The New Level Confirm They Didn’t Sign With AEW Until Right Before All In: London
The New Level arrived with less than 24 hours until All In: London.
When it emerged that Austin Creed and Kofi asked for their releases from WWE back in May, many expected them to go to All Elite Wrestling, something which came to fruition this past Sunday when the pair joined Swerve Strickland to win the World Trios Championships. They now join the company’s list of top tag teams, however it now seems as if the deal only came together in the hours before All In, despite the heavy speculation.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani, Kofi revealed they didn’t officially sign with AEW until less than 24 hours before All In.
“You talked about it being the worst kept secret, but the funny thing is it didn’t really solidify and become official until less than 24 hours before the show. We didn’t sign until less than 24 hours before. We knew what we wanted. We knew what everybody else wanted, but it wasn’t officially official until very soon before the kickoff time.”
-Kofi
The pair arrived to the sound of A$AP Ferg’s ‘New Level’ to a thunderous reception from the Wembley Stadium crowd, despite their appearance feeling almost inevitable following weeks of rumours and reports.
During the same interview, Austin Creed shared what it meant to be able to use the song as their new entrance theme and opened up about what the reception meant to them.
“I’ve wanted us to have that music for so long, and the entrance is something that I’ve dreamed about. For us to not only be in a place where everybody was so cool, so nice, but we’ve got brand new gear… We hadn’t been in the ring in months, so to go out at Wembley in front of all those people with everything. I don’t like to say perfect because like nothing’s perfect, but that felt perfect, man.”
-Austin Creed
The New Level’s debut was a major highlight of AEW’s third trip to Wembley Stadium, especially after winning gold in their first appearance. In addition to the reaction in the building, the YouTube video chronicling their arrival has reached 1.2 million views, showing how much buzz their signing created around the world. Plus, we won’t have to wait long to see them defend their titles.
With Tony Khan having revealed during the post-show media scrum that Kofi and Creed want to appear on as many Dynamites and Collisions as possible, their first Wednesday night match will happen tomorrow, as New Level and Swerve Strickland will face the Rascalz with the World Trios Championships on the line.
Following their debut, AEW have another talented tag team in their ranks. To that point, Adam Copeland recently discussed their “stacked” division. You can read more about that here.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on The New Level as soon as we hear more.
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