Woods made his NXT television debut on the October 31, 2012 episode of NXT in a loss to Leo Kruger. A couple of weeks later on NXT, Woods returned and defeated Memo Montenegro. On the February 20th edition of NXT he defeated El Local. On the June 19, episode of NXT Woods returned to defeat Jake Carter.
Woods made his main roster debut on the November 18, 2013 edition of Raw, being introduced as R-Truth's new partner in a match against 3MB. On the following week of Raw, Woods defeated Heath Slater. During Woods' entrance, he came out to Brodus Clay's theme song, entrance video, and even had Cameron and Naomi, Clay's managers, escort him to the ring. On the November 29 episode of SmackDown, Woods began a feud with Brodus Clay after Clay took offense to Woods using his entrance music and The Funkdactyls as his managers earlier in the week on Raw. Later that night, Woods suffered his first loss when he and R-Truth lost to Tons of Funk (Clay and Tensai) after Clay pinned Woods. On the December 2 episode of Raw, Woods and R-Truth defeated Tons of Funk in a rematch after Woods pinned Clay. Woods and R-Truth then competed sporadically in the first quarter of 2014. They started a feud with the Bulgarian newcomer Rusev in late April and were defeated by him in singles and handicap encounters as well as at Extreme Rules. At Battleground, Woods competed in a 19-man battle royal for the vacant WWE Intercontinental Championship but was eliminated by The Great Khali.
On the July 21 episode of Raw, after suffering a loss to RybAxel, the team of Kofi Kingston and Big E were confronted by Xavier Woods, now sporting glasses and a white suit. His words of taking opportunities as opposed to waiting for permission sparked interest in both men. The following night on Main Event, Woods directed his clients to a decisive victory; decimating both opponents with double-team maneuvers and stacking them up for the pin. However, Woods' group quickly and quietly disbanded. On the August 8 episode of SmackDown, Big E wrestled a singles match with no sign of Woods in his corner, as did Kingston on the August 12 episode of Main Event. However, Woods did appear in the corner of Big E and Kingston for a tag team match at a live event on August 22, signifying that the group may not have disbanded.
From the November 3 episode of Raw, WWE began airing vignettes for Woods entitled "A New Day is Coming". The New Day made their in-ring debut on the November 28 episode of SmackDown in a winning effort against Titus O'Neil, Heath Slater and Curtis Axel. Then in December, The New Day began a feud with Gold and Stardust, which The New Day won at TLC. On the January 5 episode of Raw, The New day was attacked by Cesaro and Tyson Kidd during Big E's match. Later that week, on the January 9 episode of SmackDown, Big E had a match against Adam Rose, in which Woods and Kofi Kingston were at ringside for Big E, and Cesaro and Tyson Kidd were at ringside for Rose. On the February 16 episode of Raw, Woods and Kofi Kingston defeated Gold and Stardust. On the February 19 episode of Smackdown, Woods and Big E faced The Ascension in a losing effort. On the March 9 episode of Raw, Woods and Big E defeated the WWE Tag Team Champions Cesaro & Tyson Kidd in a non title match with Woods pinning Kidd. Woods competed at WrestleMania 31 in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal where he was eliminated by Big Show. The New Day turned heel once the fans started to boo them, incorporating more heel traits. On the April 18 episode of Main Event, Woods faced Jimmy Uso in a losing effort.
On April 26 at Extreme Rules, Big E and Kingston defeated Tyson Kidd and Cesaro to win the WWE Tag Team Championship. Woods was then given a share of the title, as the trio are defending the titles under the Freebird Rule. The New Day retained their titles in a rematch on both SmackDown and at Payback, with Woods interfering both matches. At Elimination Chamber, The New Day retained their titles in the first ever tag team Elimination Chamber match, where all three members were allowed to compete in the match. At Money in the Bank, The New Day lost the titles to The Prime Time Players (Darren Young and Titus O'Neil). Big E and Kingston would also lose in their championship rematch at Battleground. New Day would win the titles for a second time after they defeated the Prime Time Players, Los Matadores, and the Lucha Dragons in a tag team fatal 4-way match at SummerSlam. The next night on Raw, after Big E and Kofi defeated the Lucha Dragons, they were attacked by the returning Dudley Boyz, which ended with Woods being hit with a Dudley Death Drop (3D) through a table. On the September 14 episode of Raw, New Day defeated the Prime Time Players in a tag team championship match, setting up a defense against the Dudley Boyz at Night of Champions. New Day would lose the match via disqualification but retained their tag team titles. On the September 28 episode of Raw, Woods answered John Cena's United States Championship Open Challenge where Cena retained via disqualification after Kingston and Big E attacked him. The Dudley Boyz appeared afterwards to save Cena; this led to an impromptu six-man tag team match between The New Day against Cena and The Dudley Boyz where The New Day were victorious after Kingston pinned D-Von. In a Night of Champions rematch at Madison Square Garden, Woods would similarly get their team disqualified, saving their title reign in the process but once again being slammed through a table. They retained against the Dudleys once again at Hell In A Cell after Kingston pinned Bubba Ray. New Day would then defend the titles at TLC in a Triple-Threat Ladder match against the Usos and Lucha Dragons, retaining the titles. New Day retained the titles at WWE Roadblock after defeating League of Nations' Sheamus and King Barrett. The night after, New Day, which was represented with Woods and Big E, once again defeated other members of League of Nations, Rusev and Alberto Del Rio to retain the tag titles. All three members of the New Day would then face the League of Nations at WrestleMania 32 where they would lose in a non-title match. New Day then defended their tag team championships at Extreme Rules against newcomers The Vaudevillains after they won a number one contender's tournament at Payback. New Day were successful in retaining with Woods picking up the pinfall. On June 19 at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, The New Day successfully retained their titles against The Vaudevillains, Enzo Amore and Big Cass and Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows in a fatal-four way tag team match.
The New Day then started a feud with The Wyatt Family after Bray Wyatt returned from an injury. While Xavier's stablemates made fun of Wyatt and his followers by wearing sheep masks with glowing unicorn horns and making jokes, Woods appeared to exhibit a degree of fear. On July 19, at the 2016 WWE Draft, Woods, along with his fellow New Day teammates, was drafted to Raw. Three days later, on July 22nd, Woods, along with Kingston and Big E, became the longest reigning WWE Tag Team Champions in history, breaking the record of 331 days previously set by Paul London and Brian Kendrick. After SmackDown established the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championships after the brand split, the titles held by the New Day were renamed the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships. At WWE Clash of Champions, The New Day defeated Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. On the September 26 edition of Raw, due to Woods using their trombone to assault Karl Anderson, Gallows and Anderson received a rematch, but were defeated again. On the October 31 episode of Raw, The New Day revealed that they were made captain of Team Raw for the 10–on–10 Survivor Series Tag Team Elimination match at Survivor Series on November 20, 2016. At the event, their team won, but The New Day were eliminated second overall. On the November 21 episode of Raw, The New Day successfully retained their titles against Team Raw's sole survivors, Cesaro and Sheamus. The following week, they defeated The Club for another successful title defense. At Roadblock: End of the Line, New Day lost the Raw Tag Team Champions to Cesaro and Sheamus ending their record breaking championship reign at 483 days. The New Day were unsuccessful in regaining the titles during a later rematch.