Jeff Jarrett says the arrival of Kofi Kingston and Austin Creed in AEW was the moment of All In: London, and that he still cannot work out how WWE let them get away.
The pair debuted as New Level on the All In Buy In, entering the Trios Roulette Royale as the wild card with Swerve Strickland and winning the AEW World Trios Championship on their first night. They came out to a licensed hip hop track with new graphics and a new team name.
Talking it over on My World with Conrad Thompson, Jarrett said the debut was the thing he keeps coming back to.
“The trios story of Creed and Kofi and the vibe and the surprise, and I don’t think you can say this enough. I am blown away that AEW got the opportunity for those guys to be on the roster,” Jarrett said.
He then speculated about how it happened on WWE’s end.
“Maybe it was a low-ball offer. I still, none of that really adds up to me, and maybe it was a bad day at the office when they were crunching numbers from TKO and got the mandate,” he said.
The reporting at the time lines up with that read. Kingston and Woods left WWE on May 2, and Bryan Alvarez reported that their existing deals had not expired. They were asked to restructure into TKO-branded contracts on less favourable terms, declined, requested their release and were granted it, then sat out a 90-day non-compete that ran to the start of August. Dave Meltzer reported that the deals they were being asked to rework had been signed in 2025 and would have kept them in WWE until 2030. BodySlam reported those contracts were in the seven-figure range. The exits came as part of a post-WrestleMania 42 round of cuts that ran to around 30 names in a fortnight. Fightful Select later reported that several people inside the AEW locker room were pushing to sign them.
Jarrett said the two brought something with them that does not show up on a roster page.
“Those guys have a legacy that they don’t really have peers,” he said. “When you look at New Day’s legacy, and for them to jump, they brought their entire audience. They both have created a monster following in the gaming world. It’s big.”
On the reaction in the stadium, Jarrett said the surprise landed because AEW held it until the bell.
“If you’ve watched the other guy’s product, WWE, the 8,000 pound gorilla, KofiMania, on and on and on, they are so synonymous with that brand,” Jarrett said. “To kick off that show in that trios match with Swerve and Nana, it’s like they slid in and they were already a part of the roster the minute they came out on stage, because Swerve was their partner. I don’t think you could write it up or line it up, and they hadn’t been gone that far from working with those guys. In this day and age, it’s about as big a surprise as you’re really going to get.”
He said the match itself was a difficult one to work but that the entrance did the job on its own.
“I think they did a hell of a job, but when they walked out, Conrad, the building rattled, and that is a testament to those guys. It’s big time,” Jarrett said. “I think we will talk about this moment for a long time. To kick things off, you can’t put a price on it.”
Jarrett separated the two categories at the end. He called the AEW World Championship main event between Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega his favourite match of the show, and said the New Level debut was his favourite moment.
The legacy Jarrett is pointing at has numbers behind it. Kingston and Woods formed New Day with Big E in 2014, and the group took 13 tag team championship reigns, including a run of 483 days with the Raw Tag Team Championship. Kingston and Big E both won world titles as singles wrestlers out of it. Big E retired from the ring after a neck injury in 2022 and remains with WWE in an ambassador role, which leaves him as the one member of the three still there.
Kingston had been with WWE since 2006 and Woods since 2010.
