Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods have mutually departed WWE, confirmed by wrestling journalists Sean Ross Sapp and Cory Hays. The exits bring a formal end to The New Day, the faction that Kingston, Woods and Big E launched in 2014 and built into the most decorated tag team in company history. The departures land just days after WWE released more than a dozen performers from its roster, making this one of the most significant weeks of turnover the promotion has seen in recent memory.
The New Day’s origins were far from promising. The group’s early gospel-inspired presentation failed to connect with audiences, and the faction spent its first months struggling to find an identity. What followed was a creative reinvention that few saw coming. The trio rebuilt the characters around humor, gaming culture, trombone performances, unicorn imagery and a strand of infectious positivity that held across age groups and fan demographics for over a decade.
What The New Day actually built inside the ring
The on-screen achievements are worth stating plainly. The New Day accumulated 13 combined brand tag team championship reigns, the most in WWE history, including a record seven reigns as SmackDown Tag Team Champions. Their 483-day run as Raw Tag Team Champions remains the longest reign in that title’s history. The faction also captured the NXT Tag Team titles as a unit, completing a Triple Crown, and regularly used the Freebird Rule to rotate members through championship defenses.
Kingston’s individual career adds considerably to that record. His WWE Championship win at WrestleMania 35 in 2019 came at the end of a fan-driven storyline that had built genuine emotional investment over several weeks, and the moment itself is among the more resonant title victories the company has produced in the modern era. He also held the Intercontinental title four times and the United States title three times across a main roster career that began in 2008.
Woods won the King of the Ring tournament in 2021 and became a significant crossover presence through his gaming content and online platform outside of wrestling.
Kingston’s WWE exit and what led to it
Big E’s broken neck injury in 2022 effectively ended his in-ring career and shifted the group’s direction permanently. Kingston and Woods continued as a pair and turned heel in December 2024 during a Raw segment marking The New Day’s 10-year anniversary, a segment that wrote Big E out of the faction entirely. They feuded with The Judgment Day and The Final Testament and briefly added Grayson Waller to the group.
Kingston had been under a deal reported to run through 2030. His last WWE appearance came on April 17 in an unsuccessful tag title match alongside Waller. Woods is currently recovering from a shoulder injury. Both departures are described by those close to the situation as entirely amicable, though the specific reasons behind the timing have not been disclosed.
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Four more WWE departures in the same window
The exits extend beyond The New Day. Tonga Loa and JC Mateo, known internationally as Jeff Cobb, are also no longer under WWE contract. Both had been active members of The MFTs, a Bloodline-connected faction central to SmackDown storylines involving Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu, Roman Reigns and The Usos. Loa previously held WWE tag team gold and returned to the company in 2024 alongside Tama Tonga. Mateo joined WWE less than a year ago following an extensive run in Japan and on the independent circuit.
Those four departures are part of a wider round of releases that also included Kairi Sane, Aleister Black and members of The Wyatt Sicks, pushing the total number of recent exits past a dozen names within a short window.
Where Kingston and Woods land next is an open question. Both would arrive anywhere with established names and immediate fan recognition. Hall of Fame conversations for The New Day as a unit have already begun circulating, and given the scale of what they built, that recognition seems straightforward.
