Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods Move to WWE Alumni After 16-Year Run

Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods moved to the WWE Alumni section after mutually deciding to part ways with WWE, ending Kingston’s 16-year run with the company. The move closes a long stretch that included The New Day becoming one of WWE’s biggest acts of the last decade.

The New Day's WWE run

The shift puts a hard marker on what Kingston and Woods built together. The New Day became multiple-time tag team champions and held the record for the longest tag team title reign in WWE history, with Kingston and Woods helping carry the group into that status.

Kingston’s own peak came at WrestleMania 35, where he won the WWE Championship. That title win gave him a separate milestone inside a partnership that had already made The New Day one of the company’s defining acts.

Xavier Woods and Big E

Woods also built a distinct profile beyond the ring. He won King of the Ring and became a key part of WWE’s crossover presence through gaming, media, and UpUpDownDown. Big E was part of The New Day as the trio formed around Kingston, Woods, and Big E.

Sean Ross Sapp wrote, "New Day's Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods have mutually decided to part ways with WWE, Fightful Select and @Cory_Hays407 of Bodyslam have learned." The move to Alumni makes the roster change visible on WWE’s website and leaves the company without two of the group’s best-known names.

WWE Alumni move

The practical change is simple: Kingston and Woods are no longer listed with the active WWE roster and now sit in Alumni, which places their departures in the public-facing structure of the company. For Kingston, that means the end of a 16-year run; for Woods, it marks the end of a long stretch that helped shape one of WWE’s biggest modern acts.