King of the Ring Xavier Woods celebrates “great and exciting month” ahead of 2021 Survivor Series

Ask Xavier Woods and he will make it clear: it has been a very good month. The 2021 WWE King of the Ring is also in the midst of a restart of the games-focused G4 TV network, as it is acting as one of the network’s main hosts. Both accomplishments fall into the “dream come true” category for the 35-year-old Georgia native.

Woods won the Royal Ring title at the end of October at Crown Jewel. Winning the tournament was Woods ’main goal in the fight since he became a fan as a child. After WWE revived the concept in 2019 after not entering the tournament, fans joined Woods in his frustration. Two years later, the dream came true as Woods entered a new stage in his career, that of being a solo star.

“I think when you are realizing the dream you’ve had since you were a child, anything would happen,” Woods told CBS Sports. “It feels absolutely unbelievable. It’s one of those things that no one can do to you and it’s a moment that will burn in the brain for the rest of eternity. I have to get something that not everyone has done. I believe it,” King 22 of the Ring. For me, we’re only in double figures, so it’s very nice to be able to join such prestigious performers who have been able to win the crown. So it’s very surreal, because this is the main one. The thing I wanted from my wrestling career. Having it in the end, I don’t know, is incredible. I’m having a great and wonderful month. King of the Ring, launch of G4. It’s been pretty good. “

Woods joins his New Day teammates, Kofi Kingston and Big E, as their faction’s impetus has become a huge solo success. Kingston and Big Ek achieved their world title goals – Big Ek was currently in the WWE Championship – and Woods’ victory over the King of the Ring showed the team’s continued influence.

In many ways, in WWE, New Day members have been forced to achieve success by catching the crowd by doing things in an unorthodox way and becoming more than the most successful team in the history of promotion. Woods said he is consistently hungry to grow and adapt to the team’s success, staying true to the core of what makes the three members special.

“As soon as you don’t, it’s time to stop and guess what you like most in life,” Woods said. “If you don’t grind to achieve something, then you don’t grow as a human being. If you’re stuck and satisfied with where you are, what’s the point of doing it first? As soon as you become satisfied. Fight, I’m done. Then I hang up my boots.

“For me, and for us, it’s always been a situation where we’re able to achieve those goals we’ve had for so long, and at the same time we’re in a situation where we are now. They’re the kids who look at us and we’re doing our best to set an example. Don’t sit back and wait and wait for someone to bring you in. We take that very seriously because we know there are a lot of kids who see the fight and come in for us because of the bright colors, the funny jokes, the unicorns, the pancakes and all that stuff. We do our best to fulfill the things we want in our personal lives, to make sure the kids watching understand that it doesn’t matter that you don’t fit in to fit the way others think, you work hard, you can build the exact house everyone else has built, but your tools you can use them to build. “

Woods ’tools were“ third man’s ”in the early days of New Day and were rarely the focus of the team’s internal efforts. He named her Francesca with his trombone, Woods was, in his words, the band’s “little brother”.

His work in the ring in recent years, as a stable part of first team matches and now as a solo competitor, has revealed him as a tremendous fighter. And those who did not know that he was competing at this level?

“I’m not going to lie, you’re asleep,” Woods said. “I’m definitely better. If you don’t get better, you don’t do well. You always have to listen and learn and I’ll learn until the day I die. But if I hadn’t been better than five years ago, I’m hurting myself. In that regard, yes, I will finally be able to shine a little bit in that change of perception that is happening now, it is.it is part of the New Day plan.I have been in that role of little brother for so long and then with what I have been doing lately and for the last two years getting in with what I’ve done.Tag division stuff.It gives us a new layer when I finally get out of my shell and helps keep the team fresh with more ways to get into the stories.It gives us more ways to deal with the other characters on the list.

“I think all three of us understand that when one of us succeeds we all get it. It’s not one of those toxic masculinities where, ‘Oh, you got the title! I’m so jealous! I’ll win. You’re ready!'” What are we talking about? Do you know that if you become a champion or get a crown, don’t you want to have friends who will help you keep everyone on your back? back care.That’s where our thinking has always been with this.It’s been a lot of fun to be able to finally be in this position I’m able to wake people up, but it’s something I feel I’ve had in me for a long time

“It was pretty enlightening to be able to do things with New Day and bring Francesca into the mix and improve that side of my game. We got to the point where we got people to fall in love. A trombone. I don’t think that’s really on your bingo card a professional fighter. “When you say you want to be. What do you want to do? Oh, I want people to love the trombone like me. That’s not something that comes up. that they were not only outside the ring, but also inside the ring. ‘

Woods is now heading to Sunday’s Survivor Series with full force. Team SmackDown will compete as part of the traditional five-to-five tag game against Survivor Series against Team Raw.

Despite being embedded in another part of the WWE tradition, Woods doesn’t seem particularly interested in the idea of ​​“brand dominance” determined by his match, especially when many of the men involved in the match have just reached their mark after the WWE Draft. .

“Considering that a lot of us have just returned to SmackDown in three to four weeks, it’s not really exciting,” Woods said. “It’s just another game. It’s very nice to be a part of it, but at the same time we’re trying to guess what the winner gets? Are we fighting to fight or for something?

“The idea of ​​brand dominance, to a guy like me? I’m a king. If I remove half of my constituents because they like Raw, I’m not a good king. I’m a king of the whole kingdom. I’m not worried about winning Raw or winning SmackDown, I’m worried about winning people “But when my team wins – when the king’s team wins, I want something for that. I don’t care if I have games for no reason. I’ll need to get something out of the king when I win.”