Kofi Kingston and Austin Creed came ridiculously close to making their AEW debut without actually being signed. The New Level revealed that their deals weren’t officially finalized until less than 24 hours before they walked out at All In.
While speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show, Kofi explained just how late everything came together. Even with the two already heading toward London, nothing was completely official until right before the show.
“The funny thing is, it didn’t really solidify until less than 24 hours before the show. We didn’t sign before less than 24 hours before. It wasn’t officially official until very soon before the kickoff time.”
Creed said there wasn’t any major drama holding things up. The negotiations were actually smooth—they simply wanted to make sure everything worked for everyone involved before putting pen to paper.
“Just making sure everything was copacetic for everyone. It was a very smooth contract negotiation, but being able to get on the plane, go to London, and sit down in person and talk was incredible.”
Getting to London also allowed them to finally handle everything face-to-face. Creed said signing the contract while they were there ended up working out perfectly.
“So to do it at the same time as signing the contract worked out well.”
That lines up with Tony Khan’s version of how quickly the whole thing happened. Khan previously revealed that he deliberately waited until Kofi and Creed’s 90-day period following their WWE departures had completely expired before contacting their representatives. He even waited another day or two just to make sure there wouldn’t be any issues.
“After their 90 days were up, and only after that expired—and I gave it a day or two to be safe—I engaged with their representatives.”
Khan also admitted that signing The New Level wasn’t something he had planned or even budgeted for. He never expected Kofi and Creed to become free agents in the first place, so their sudden availability forced AEW to figure things out on the fly.
“Never in a million years would I ever have thought Austin and Kofi would be free agents. It’s unthinkable.”
Somehow, all of that came together just in time. Kofi and Creed signed their deals less than a day before All In, walked into Wembley as Swerve Strickland’s mystery partners and left their first AEW show as World Trios Champions.
That makes the surprise at All In even crazier in hindsight. AEW wasn’t sitting on The New Level for weeks waiting for the perfect moment to reveal them—the paperwork itself was barely dry before Kofi and Creed were walking out at Wembley.
What do you think about Kofi Kingston and Austin Creed signing with AEW less than 24 hours before All In? 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.
