Kofi Kingston spent so many years inside WWE’s language bubble that apparently one word still feels illegal — “wrestler.” The former WWE Champion caught himself using the company-approved “Superstar” label during a new interview, and Renee Paquette immediately reminded him that those rules don’t follow him into AEW.
Kofi and Austin Creed got into their post-WWE life during an appearance on Close Up with Renee Paquette after making their AEW debut at All In: London 2026. While Kofi was explaining how strange it has been finally meeting wrestlers he had watched from afar for years, the old WWE terminology slipped out without him even thinking about it.
Kofi said, “There’s so many people who I felt like I’ve known because I’ve watched them on TV, but I actually haven’t. So, and I think that happens a lot with fans and wrestlers, or fans and superstars. Like, people feel like they know us.” Renee immediately stopped him and said, “You don’t have to say superstar here.”
That was apparently all Kofi needed to hear. He fired back, “Can I say wrestler? Oh my gosh!” before Creed piled on with, “You can say pro wrestler. The whole thing. I put it into my bio, AEW – professional wrestler.”
It sounds ridiculous until you remember WWE spent years treating perfectly normal wrestling words like they belonged on a forbidden list. Under Vince McMahon, “wrestler” and “wrestling” were among the terms talent and announcers were pushed away from using, with “Superstar” becoming the company’s preferred language. WWE’s vocabulary rules got so specific that one banned-word list included terms like “wrestling,” “wrestlers,” “belt,” “blood,” “house show,” “DQ,” “kayfabe,” “babyface,” “heel,” “job” and “jobber”.
And “wrestler” wasn’t even where the weirdness stopped. WWE also spent years favoring phrases like “championship” instead of “belt,” “live event” instead of “house show” and “medical facility” instead of simply saying “hospital.” The whole idea was to make WWE sound like WWE and not like every other wrestling promotion on the planet.
So after living inside that system for years, Kofi instinctively reaching for “Superstar” before realizing he can just say “wrestler” now is pretty damn funny. Creed clearly isn’t having that problem, because he went straight for the full “professional wrestler” label in his AEW bio.
The language isn’t the only thing changing for them either. Their jump to AEW has given both men a completely different environment after spending the bulk of their careers inside WWE, and Creed admitted one of the coolest parts has simply been watching Kofi experience something new.
Creed said, “I feel like I’ve said this a bunch in our interviews, of like, to see Kofi in a new place, like, that was exciting for me. So, I’m excited for myself. Then I’m excited watching Kofi and how excited he is. I’m like, ‘Oh, this is so much fun.’”
For Creed, getting a fresh start with his longtime partner makes the whole thing hit differently because he gets to experience the ride twice — once for himself and once through Kofi.
He explained, “That’s why I love tag team wrestling, because you don’t just get to experience something through your eyes. You get to experience it through your partner’s eyes, too. And that just adds so much more to it for me.”
Kofi and Creed spent years learning exactly how WWE wanted them to talk, perform and present themselves, so some of that programming obviously isn’t disappearing overnight. Still, watching Kofi practically celebrate because he can finally call himself a wrestler without somebody correcting him might be one of the funniest signs yet that these two really are in a completely different world now.
What do you think about Kofi Kingston realizing he can finally just say “wrestler” in AEW? Were WWE’s old banned-word rules smart branding or completely ridiculous? Let us know what you think and leave your feedback in the comments.
