Austin Creed on Freedom Of Creative Expression In AEW Being “More Space To Be Allowed To Fail” & How Period Between WWE Departure and AEW Arrival Was Amazing Over Him Feeling “Very Burnt Out”

Fightful’s Phid McAwesome held a recent interview with Austin Creed at this past October’s PAX Australia 2026 convention in Melbourne, Australia. One of the topics discussed included Creed’s thoughts about the freedom that one has in AEW to express themselves creatively and how there is room to fail and improve.

“Yeah, I would say so. I would say so. There’s definitely more space for that. More space to be allowed to fail is how I would say it, and that’s what I thrive on is the opportunity to fail. Let me go out and try something. I don’t want it to fail, but that adrenaline rush that I get is because I’m going out on national television. I’m going out in front of a crowd of 20,000 people and I’m trying something that I don’t know if it’s going to work or not, and then it’s successful and I go, cool, I am good at my job. Or it doesn’t work and I go, ‘Ah! Okay, well, what can I change next time so that this does work?’ Getting the chance to have that process is what I really enjoy about anything creative but specifically about wrestling, because that’s fulfillment for me. Getting the chance to try, not knowing if you’re gonna be successful.”

Creed also gave his thoughts about how the period between his departure from WWE to his arrival in AEW was amazing due to how he had felt “very burnt out” for his wrestling career.

“It was great. It was amazing. I’ve never been home for the summer. I’ve been wrestling 23 years and I’ve been wrestling 23 summers. For me, this was the first time that I got to be home for the summer with my kids. So I got to actually be there and be dad, which was really cool, and so, it also helped me to figure out how to build a foundation to have a better work/life balance than I had previously. I was very burnt out. Very burnt out. Wrestling constantly, doing the YouTube channel constantly. Doing appearances constantly everywhere which is important to me because I wanna be able to hustle; I wanna be able to build what I can while I can, because once my body doesn’t wanna do it anymore, I don’t wanna feel like I have to keep doing it. So there’s sacrifice. But, being able to have that summer really allowed me to figure out what I want my life to look like and what I will say yes to, what I will say no to, what I’m comfortable doing, what I’m not comfortable doing, what I will get out of bed for and leave my house for, and what I will not, and so having that mindset now has really given me a new center, and that feels really good to be able to have that balance.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1 & 2