{"id":221717,"date":"2026-08-31T16:20:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T21:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=221717"},"modified":"2026-08-31T16:45:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T21:45:49","slug":"level-up-austin-creed-kofi-discuss-why-they-departed-from-wwe-and-signed-with-aew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/08\/31\/level-up-austin-creed-kofi-discuss-why-they-departed-from-wwe-and-signed-with-aew\/","title":{"rendered":"Level Up (Austin Creed &#038; Kofi) discuss why they departed from WWE and signed with AEW."},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-4257567508\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>Austin Creed (FKA Xavier Woods in WWE) and Kofi (FKA Kofi Kingston in WWE) said they left WWE because they felt it was a relationship they no longer needed to be in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI always think about personalities in relationships,&#8221; said Creed at the AEW All In press conference. &#8220;Different people have different personalities. Sometimes personalities can grow. Sometimes they grow together and sometimes they grow apart. There is no bad, no good. You are excited about the opportunities you had, things you learned, but that relationship was no longer one that we felt we needed to be in.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Check out the latest episode of &#8220;PWT Talks NXT&#8221; with Kelly Wells and Nate Lindberg, part of the PWTorch Dailycast line-up: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/pwt-talks-nxt-wells-lindberg-discuss-final-hype-for-heatwave-delusional-heels-going-bowling-keanu-carver-s-expanding-weapons-more--74702083\">CLICK HERE<\/a> to stream (or search \u201cpwtorch\u201d on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"PWT Talks NXT - Wells &amp; Lindberg discuss final hype for Heatwave, delusional heels going bowling, Keanu Carver\u2019s expanding weapons, more\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?episode_id=74702083&amp;theme=light&amp;playlist=false&amp;playlist-continuous=false&amp;chapters-image=true&amp;episode_image_position=right&amp;hide-logo=false&amp;hide-likes=false&amp;hide-comments=false&amp;hide-sharing=false&amp;hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Woods said the reason he wanted to go to AEW with Kofi was that he saw how the tag team division was treated in AEW. &#8220;To be able to look across the pond and see what was happening here, especially with tag team wrestling,&#8221; said wwoods. &#8220;Yes, we\u2019re pro wrestlers, but since I was a child, I wanted to be part of a tag team.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To be able to come to a place that admires that and wants to cultivate that with legendary tag teams and young tag teams to where when the legendary ones are gone, the young ones are keeping the legacy going. That\u2019s what is important to us. To be able to come here and do that is why we\u2019re here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kofi said he agreed with what Woods said about Level Up (FKA New Day in WWE) making the jump to AEW . \u201cI can\u2019t sum it up any better than that, said Kofi. &#8220;I\u2019m not one to really live in the past. I\u2019m really all about looking towards the future. We just want to be part of the greatest tag team division in the history of wrestling. Being able to mix it up with these guys is what it\u2019s all about. That\u2019s why we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The All In press conference follows:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"AEW All In: London Post Show Media Scrum | 8\/30\/26, London, England\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LfCPoPIAAJk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"PWT Talks NXT - PWTorch NXT Post-Show (8\/25) w\/Lindberg &amp; Wells\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UCvfx-t9LnA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2578213811\"><div id=\"pwtor-1470756209\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Austin Creed (FKA Xavier Woods in WWE) and Kofi (FKA Kofi Kingston in WWE) said they left WWE because they felt it was a relationship they no longer needed to be in. \u201cI always think <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/08\/31\/level-up-austin-creed-kofi-discuss-why-they-departed-from-wwe-and-signed-with-aew\/\" title=\"Level Up (Austin Creed &#038; Kofi) discuss why they departed from WWE and signed with AEW.\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":189085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6163,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aew-news","category-prowrestlingnews"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2024\/12\/Screenshot-2024-12-04-at-4.24.16\u202fPM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221717"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221723,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221717\/revisions\/221723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}