The New Level on Signing With AEW Less Than 24 Hours Before Their Debut at All In 2026, How Big E Helped Connect Them With A$AP Ferg To Get ‘New Level’ Theme, Their Heel Turn on Big E In WWE, & Idea of Young Bucks Being Greatest Tag Team of All Time

A recent episode of The Ariel Helwani Show podcast featured The New Level’s Kofi & Austin Creed as the guests. One of the topics discussed included Kofi’s thoughts about when their deal with AEW came together.

“You talk about it being the worst kept secret, but the funny thing is, it didn’t really solidify and become official until less than 24 hours before the show. We didn’t sign until less than 24 hours before. We knew what we wanted and we knew what everybody else wanted, but it wasn’t officially official until very soon before the kick off time.

In response to a question from Helwani about what took so long to get a deal done, Creed responded stating:

“It was making sure everything was copacetic for everybody all the way around. It was a very smooth contract negotiation. We had video chats, but being able to sit down in person and talk was incredible. To do that at the same time as signing the contract worked out pretty well.”

Creed also gave his thoughts about hiw they first spoke with AEW CEO Tony Khan a week ago.

Creed also gave his thoughts about how him and Kofi only talked with AEW during their free agency because they saw how the tag team division was building and that’s what excites them.

Kofi also gave his thoughts about them using “New Level” by A$AP Ferg & Future for their new entrance theme song and how Big E helped connect them with A$AP Ferg for it.

“With regard to how we got the actual music is crazy because when we were negotiating the contracts, Austin says, ‘Ask them if we can get New Level as an entrance song.’ Tony said he thinks he can do that and make it work. We went, ‘What?!?!’ Now, it’s real, and we have to figure out how to make it happen. I think they contacted Sony but they were having trouble getting in touch with them. We put in some calls. We called E because he is Mr. Hip Hop and Mr. Rap, figuring he might have a connection. ‘Who should we talk to?’ He didn’t know A$AP, but he was like, ‘Ask Kaz,’ who used to be a writer in WWE and now does everything under the sun ‘and talk to Peter Rosenberg.’ We contacted Kaz and Rosenberg and explained the situation. Pete knows Ferg, ‘I’m gonna call Ferg and his manager.’ Literally, within 20 minutes, ‘Yup, they’re down. They’re going to talk to the right people.’ He linked up Ferg’s manager with AEW and we made it happen in less than 24 hours before we debuted. What started as a thought Austin had while listening to music on the treadmill ended up coming to reality because he put it into the universe,” he said.

Creed also gave his thoughts about him and Kofi’s heel turn on Big E and kicking him out of New Day in WWE.

“It felt like we had a really cool opportunity to tell that story with E. Being able to be in that segment was incredible, and the thing I really enjoyed about it is that they gave us time to do it and bring it to the screen, which I thought was received really well. After the segment, we’re walking to the back, and there are people who have old New Day shirts on. The girl has tears in her eyes as she’s looking me. I stopped, and we’re staring at each other. Just tears. I’m like, ‘This is wrestling. This level of emotion.’ I thought that was awesome. We got to do some really cool stuff right after that, being able to turn, changing the look. The show just shifted. A little less tag team stuff. We don’t have a ton of big tag team stories on the show. We’re not as involved as we wanted to be,” he said.

Creed also gave his thoughts about how him having to ignore Big E at a red carpet event and how not breaking kayfabe in public affected his son and also influenced his decision to leave WWE when he was asked to take a pay cut.

“I’m changing my three-year-old, and he’s asking me about wrestling. He was like, ‘Does Kofi like to get hit hard? E?’ ‘E is not wrestling.’ He’s like, ‘Why didn’t E talk to us? We talked to Kofi. We talked to E, but he didn’t talk to us.’ He was remembering at Mania because (we were mad at E), we walked past E on the red carpet, and I pulled my family along. He’s three. I said, ‘I cannot do that. We cannot do that. We have to go.”

Creed also clarified that he wouldn’t be kayfabing his family anymore because Big E is his brother and he wants to teach his son that you don’t ignore your brothers.

Kofu also gave his thoughts about their relationship with Big E and their departure vignette of them as unicorns breaking free from the circus and giving nod to a still trapped unicorn with the broken horn.

“It’s been this slow diversion; we talk every single day, but we were a trio for so long and spent so much time together. E got put on a different show, he gets hurt, we’re active wrestlers and he’s commentary. We’re seeing each other less and we get this call, and E is still there. It’s been this slow diversion and the universe putting us on different trajectories. We’ve been on different trajectories for a very long time, and this is the official, ‘We’re going to be over here. You’re doing your thing over here. We’re always going to be together.’ We’ve had that conversation in real life, and it’s okay; we all want the best for each other. Him giving us his approval, we would do the same thing for him. We want him to have the most success.”

In a separate recent interview with Jon Alba, Kofi gave his thoughts about the idea The Young Bucks being labeled as the greatest tag team of all time. Creed laughed when asked the question.

“You a comedian, bro. We haven’t done interviews like this in a long time, but you meet so many different personalities and everybody conducts interviews in a different way. Some bring some comedy to these interviews and that’s your shtick. Is that an Emmy back there, you get it for your comedy? Oh man. I need these laughs, I love these laughs because they give you life, you know?”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1, 2, 3, & 4