The New Level address WWE pay cut reports: “It was more than 50%” – POST Wrestling

Kofi and Austin Creed are back in the public eye after debuting as The New Level at AEW All In: London, and everyone wants to know their perspective on their WWE exit.

POST Wrestling’s John Pollock asked about it during the All In: London press conference, and Creed talked about how personalities and relationships change over time.

Kofi opened up more on The Ariel Helwani Show, stating, “It was more than 50%,” when Helwani asked about reports that WWE asked them to take a pay cut.

Creed revealed he got the call from WWE while watching his son’s football game, and he admitted that the thought about a potential release crossed his mind because the call came after WrestleMania. Kofi added that he got the call during his son’s birthday. He admitted he didn’t want to show his emotions because it was his son’s day.

Just because something life-changing happens or something devastating might happen, that doesn’t mean the rest of the world stops. I had to keep on going.

Kofi called Creed soon after, and they said they knew immediately that they were going to leave, but they also wanted to weigh their options and make sure they were financially secure before making their next career decision. Kofi spoke earlier in the interview about their decision to leave.

We thought the terms that they wanted us to perform under were not fair based on what we brought to the table, based on what we’re worth, based on the knowledge and prowess that we have as performers, as wrestlers, what we can give back to the younger people, what we can do from a point of entertainment, being able to go out there to garner a reaction as good guys or bad guys no matter the situation. We took great pride in being Swiss-army knives in the sense of no matter what the situation was, we’ll make it great. We’ll make it entertaining.

… Compensation was definitely a big part, for sure,  but more so, we wanted to work. We wanted to go out there and showcase our skills and showcase our talents. We want to do what we love. We love going out there and messing with the fans. We love going out there and threatening to ground kids and garner reactions from people and sending them home with memories they’ll never forget.

Kofi and Creed spoke throughout about their excitement to join AEW, being part of the tag division and betting on themselves in the next phase of their careers.

Creed also revealed that their talks began with Tony Khan and AEW a week before All In: London, and that he spent time being with his family and watching wrestling as a fan for the first time in years.

Kofi also noted that they got the rights to “New Level” from A$AP Ferg 24 hours before the show thanks to reaching out to Big E, who contacted Kazeem Famuyide and Peter Rosenberg, who then helped connect Ferg and his representation to AEW.

Creed added that he does not believe that WWE has changed because of TKO and suggested that it could just be part of WWE’s evolution while also noting that the talent are still committed to wrestling.

Kofi Kingston reveals their AEW deal wasn’t officially signed until less than 24 hours before their debut:

“It was such a whirlwind… We knew what we wanted, we knew what everybody else wanted, but it wasn’t officially official until very soon before kickoff.

It was just like… pic.twitter.com/IlhIHs5WaS

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) September 1, 2026