Since joining AEW and becoming the company’s World Trios Champions alongside Swerve Strickland at AEW All In London, New Level’s Kofi and Austin Creed have been making the rounds to speak with various media about their experiences, both joining Tony Khan’s company, and leaving WWE. The pair revealed TKO asked them to take a pay cut of over 50 percent, and on “The Ariel Helwani Show,” both men spoke more about receiving that phone call from WWE.
When asked if they were “completely blindsided,” Creed said he was at his kid’s football game when his phone rang with an unknown number. It was a Connecticut area code, the home base of WWE.
“I thought, ‘Why would I not have this number in my phone? That’s weird, I haven’t seen a 203 number I don’t have in a long time,'” he said. “Then, maybe like 15 minutes later, my brain goes, ‘Hm. It’s pretty close to after ‘Mania. Usually there’s releases. We’re not getting released. We’ve been helping out and we’ve been pulling our weight and doing all of this stuff,’ so that was a flicker of a thought in my mind that it would be like a negative conversation.”
Creed said he ended up getting a call from Kofi about how his conversation with WWE went. The former Xavier Woods said it didn’t make sense to him, with what he thinks they’re able to bring to the table and what they have left to give back. Creed called WWE back, then phoned his friend again.
“That was the first time we had the conversation. We realized, ‘Hey, we gotta go, right?'” he said. “‘This doesn’t work for us. This isn’t what we want to be doing…’ We want to work. We want to be able to have these matches and fulfill these goals and dreams.”
Kofi makes life-changing decision
Creed said he was excited to see his friend on the independent scene after being in WWE for 20 years. He knew they were going to be able to do some cool things. Before he had those thoughts of his own, Kofi said that he got the call while he was out celebrating his son’s birthday.
“Same thing, I got the call. I’m like, ‘Why is he calling me right now?'” Kofi said. “Pick it up, and he says what he says. He’s like, offering the terms and the renegotiation and all that. I hung up, and the most bizarre feeling was like… the world had just been flipped upside down, getting a call you thought you’d never have to like, feel to like a make a decision with, but it’s my son’s day, so I can’t emotionally let myself go or fall apart or be p***** off or be worried or whatever.”
Kofi explained he and Creed, as well as former New Day member Big E, have a “hive mind,” where they’re usually all thinking the same thing. When he got the call back from Creed, they knew what they needed to do, but he took a few days to make sure he and his family were financially secure.
“We knew we couldn’t stay, but you want to do your due diligence and weigh all your options,” he said.
In the end, Creed and Kofi signed with AEW in the days ahead of All In London. They were revealed as Strickland’s trios partners, and they won the roulette battle royal to capture the AEW World Trios Championships.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “The Ariel Helwani Show” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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