Austin Creed and Kofi Kingston didn’t bother shopping themselves around after leaving WWE. Once they became free agents, Creed says there was only one wrestling company they actually talked to—AEW.
While speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show, Austin Creed was asked whether he and Kofi spoke with any other promotions before making their surprise AEW move. His answer was simple.
“Yeah, we talked to just AEW. We have a lot of friends over there and a lot of good people who said good things about it. It made a lot of sense for us because, watching those matches and the stories they get to tell, no one’s doing that for tag team wrestling.”
Ariel Helwani pushed a little further and asked why they didn’t at least explore what else was available. Japan was specifically brought up as another possible destination, but Creed said that wasn’t really what they were looking for.
“Yeah, that’s really it. It’s the tag team wrestling aspect. I genuinely believe it’s the biggest tag team division possibly ever.”
Creed has already explained that AEW’s tag team division was a major reason they made the jump. Kofi has said the same thing, pointing to teams like The Young Bucks, FTR, Adam Copeland and Christian Cage, Private Party and The Dogs as matches that made him wonder what he and Creed could do if they got involved.
That opportunity arrived at All In, where Kofi and Creed debuted as The New Level alongside Swerve Strickland and immediately became AEW World Trios Champions. Kofi and Creed could have used free agency to find out exactly how many companies wanted them. Instead, it sounds like they already knew where they wanted to go—and AEW was the only conversation they needed to have.
Do you think Kofi Kingston and Austin Creed made the right call by only negotiating with AEW? Let us know in the comments.
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