Gears 5 continues to add to its bizarre stable of DLC characters by adding WWE’s most impressive trio, The New Day. For those not versed in the squared circle, The New Day consists of former WWE Champion Kofi Kingston, human ball of energy Big E, and video gaming’s own Xavier Woods. Also known as Austin Creed outside of WWE circles, Woods has been entrenched in the games community for a long while, from his YouTube channel UpUpDownDown to his appearances at fighting game conventions and his quest to host shows on the new G4. Woods was also on hand at E3 2019 to premiere Escape Mode in Gears 5 alongside fellow WWE wrestlers AJ Styles and Tyler Breeze, so he’s more than familiar with the game’s chainsaw-heavy action.
For reasons known only to the Xbox marketing team, The New Day aren’t even the first wrestlers to don the COG armor and wield a Lancer. Batista was added into the game last September, followed closely by his Batista Bomb finishing maneuver as an execution animation. With the game’s Xbox Series X update, Batista was also able to replace Marcus Fenix in the campaign if players wanted The Animal to fulfill his acting dreams. The game also features two Spartans from Halo: Reach and a suite of characters from Terminator: Dark Fate as multiplayer options.
Xavier Woods revealed the look that he and his New Day brothers will have in Gears 5 in a new tweet today. The reveal comes alongside a new update for the game that adds a bunch of new characters, maps, and even a weapon from previous games in the series. However, it seems that The New Day will be joining the battle sometime after that, as there’s no mention of the colorful unicorn-loving trio in today’s patch notes.
While players await The New Day’s emergence in Gears 5, they can check out several other games where the wrestlers appear. Of course, the group has been a staple of official WWE games for years, including the recently released WWE 2K Battlegrounds. A more outside-the-box cameo comes in Ubisoft’s Brawlhalla, a platform fighter where Xavier Woods fights alongside The Undertaker, Macho Man Randy Savage, Roman Reigns, and many other WWE wrestlers available as skins for existing characters. Woods also shows up in Super Bomberman R alongside various Konami guest characters and platform-exclusive mascots. As a Bomber, Xavier can summon a wrestling ring to shield himself from nearby explosions.
Xavier Woods may not have been hired by the revived G4 as a host just yet, but appearing alongside his brothers in arms in a future Gears 5 update seems like a win. Although Big E recently embarked on a solo career on Friday Night SmackDown, endeavors like this and The New Day’s ongoing podcast show that the group is still united as great friends in and out of the ring. Perhaps the official announcement of these in-game characters can come alongside a victory against the Street Prophets at this Sunday’s Survivor Series PPV.
Gears 5 is available now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.