Sheamus, Ridge Holland Defeat New Day at WWE WrestleMania 38

Photo credit: WWE.com

Sheamus and Ridge Holland beat New Day members Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods in a tag team match on Night 2 of WrestleMania 38 on Sunday.

The bout was initially scheduled for Saturday but was moved as Night 1 overran, but it was several weeks in the making because of Sheamus and his group targeting New Day on SmackDown.

Sheamus and Holland took issue with Kingston and Big E, especially the fact that they began riding an ATV to the ring. As a result, they attempted to destroy the vehicle, which didn’t sit well with The New Day.

Additionally, Sheamus and Holland tried to tip the scales in their favor by bringing in a third member of their stable in Butch, who was formerly known as Pete Dunne in NXT.

During a tag team match after the introduction of Butch, Big E suffered a serious injury while taking an overhead belly-to-belly suplex from Holland on the floor.

With Big E suffering a broken neck and needing to take time away from in-ring action, Kingston was seemingly left to battle Sheamus, Holland and Butch all on his own.

That changed last week when Woods made his highly anticipated return to WWE programming after missing over two months with a calf injury.

Woods helped make things a bit fairer, and he defeated Holland in a singles match upon his return, gaining some level of retribution for Holland injuring Big E and then beating Kingston in a singles bout.

It seemed the original plan was for all three members of The New Day to face Sheamus, Holland and Butch at WrestleMania, but with Big E unable to compete, the match became Kingston and Woods against Sheamus and Holland instead.

Kingston and Woods had a big advantage in terms of experience teaming together and their accomplishments as a team, but Sheamus and Holland had the benefit of Butch in their corner.

The numbers advantage worked in favor of Sheamus and Holland, as they prevailed and prevented The New Day from scoring their first-ever win as a team on the WrestleMania stage.