Kofi Kingston and Austin Creed apparently didn’t leave WWE because of some explosive falling out. Creed says the relationship had simply reached a point where they no longer felt it was one they “needed to be in,” while AEW offered something particularly important to them—a tag team division they wanted to be part of.
Kingston and Creed parted ways with WWE in May 2026 before making their shocking AEW debuts at All In on August 30. Their first night couldn’t have gone much better, as The New Level joined Swerve Strickland and immediately captured the AEW World Trios Championships.
During the post-All In media scrum, Creed was asked why they decided to leave WWE and make the jump to AEW. Rather than painting their WWE departure as something bitter, he compared it to a relationship where two sides can simply grow apart.
“So, I always think about this like personalities and relationships. Different people have different personalities. Sometimes they can grow together or grow apart. There’s no bad or good. You are excited about what you had, the things that you learned, but that relationship no longer was one that we felt we needed to be in.”
What AEW had waiting on the other side clearly mattered as well. Creed specifically pointed toward the company’s tag team scene and explained that being part of a team was something he had dreamed about long before becoming a professional wrestler.
“So to be able to look across the pond and see what was happening here, especially with the tag team scene… yes, we’re pro wrestlers, but as a child I wanted to be part of a tag team because I loved the fact that I could be there to protect my brother and he could be there to protect me.”
For Creed, it wasn’t simply about AEW having recognizable tag teams either. He liked the idea of joining a division where established teams can eventually give way to another generation that keeps tag team wrestling alive.
“So being able to come to a place that admires that and wants to cultivate that—like legendary tag teams—and when those legendary teams are gone, the younger ones are fulfilling the prophecy and keeping it going. That’s what’s important to us, and to be able to do that is why we’re here.”
Kingston then jumped in and made their motivation even clearer. He didn’t dance around what he and Creed think of AEW’s tag team scene or what they want to accomplish now that they’re part of it.
“We just wanted to be part of the greatest tag team division in the history of wrestling, and that’s what it comes down to. To be able to mix it up with these guys, that’s why we are here.”
That explanation makes their first night in AEW even more interesting. Kingston and Creed arrived as part of a trio with Swerve, but they’ve already made it clear that their ambitions extend beyond the championships currently around their waists.
The New Level even confronted AEW World Tag Team Champions Adam Copeland and Christian Cage later at All In, alongside FTR and the Motor City Machine Guns. Considering Creed and Kingston just identified AEW’s tag team division as a major reason they came to the company, that confrontation suddenly carries a lot more weight.
Kingston and Creed spent years building their legacy together in WWE, but Creed doesn’t appear interested in turning their departure into an ugly breakup story. They felt that relationship had run its course, saw what they consider the greatest tag team division in wrestling waiting for them in AEW, and wasted absolutely no time putting themselves directly into that conversation.
What do you think of Austin Creed and Kofi Kingston’s reasons for leaving WWE and choosing AEW? Let us know in the comments.
Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.
