Evaluating The New Day's Run as WWE Heels Thus Far

The New Day has resuscitated its stagnant gimmick by flipping it on its head, using dislike from the WWE fans to its advantage.

As heels, everything that failed about Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston and Big E's babyface run is now fuel for their braggart characters. Since snagging the WWE Tag Team Championships, The New Day has found its voice. The clap-happy act works all of sudden.

The trio now needs to turn up the volume on all of its worst qualities to further progress.

Digging through clips of The New Day's interviews and matches leaves one wanting the same thing: more. More celebrating, more annoyance and more cheating are keys to Kingston and Company's sustained success as WWE's newest scoundrels.

WWE handed Kingston, Woods and Big E a garbage gimmick. They loved to clap and were really positive. How they were supposed to turn that into anything is anyone's guess.

Predictably, fans rejected the concept. They booed The New Day and let the trio know via chant that it sucked.

To WWE's credit, it quickly recognized this failure and adjusted. The New Day became heels, using the same positive message to annoy the crowd rather than inspire it.

It has clicked really well in the early going. The characters have meaning now. Their shtick has more impact.

As pro wrestling writer Kevin Berge points out, who they are now is in direct contrast to their babyface personae:

That's been a mighty good thing so far. The squad simply has to amplify its successful elements.

On the Mic

This is where The New Day has most thrived since its heel turn. Its promos have been the stage to display the trio as jerks.

After winning the tag titles at Extreme Rules, Kingston, Woods and Big E celebrated backstage. Tom Phillips interviewed the new champs.

The scene was celebratory. The New Day members laughed, passed the titles between each other and exuded a smugness the whole time. They came off as annoying and overly proud, traits that would turn up later on.

For a moment, they threatened Phillips, demanding that he say "New champs!" with the proper level of enthusiasm. This is what The New Day needs to return to more often. Acting like this gives the team members a touch of danger and makes it clear just how unlikable they are.

After defeating Randy Orton and Roman Reigns over a week later, they were even bigger blowhards.

They acted like they had just won the biggest match in WWE history. The New Day sang to each other, giggled and howled in excitement.

This is where The New Day will make its mark as heels.

Like Daniel Bryan jumping up on tables after every win back in 2011, this kind of excessive celebration grates on the crowd. No one wants to see a sore winner. WWE has to allow the trio to do this often, especially after unimpressive wins.

Have Kingston defeat El Torito and act like he defeated Brock Lesnar afterward. The New Day has shown it can flourish with this angle.

In the Ring

Carrying their heel tendencies with them to the ring hasn't been Kingston, Woods and Big E's strong point so far. The New Day has shown flashes of being compelling in-ring villains, but there's work to be done here.

Take the battle with Orton and Reigns on May 4, for example.

Woods grinned as he stepped between the ropes. After grabbing Reigns in a headlock, he yelled, "I'm going to beat Roman Reigns!"

The match didn't have nearly enough of this kind of bad behavior. The New Day should celebrate each successful move more and implement rule-breaking more often.

Smugness is annoying, but it's especially irksome when someone cheats to win.

A week later, Cesaro took on Big E in singles action. This was too much of a nondescript match, in part because Big E was not leaning on his heel nature enough.

He wasn't nasty enough here, nor did he take the typical shortcuts that heels use. Eye-scratching, leaning on ropes for leverage and cheap shots with the referee's back turned needed to be implemented more.

Outside the ring, Kingston and Woods had a few moments of gloating, but they need to be more annoying about this. Being a pro wrestling heel isn't exactly subtle business. The more the trio embraces being over the top, the better.

On Twitter

As a bonus, The New Day should take to Twitter to further its cause as heels.

Kevin Owens has used the medium to mock fans. Stardust often plays out his character with tweets, including one where he insulted an entire West Virginia town. The New Day has done this just a touch so far, but not enough yet.

Kingston nicely worked the current conversation about Tom Brady into WWE current events:

Big E made an unsettling comment about moms on Mother's Day:

The New Day members' timelines, though, don't feature this kind of thing on a regular basis. That's a missed opportunity. There is great potential to rile up fans via Twitter.

Judging by Big E's usual wit on the site, he will have no trouble elevating his heel status by carrying his character more into the virtual world. That part of the equation is in progress, as is the group's heel run overall.

The New Day has reason to celebrate. Kingston, Woods and Big E have had a good start post-turn. Expanding what they are already doing will be the next step in their upward path.