Kofi Says Going Through WWE Release With Austin Creed Helped Him

The New Level relied on each other throughout their departures from WWE.

Earlier this year, Kofi Kingston departed WWE after 20 years with the company following the expiry of his contract. This came after WWE reportedly offered him a new deal with a pay cut of more than 50%. Kingston was not alone in that experience, as his New Day tag team partner Austin Creed (formerly Xavier Woods) was also reportedly offered a significant reduction. The pair ultimately signed with AEW this past weekend, with Kingston now discussing their shared experience.

Speaking with TMZ’s Inside the Ring, Kofi shared how going through the process alongside his close friend Creed made the situation far more manageable.

“The funny thing is, and it’s funny now because we’re employed, but I was probably about a week or two weeks into the process. I said, ‘Dude, I would never wish for anyone to lose their job or to be unemployed. But the fact that you and I are going through this together, I’m so grateful.’ It just made everything so much easier to know that we are doing this together, whether we wrestle or not. I couldn’t imagine having gone through all of this alone. To have someone to talk to who knows exactly what you’re going through because they are going through the same thing because they want the same things as you. It makes the process a lot more fun and it makes it a lot easier.”

-Kofi

During his time with WWE, Kofi became a 15-time tag team champion, including a reign as NXT Tag Team Champion. Most of those reigns came as part of The New Day, although his partnerships with Evan Bourne, R-Truth, and CM Punk also contributed to the tally. Kofi is also a former WWE Champion, four-time Intercontinental Champion, and three-time United States Champion.

Kofi and Creed, now collectively known as The New Level, have already made an immediate impact in AEW, capturing the AEW World Trios Championship alongside Swerve Strickland at All In: London.

The pair would later join Adam Copeland and Christian Cage, The Young Bucks, FTR, and the Motor City Machine Guns in the ring following Copeland and Cage’s AEW World Tag Team Championship match, with Kofi having recently discussed the possibility of The New Level facing The Elite. You can read more about that here.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on future plans for The New Level following their AEW arrival as soon as we hear more.

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