The New Level (Kofi and Austin Creed), the AEW World Trios Champions, discussed various topics, including their decision to leave WWE, in an interview with CBS Sports’ Shakiel Mahjouri.
Kofi said, “I think it was easy for sure. It was a little scary. It was a little scary because of the uncertainty. For the past two decades, I always knew where I was working. Financially, I knew what I had to do to make plans and prioritize my family’s well-being. We all knew the tangibles. All of a sudden, having that uncertainty of what’s next was very, very daunting… I knew that we weren’t done. We didn’t have to be done over here. It’s amazing because there’s so much talent here to work with. That was what was really exciting. So there was a lot of uncertainty, but it was all positive because… whatever route that we chose, it was going to be amazing. The result was going to be amazing. I’m so glad that all of this worked out with AEW now because the possibilities are endless.”
Kofi on their philosophy toward the situation:
“Bring a solution, right? Like I tell my kids all the time, ‘Don’t tell me what you don’t want to eat. Don’t tell me that you don’t want to eat this. Tell me what you want to eat. Bring something to the table. Let’s get to the solution.’ So that’s really our mentality, figuring out what is next, because what’s next is coming regardless of the reason. We were never given that explanation, but we weren’t really looking for it. We didn’t really care to find out. We didn’t cry. It doesn’t really matter at the end of the day.”
Creed on the biggest factor in their exit decision:
“What we want for our careers is definitely the more important part of that. Because there’s a reason that we got into wrestling. I was told [early on in his career] I wasn’t big enough to be a wrestler. I was told so many things about my abilities: ‘You’re not right for this.’ And then fighting against it because I knew that I was; I knew that I belonged. I knew that what I had to offer was good for professional wrestling.”
Creed on their conversation with Big E about exiting:
“It was intense. We got on the phone. We all talked and let him know what we were going to do. He obviously said, ‘Do what you have to do. Do what you need to do.’ So that image with the unicorn, that whole thing actually happened. Being able to express it through the animation was really cool. It was really cool seeing that it hit a chord with people. This means something to us. And it’s cool to see that it means something to everybody else too.”
