Kofi Kingston and Austin Creed Reveal AEW Contract Allows Cross-Promotional Wrestling Opportunities

Just days after putting pen to paper with All Elite Wrestling, the newly formed tag team New Level—comprising Kofi Kingston and Austin Creed—have disclosed a significant detail about their contractual arrangement.

The duo recently joined The Ariel Helwani Show, where they revealed that WWE had offered them a pay reduction exceeding 50 percent. After careful consideration and mutual discussion, Kingston and Creed made the decision to part ways with the promotion.

Following their departure, they entered negotiations with AEW and finalized their deal less than 24 hours before AEW All In 2026. Beyond discussing their contract terms, the pair has now shed light on a notable aspect of their agreement. According to the provisions of their new AEW contract, Kingston and Creed retain the freedom to compete for other wrestling organizations.

“We can jump around and do some other things. So we still have opportunities to go to other places and to wrestle people. So that fact, that tag team wrestling is all across the world, is something that’s really exciting to us,” Creed explained.

Kofi added, “Yeah, anything and everything. Everything is on the table. I’m still getting used to being able to have so much freedom to be able to, again, just do what we want to do. So yeah, like, Austin said, there’s opportunities aplenty, as you see with a lot of the AEW wrestlers doing all kinds of things on the roster and then internationally as well.

“I think… I don’t remember who the promotion was that he was wrestling for, but somewhere in Africa, he was wrestling. He was the champion there in Africa somewhere, you know what I mean? So the possibilities are endless. And yeah, it’s very exciting to have those opportunities,” he concluded.

New Level made their highly anticipated debut at AEW All In 2026, where they overcame several other teams to claim the newly established AEW World Trios Championship alongside Swerve Strickland.

New Level Explain Big E’s Role in Securing Their AEW Entrance Theme

During the same conversation with Ariel Helwani, New Level revealed how their longtime friend and former New Day teammate Big E assisted them in obtaining their AEW entrance music for the All In 2026 event.

“With regard to how we got the actual music is crazy because when we were negotiating the contracts, Austin says, ‘Ask them if we can get New Level as an entrance song.’ Tony said he thinks he can do that and make it work. We went, ‘What?!?!’ Now, it’s real, and we have to figure out how to make it happen. I think they contacted Sony, but they were having trouble getting in touch with them. We put in some calls.

“We called E because he is Mr. Hip Hop and Mr. Rap, figuring he might have a connection. ‘Who should we talk to?’ He didn’t know A$AP, but he was like, ‘Ask Kaz,’ who used to be a writer in WWE and now does everything under the sun, ‘and talk to Peter Rosenberg.’ We contacted Kaz and Rosenberg and explained the situation,” Kofi continued.

“Pete knows Ferg, ‘I’m gonna call Ferg and his manager.’ Literally, within 20 minutes, ‘Yup, they’re down. They’re going to talk to the right people.’ He linked up Ferg’s manager with AEW, and we made it happen in less than 24 hours before we debuted. What started as a thought Austin had while listening to music on the treadmill ended up coming to reality because he put it into the universe,” Kofi revealed.

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