WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff has weighed in on Kofi Kingston and Austin Creed’s new AEW identity, arguing that the former New Day members would have been better served making a clean break from their WWE past.
As seen at AEW All In: London 2026, former WWE stars Kingston and Xavier Woods made their AEW debuts under the names Kofi and “Awesome” Austin Creed. Together, they debuted as The New Level, a name that maintains a clear connection to their longtime WWE team, The New Day.
During his podcast, Bischoff discussed the decision with co-host Conrad Thompson, who asked whether retaining that familiarity was beneficial or if AEW should have taken the duo in an entirely different direction.
Thompson: “They were New Day there. They’re New Level here. Do you like leaning into that because it’s familiar, or would you rather see them try something completely different?”
Bischoff: “I would rather try something completely different. I know why they’re doing it, and there’s an argument for that. There’s probably some logic to it that you can’t totally dismiss, but it’s like a hangover that won’t go away.
I think breaking clean from a previous character and establishing a new character, in this case, characters with New Level, is a smarter long-term approach than hanging on to the past, which is what they’re doing. They’re trying to draft off of the equity that the former New Day had in WWE, which I understand. I’m not criticizing it. I completely understand it from a business perspective.
I prefer not to have to do that. So, given a choice, if I think I have the option of creating something really new and unique and powerful, or effective at least, I would opt to do that before I would take the easy way out, the cheap way out, and try to come up with something that’s a derivative. People don’t like derivatives. They like authenticity. They like originals.
When you have to be a derivative, it suggests that you don’t know how to become unique.”
Thompson acknowledged that fans could point to examples from Bischoff’s own WCW tenure, when wrestlers arriving from WWE were sometimes given names and characters that closely resembled their previous identities. However, he also noted that many of those attempts were not particularly successful.
Thompson: “That’s interesting because, and I know before I even look at the comments, a lot of people are going to cite WCW examples of guys who came over and had a very similar-sounding name. But respectfully, most of those, if we’re honest, didn’t really work out to be all that great, like IRS or, you know, when the Big Boss Man comes over and he’s The Guardian, or Earthquake comes over and he’s Avalanche or whatever.”
Rather than disputing the comparison, Bischoff acknowledged his own mistakes during WCW and said those experiences helped shape his current opinion.
Bischoff: “When I’m when I say these things, some of it is based on experience. Some of it is actually based on the fact that I f*cked that sh*t up. Right. And I learned from it.
You would think other people would learn from it too, and learn from what other people do and have success with or don’t have success with. So, yeah, I’ve done it and I’ve learned the hard way. It doesn’t work. There’s a better way.”
While Bischoff said he understands the business logic behind using The New Level name and capitalizing on the recognition Kofi and Creed built as The New Day, his preference would have been for AEW to establish something completely original.
For Bischoff, creating a distinct identity would give the duo a better opportunity to move beyond their WWE history rather than relying on the familiarity and brand equity of their former characters.
