During a recent appearance on The No-Sports Report Podcast, Xavier Woods commented on how he’s rehabbing during quarantine, his favorite video games, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On what The New Day’s potential cinematic match would look like: “When I got to see this Boneyard Match it really touched my soul. But The New Day match, essentially my way of explaining to people that don’t watch wrestling, I say, ‘Hey, remember Lisa Frank back in the day? All those folders with the bright colors and dolphins? Imagine if Lisa Frank just threw up on three black guys. That’s New Day.’ So it’d be something where we’re in this weird, magical, like a rainbow world, but like there’s this weird shadow land area like in the Lion King where like we don’t go there, but when we do, it’s game time. So, uh, lots of sunshine, lots of rainbows, lots of inanimate objects talking to you… It’d be super weird. I like the dissonance between something horrible happening like us just being someone to a pulp with like a nice, children’s music like “Baby Shark” playing in the background.”
“I would lose my mind [if Lisa Frank actually collaborated], especially if she was like a Wizard of Oz. We just always reported to Lisa Frank and you finally get to see her. She turns around in this wheelchair and it’s like, ‘Oh my God. It’s really her!’ I feel like lots of people try to go out and try to kind of please the masses with like a promo or a thing in a match. And for New Day we try to get like the 0.01% each time we go out. So then, what we’ve been together five years, so that adds up because when you hit like a specific niche that hard, those three people that get that joke, they go “That’s my guy! That’s my group!” No matter what, we rock with them.”
On wrestling in empty arenas: “I actually can [imagine wrestling with no fans] because lots of us came from the independence and as you know, what it’s like being on the indies. It’s just a grind and you’re working in like old, veteran halls or like high school gyms and stuff. And so, the first part of my career, like I had shows many a times with either no people or like three people, which almost like three people is almost more daunting than no people. Because now you’ve got these, these six eyes on you and it freaks you out. But luckily the guys and girls that we work with are skilled enough to understand what factors of wrestling – whether it’s promos or matches – need to be altered and changed to go along with what the current situation is. And that’s, that’s what I really like about wrestling. It’s live performance art where it’s not about having like a perfect match or a perfect promo – it’s about what you can do when that perfect match or perfect promo derails completely. How do you get back on your feet? How do you get back on the path? How do you continue to entertain? And so, this is one of those things where everything got derailed essentially and now everybody’s figuring out how they can look into their old school playbook like, ‘Okay, how do we do this?’ And they’re in there doing it.”
On wrestling attracting new fans during the pandemic: “So I feel like with wrestling being one of the few outlets for entertainment now, I feel like a lot of people who didn’t enjoy it or may not have talked about it at all beforehand, might be watching it now. Or maybe they saw something on Twitter or some sort of argument in the conversation, and they go, “Hey, what is this about?” Now they, after a few more clicks, now they’re watching RAW or they’re watching SmackDown. But yeah, it’s definitely been very interesting to see the heightened level of conversation about WWE during all of this.”
On his secret dream job: “So there’s one thing that has eluded me and it is the main goal of my life. And I didn’t realize this until maybe like three years ago…. everything in my life is moving toward becoming the host of a rebooted version of Nick Arcade. That is what I want more than anything … So my thought is, and I won’t give the whole idea because someone will steal it because it’s a fantastic idea. Essentially, I’ve got a whole pitch for a show that leads into being a theater program for e-sports teams and gets these kids into college.”
On his top 5 quarantine video games:
#1 – “Final Fantasy VII Remake… it looks gorgeous. It’s all in 3D and they’ve taken the story and essentially, if you read the story the first time with glasses on, now you’re reading with a magnifying glass…it’s just a very well done, beautiful story. And it’s super fun to play. There’s magic, there’s swords, there’s bullets, it’s literally everything that you could ask for from an action movie in video game format that you get to play along with. So I highly recommend it. Even if you have never played it… . It’s incredible music. So like, even if you don’t like the game and you love the music, which you will, you’ll play the game to hear all the music.”
#2 – “Animal Crossing… Once you get past the hump, you’re going to be obsessed… Animal Crossing is literally, it’s life. And they’ve taken out all of like the bad negative things – so, like toxic relationships, social media, it’s all gone and all you’re doing is catching fish. You’re living the life of a retired old person.”
#3 – “Valorant… which is a first person shooter game that just got released by Riot [Games] but there in closed beta right now and so I’ve been lucky enough to get the opportunity to play it with a bunch of my friends. Yeah, I feel very special (laughs)…”
#4 – “Streets of Rage 4… we actually beat the game yesterday, so we beat it in like four hours, three, four hours maybe… But it’s something that’s good for things like podcasts or interviews because rather than trying to fight against each other and concentrate on that, you can mindlessly mash a button while you walk through a beautifully designed stage, listen to incredible music and just have a good time and not have to really use too much of your brain if you want to relax a little bit.”
#5 – “Trials of Mana… This is another RPG… they’ve, again, re-released this full 3D… It’s not turn-based.
You just got to mash the button as you see bad guys and hit them. And there’s magic and stuff. Very similar to the Final Fantasy Seven Remake… not as, like adored as it. For those of you listening, we like RPGs….”
On recovering from his Achilles tendon injury during quarantine: “But essentially being home and being functional and being able to hang out with my kid has been the best thing. And so I would say that I know that there’s a lot of terrible things going on and people going through so many hardships right now, and I hate that for them, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t enjoying my time at home, like in quarantine, just to be locked in with the family. It’s been awesome.”
