Xavier Woods On Sitting Out 2019 WWE King Of The Ring: “I Took That Hit Very Personally”

In an interview with the New York Post, WWE’s King of the Ring Xavier Woods talked about the positive reaction to his KOTR victory at WWE Crown Jewel. Many wrestlers from both WWE and outside of WWE have been very supportive of Woods, and he revealed it meant a great deal to him, especially after he was passed over for the KOTR tournament in 2019.

“It’s nice because, obviously, as you know, wrestling is very different from what it used to be 10 years ago, 15, 20 years ago,” Woods said. “With the advent of social media, you can connect with people in positions like I am on television where people like me want to interact with people who are interacting with our product. So it’s cool to be able to talk to those people directly and let them know how I honestly feel about things, and how much things really mean to me. Because I think everyone can relate to things like that. They can relate to somebody who has a goal, who has a dream that they’re trying to achieve. They’re seeing that person work hard just like that are in life, whether that’s to get a new job, whether it’s to get a promotion, whether it’s to get a significant other, to get a new car.

“So I think that people really resonate with the fact that I have unbashfully been screamed at the top of my lungs for King of the Ring to come back ever since I’ve been on the main roster. And I feel like that fact that in 2019 I got passed up for it, I took that hit very personally. Being in the tournament off the rip, I felt incredible. So every time I advanced, that feeling grew, and I think that people felt that with me, because when someone is genuine and they tell you how they really feel, it’s really hard to not roll with that because you can relate in some shape or form.”

Woods has been very vocal about wanting WWE to run a King of the Ring tournament, making his victory all the more poignant. He credited social media and its platform giving him a voice that allowed fans to rally…