During the latest edition of their “Feel the Power” podcast, The New Day commented on being laughed at when they asked if they could get t-shirts that would be sold at WWE live events. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
Big E. on trying to get merchandise sold at events: “At the time, we only had our shirts available online. You couldn’t buy a New Day shirt in the arena, anywhere. Anywhere where we performed. So we go to — shall we say his name? Nah, let’s leave his name out. We go to merch, a man in merch. And we say, ‘Man in merch, when do you think we might be able to get one of our shirts in the venue so people at live events — you know, during intermission — they can go out with their kids and buy a shirt?’”
Kingston on where they were at at that point: “You gotta understand where we were in our career was, we were actually getting over. And there were reactions to where people before the shows were talking about ‘New Day Sucks’ or ‘New Day Rocks,’ you know? And we were at a stage where we needed to get people some merchandise to be able to support us. So we went to the merch team and asked them.”
Woods on being laughed at over the question: “We asked, yeah. ‘When can we get a shirt in a venue? Just any venue?’ This man looked at us. The three of us who were working very hard, we were actually getting reactions now and things were picking up some steam. We were on our way, and he looked at us and he said, ‘Never, hahahaha!’ He said ‘Never,’ and he laughed at us. He said that we would never be able to have a New Day shirt in a venue for purchase. And when you go to one of these venues — I don’t know if people listening have been to live events or to TVs. But when you go out there, there’s probably at least 12 shirts, at least. You get a variety of different shirts, you can go out and buy some different shirts. There’s many options; it’s not like it’s just John Cena. There’s space for people like us…and this man looked at us and said ‘Never,’ and had the gall to laugh in our faces? And it wasn’t a joke; he meant it. He meant, that’s how he felt.”
Woods on why he was so upset about that: “And you’ve gotta remember, this is a point of us, we’re hustling. We’re struggling to get off the ground. We need — every little victory means something. Every opportunity to get a piece of merch in a building means something. To get a promo we want means something, because we need every little victory just to stay afloat. And to be laughed at by merch — merch is supposed to help us. Merch is supposed to be in our corner to help us get our brand out, for people to support us. That’s a big thing, when people can look out into the crowd and see all those people who are rocking with us. But to have a man who’s supposed to be in a position to help us, to help everybody — that’s what his job [is], to help talent get their brand on shirts. It’s not just the top guys. People from top to bottom should all be able to get their brand out there. And for him to laugh at us, really is something that I’ll never forget. Regardless of how far along we get as a group and how much we’ve made it, and how much success we have. I’ll be 60, 70 years old and I’ll still remember that.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
