AEW All In was the most appropriate place for the New Level's debut. Austin Creed and Kofi's first night in AEW ended with them standing inside Wembley Stadium -- with more than 40,000 fans in attendance -- as champions. It was an incredible payoff for betting on themselves after WWE failed to bargain with them.
Months earlier, Creed and Kofi (formerly The New Day's Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston) were asked to take significant pay cuts to remain with WWE, the company they'd called home for a combined 36 years. The request caught them off guard, particularly after everything they'd accomplished there. Between them were countless tag team titles, singles accolades, major merchandise sales and a WrestleMania appearance one year earlier where they walked out with the world tag team titles.
The phone call was difficult, but not the decision to leave. "I think it was easy for sure," Kofi told CBS Sports. It was a little scary because of the uncertainty.
For the past two decades, I always knew where I was working. Financially, I knew what I had to do to make plans and prioritize my family's well-being. We all knew the tangibles.
All of a sudden, having that uncertainty of what's next was very, very daunting." The New Level, @AustinCreedWins & @TrueKofi, have arrived as @SwerveConfident’s partners in the Trios Roulette Royale!Watch #AEWAllIn London LIVE on HBO Max PPV pic.twitter.com/gnJeA7P5bL Creed and Kofi were reportedly one year into new five-year contracts when WWE approached them about renegotiating. According to the pair, the proposed deal represented a pay cut of more than 50%. Money mattered, especially after spending so much of their adult lives with the security WWE provided.
But the other half of the proposal, reduced roles that New Day chose not to expand on, bothered them much more. Ironically, the pitch made to justify the reduced salary is what drove them out of the company. "I knew that we weren't done," Kofi said.
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