As noted before, New Day’s Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston departed from WWE earlier this month following a mutual decision from both sides over New Day not accepting a new restructured deal offer to stay in the company. AEW has been very interested in potentially signing Woods and Kingston following their departures from WWE.
WrestleVotes Radio on Fightful Select reported that one source within AEW spoken to stated that they are currently “upbeat” about the chances of Woods and Kingston wrestling at least one match in AEW.
It was reported that several AEW talents have expressed interest in working with Woods and Kingston in the company.
In regards to Woods and Kingston’s non-compete clauses, Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a recent Q&A article that both are currently expected to be under the typical 90 days non-compete terms for main roster talents for their departures from WWE. This would mean that their non-competes are currently set to expire in the first week of August and they would officially become free agents afterwards.
Woods is currently going by the ring name of Austin Creed he had used outside of WWE whle Kingston is going by the ring name of just Kofi for their post-WWE careers.

Paul Heyman on His Current Backstage Role in WWE, Him Loving AEW Existing and AEW’s Place in Wrestling Being “An Alternative, If Not A Competitive Brand”, & His Belief WWE Squandered Claudio Castagnoli’s Potential
WWE NXT Notes: Wade Barrett Fills In For Booker T, Arianna Grace vs. Wren Sinclair for WWE Speed Women’s Title, Tatum Paxley vs. Zaria for NXT Women’s North American Title Matches and More Set for NXT Great American Bash, Kevin Owens To Appear at NXT GAB Tailgate Party, The Culling Turns on Shawn Spears
Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens’ Reflects on Zayn’s Undisputed WWE Title Win at WWE Night of Champions 2026



