Xavier Woods discusses how much longer he plans to wrestle

As one-third of The New Day, Xavier Woods has enjoyed a tremendous run as part of one of the greatest tag teams/trios/stables in WWE’s history. While he’s a little easier to forget about relative to fellow faction mates Kofi Kingston (a former WWE Champion and a midcard staple before joining the group) and Big E (viewed by many as a future WWE Champion), Woods’ combination of in-ring skill and charisma have made him a vital part of New Day’s success.

A huge video game enthusiast, Woods has parlayed that success in wrestling into operating the popular UpUpDownDown Youtube channel, where he chats and plays video games with a variety of WWE wrestlers.

With the notoriety Woods has accrued outside of wrestling, it’s interesting to wonder when the multiple-time tag team champion will decide to call it a career.

Xavier Woods on how long he plans to continue wrestling.

In an interview with Sportscasting’s Luke Norris, Woods said this about how long he planned to keep wrestling (h/t to Fightful’s Jeremy Lambert for the transcription):

"“Until I feel like I can no longer perform at a level that’s acceptable to the fans. So once that happens, then I’m done. So I’ll probably jump out right before that happens so I don’t have to accidentally find it. But at this point in my career, I’m so focused on making sure that other people are taken care of and that other people are getting the chance to shine, whether that’s in the ring or outside of it,” Woods said. “For me, I want to make sure that I’ve done everything in my power to get a couple of pages of the next chapter written before I get there because I don’t want to have to pick up the pen and scramble to write. I want to make sure that I’ve got everything I can to make sure that my transition into post-wrestling life as smooth as possible and that the transition into wrestling life for everybody in wrestling right now is as smooth as possible. So that’s really the focus I have right now. So when we talk about my career, when I’m done wrestling, it’s kind of just like when the work is done, you know, it’s never really done. So I guess when I’m comfortable enough passing the work on to someone else. I’ll step away then.”"

The 34-year-old Woods made his in-ring debut in 2005, first working for the Ultimate Christian Wrestling promotion. Prior to joining WWE, he was best known for his time in IMPACT Wrestling (then known as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling) as “Consequences” Creed, a gimmick inspired by the Apollo Creed character from the Rocky movie franchise.

When IMPACT released him in 2010, he joined WWE and took on the Xavier Woods name, initially working a 1990s nostalgia gimmick before forming The New Day with Big E and Kingston, a unit that has won 11 tag team championships. Woods and Kingston were champions as recently as WrestleMania 37, where they lost the Raw Tag Team Championships to A.J. Styles and Omos.

You can read the rest of the interview by clicking this link.