Kofi Kingston says leaving WWE also meant accepting that he and Austin Creed were officially heading down a different road from Big E. After more than a decade together as The New Day, Kofi says the three had already been slowly drifting onto different career paths long before he and Creed landed in AEW.
While speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show, Kofi explained that the separation didn’t happen overnight. Big E’s neck injury, his move into commentary and Kofi and Creed continuing as active wrestlers meant the three simply weren’t around each other as much anymore.
“It’s like this slow diversion. Obviously, we were a trio for so long and spent so much time together. Then even when we got put on different shows, E gets hurt, and now we’re active wrestlers and E is on commentary, and we’re seeing each other less. Now we get this all, and E is still there. So it’s a slow diversion and, again, the universe putting us on different trajectories.”
That separation became much more real when Kofi and Creed left WWE. Kofi brought up the video they released surrounding that next chapter and explained that Jonathan Davenport came up with the concept. Much like their previous heel turn involving Big E, they wanted the emotion to come from what wasn’t physically happening.
“With that video, it was amazing because Jonathan Davenport—he’s so creative—conceptualized this whole thing. We got together, and when he was telling us about it, it was incredible. Much like the heel turn we had, it had no violence. We didn’t drop E. We used our words and said things that were so visceral it was almost like an assault. In the same way, there was nothing verbal said in the video.”
Behind the scenes, there was no dramatic New Day breakup. Kofi said the three actually talked about what was happening in real life. Big E understood that Kofi and Creed were going somewhere else, gave them his blessing and told his longtime partners to go do their thing.
“We’ve been on different trajectories career-wise, and now this is official. Like, ‘Hey man, we’re gonna be over here, and you’ll be over there. We’ll always be together.’ We had a conversation in real life. It’s okay. We just want what’s best for each other.”
That support goes both ways. Kofi said he and Creed would give Big E exactly the same encouragement with whatever he decides to pursue next.
“Him giving us his approval, like, ‘It’s okay. You guys do your thing.’ We’d do the same thing for him and want him to have the most success in whatever it is he does, and he does a lot of things.”
Big E has already made it pretty obvious that there are no hard feelings. After The New Level debuted at AEW All In, he publicly called Kofi and Creed “two living legends that are undervalued” and joked that sometimes you have to go all the way to London.
The New Day may now exist on opposite sides of the wrestling world, but there was never some dramatic goodbye behind the curtain. Kofi and Creed got Big E’s blessing, Big E is publicly cheering them on, and apparently being in different companies isn’t enough to change what those three built together.
Do you think Big E could ever reunite with Kofi Kingston and Austin Creed down the road? Let us know in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
