Kofi Kingston says the pay cut WWE offered him and Austin Creed before they left was steeper than the figure that has been reported, and that it was more than 50 percent.
Kingston discussed the exit with Ariel Helwani, and pushed back on the number that has circulated since May.
“I don’t know exactly what’s out there. I will say it was more than 50%,” he said. “A lot of people don’t know. It was more.”
Dave Meltzer reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter at the time that the pair had been offered restructured deals worth half of what they were on. Neither man’s actual salary has been reported, so the 50 percent figure has been the only measure available since May. Kingston is the first person on either side of the negotiation to say it was wrong.
He framed the decision as a judgment about worth rather than a number in isolation.
“We just thought that the terms that they wanted us to perform under were not fair based on what we brought to the table. Based on what we’re worth,” he said. “Based on the knowledge and prowess that we have as performers, as wrestlers, what we can give back to the younger people, what we do from a point of entertainment, being able to go out there and garner a reaction as good guys or bad guys.”
He said the bigger issue was the work itself.
“Compensation was definitely a big part, but more so, we wanted to work. We wanted to go out there and showcase our skills and showcase our talents. We wanted to do what we love,” Kingston said. “We love going out there and messing with fans and threatening to ground kids and really garner reactions to people, and send them home with incredible memories they’ll never forget.”
That reflects what was reported about the shape of the offer. Meltzer’s account was that WWE’s proposal would have cut the value of contracts the pair had signed the previous year while gradually scaling back their in-ring work and moving them into a promotional role for the remainder of the terms.
The comments go further than anything either man said two days earlier. Asked about the exit at the AEW All In media scrum by John Pollock, Creed talked around the money entirely and said the relationship between the three parties had stopped being compatible. Pay cuts did not come up. Kingston put a number to it on the Helwani appearance instead.
Kingston and Creed, then working as Xavier Woods, asked for and were granted their releases on May 2. Neither contract had expired. Both had signed five-year extensions the previous year. Reporting at the time indicated TKO had tasked WWE with cutting millions from its payroll, and that the pay cut requests went to a small number of talent. Meltzer reported that several accepted the terms and signed reduced deals rather than leave. The wider post-WrestleMania 42 wave took in Kairi Sane, Aleister Black and Zelina Vega among others.
The pair sat out a 90-day non-compete and debuted in AEW as New Level on the All In: London Buy In, entering the Trios Roulette Royale as the wild card alongside Swerve Strickland and winning the AEW World Trios Championship on their first night. Sean Ross Sapp reported for Fightful Select that the AEW deal came together in the two weeks before the show, and that one source inside the company said they were not signed a fortnight out.
Kingston spent 20 years in WWE, from 2006 to 2026, and holds the record for tag team title reigns in company history. Creed joined in 2010. Between them and Big E they built the most decorated tag team WWE has had, which is the argument Kingston was making about what the offer was measured against.
