Though Woods and Kingston made the decision to leave WWE rather than take the pay cut, Fightful reported that the pair still left “millions” on the table over the next few years. Talent were also reportedly frustrated as New Day, as well as Santos Escobar, had just signed new deals, with Escobar re-signing as recently as October after briefly becoming a free agent. According to Fightful, some stars had not spoken with AEW or other companies while negotiating, which could now reduce their leverage.

As for recent reports that Woods could return to WWE under a “Tyler Breeze deal,” or a digital-only deal, Fightful had not heard anything. The deal would likely keep Woods with his WWE-owned UpUpDownDown YouTube channel, as seen with Breeze in 2022, but would keep him from signing with AEW. After the news of the New Day’s departure broke on Saturday, multiple AEW talent, including former AEW World Champion MJF, took to social media to express their desires for New Day to be hired, and Fightful reported names have also pushed for that internally.

A WWE source told the outlet that a joint statement was expected to be released by the company about New Day’s departure before word got out, but that source didn’t know why that did not happen. WWE has not released a statement about any releases, wishing talent “the best in their future endeavors” in years. Both Woods and Kingston took to their respective Instagram accounts ahead of “WWE Raw” on Monday to issue statements about their time in WWE, giving thanks to the locker room, backstage workers, and fans.