whether or not the “Freebird Rule” still applies. 

“No one knows, I might fight Apollo and defend the IC Title. We don’t know and we’re not going to tell because that’s not the good strategy. We take the good strategy route,” Woods said on Wrestle Buddies podcast. 

New Day will defend the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships against AJ Styles & Omos at WrestleMania 37 while Big E is set to defend the Intercontinental Championship against Apollo Crews in a Nigerian Drum Fight. 

Speaking on the success of Big E as a singles competitor, Woods said, “This is stuff Kofi and I already knew about Big E and Big E already knew about himself, it just comes down to people saying, ‘you’re so lucky.’ No, luck is the intersection of opportunity and skill. If you get a chance and you’re not ready, you’re going to blow it. ‘Oh, it’s unlucky.’ No, you just didn’t work hard enough or you have the skill and you can’t find the opportunity. Big E has been killing it when we were all on the same show and he’s continued to kill it, just as we’re killing it. Seeing him win the Intercontinental Championship was incredible, it meant the world to me. It was more validation that everything we’ve been doing is correct. We’ve been making the right move. I came back and we won the Tag Team Championships. It’s been feel goods all the way around. I don’t think people think about it because we’re on separate shows, but all three of us are champions right now. We’re a faction and that’s important. We’re on separate shows dominating our lanes. If you’re a wrestling fan and you enjoy New Day, you get us on Monday and Friday and we’re all champions. This will be the first time we defend the Tag Team Championships without having a third member there. There’s a lot of New Day to be had.”

Woods scored a singles victory over AJ Styles on Monday’s WWE Raw. If you missed anything from Raw, check out Fightful’s full report on the show by clicking here. 

You can check out the current lineup for WrestleMania 37 by clicking here. 

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