“The New Level” Finally Debuts At “AEW All In: London”

As what was perhaps the worst kept secret this year in the pro wrestling business, Kofi (Kofi Kingston) and Austin Creed (Xavier Woods) debuted at “AEW All In: London” as the Wild Card team alongside Swerve Strickland in the big Trios Roulette Royale match. Not only did they make their debut in front of over 40,000 excited fans, but they also won the Trios titles in the match, outlasting some big tag team and trios names and winning their first AEW Championship on their first day in AEW.

Now that brings the team to a whole “New Level”.

During the “AEW All In: London” post-show media scrum, the brand-new Trios Champions first took questions from the media. AEW President and CEO Tony Khan then discussed various topics, including the team’s schedule with the company and when talks began with The New Level.

Here’s what Tony Khan said about the team’s schedule:

“Something that got me really excited about New Level: these guys are not afraid to work very hard. New Level told me, ‘Hey, we see Jon Moxley at AEW Dynamite and AEW Collision basically every week. We want to be at AEW Dynamite and AEW Collision basically every week. We want to work really hard for the company. We’re going to be there practically every week.’ And that’s really exciting to have people coming in like that. That’s only going to bring more fans and attention.”

On when talks began with The New Level:

“I was very careful. And of course, when I saw the New Level were going to be — it was big wrestling news that they were going to be potential free agents. First of all, I wanted to play it safe for the sake of all three of us, for me and them, and the company, do things the right way. And after their 90 days were up, and only after the 90 days had expired — and I gave it an extra day or two to be safe. And I engaged with their representatives. It was clear there was interest, but it’s also an interesting situation for a number of different reasons. AEW really — I believe, as I’ve said, is where the best wrestle, and these are two wrestlers that fit what we do perfectly. So it’s a great opportunity, but it wasn’t something I had planned or budgeted for. And it’s not the kind of thing you can negotiate in five seconds. It takes some time. So it wasn’t like it was all a done deal the second they had gotten released or were able to go out look elsewhere.

“The whole situation was a big surprise to me. And then knowing that, I tried to create an environment, with tag teams and trios, where there would be an exciting opportunity. And knowing we had this huge pay-per-view event, I tried to build the tag team and trios teams to where there would be a great opportunity if such a deal were to be made, where we could do something really special. And it was a great audible… there’s no way I could’ve planned for it. Because never in a million years, at the start of this year or even a few months ago, would I have ever thought Austin and Kofi would be free agents. This whole time, we’ve been doing this seven years, it’s unthinkable that Austin and Kofi would be free agents. And when they were, I had to go in with — obviously an open mind, but also we’re all in business and we had to figure it out, and find something that worked for everyone. I couldn’t just assume it was going to get done. And I was very pleased while I was over here in the UK that we were able to figure it out and make it happen.”

credit to AEW and with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription

On September 1^st, Kofi and Austin Creed appeared on the Ariel Helwani Show where they discussed not only their debut with AEW but the circumstances that led to their WWE departure back in May.  Notably, they addressed reports of WWE asking the duo to take a 50% pay cut on their existing contracts, forcing them to ask for their releases.

Kofi said WWE’s offer would have cut pay by more than the reported 50%:

“It was more than 50%. More than a lot of people know.

The compensation is a big part of it, for sure, but the bigger part is being able to go out and live your dream the way you want to live it and be appreciated for it.

We took it all into consideration, and we knew this was the only path to take. It was scary at times with the uncertainty and everything, but sometimes you just have to go through it.”

Helwani then asked Creed if they had a feeling if something like this was coming:

“I’m at my kid’s football game and my phone rings and it’s a ‘203’ number and I’m like ‘why would I not have this number in my phone?’ Then maybe 15 minutes later, my brain goes ‘hmmm, it’s very close to after ‘Mania, usually there are releases. What if we were released?’ That was a flicker of a thought that it would be a negative conversation. Then I ended up getting a call from Kofi and he’s like ‘hey call me, they said this this and this’ and so I called them back and that was the first time we had the conversation. We realized like, ‘Hey, we gotta go, right?’ This doesn’t work for us. This isn’t what we want to be doing. To Kofi’s point, we want to work. We want to be able to have these matches and fulfill these goals and dreams.”

We at BSB offer our congratulations to the new Trios Champions (including Swerve Strickland), for taking something that might have been negative and turning it into a whole “New Level”, making Kofi and Austin Creed…

… #ALLELITE.