When AEW Began Negotiations With The New Level Revealed

The former New Day officially became All Elite at AEW All In 2026 as Austin Creed and Kofi of The New Level were revealed to be Swerve Strickland's partners in the wild card team for the AEW World Trios Title Roulette Royale, with The New Level and Strickland ultimately winning the match.

Creed and Kofi then headed to the ring later in the show to stand alongside Cope and Cage, The Young Bucks, Motor City Machine Guns, and FTR to tease a future five-way for the AEW World Tag Team Titles.

Kofi and Austin Creed had previously been a part of WWE but they requested their releases from the company following WrestleMania 42 after they were asked to accept pay cuts, which was said to be more of an ultimatum.

The New Level became free agents after their 90-day non-compete clauses expired, with AEW CEO Tony Khan revealing at the post-All In media scrum that he opened negotiations with the tag team a couple of days after the expiration date.

"I was very careful. Of course, when I saw The New Level were going to be potential free agents, I want to play it safe for the sake of all three of us; me, them, and the company, to do things the right way. After their 90 days were up, and only after the 90 days had expired, I gave it an extra day or two to be safe. I engaged with their representatives, and it was clear there was interest, but it's also an interesting situation because AEW is where the best wrestle, and these are two wrestlers that fit what we do perfectly," Khan stated.

"It’s a great opportunity, but it wasn’t something I had planned or budgeted for. It’s not the kind of thing you can negotiate in five seconds; it takes some time. It wasn’t like it was a done deal the second they got released or were able to look elsewhere. The whole situation was a big surprise to me. Knowing that, I tried to create an environment with tag teams and trios where there would be an exciting opportunity. Knowing we had this huge pay-per-view event, I tried to build the tag team and trios teams where we had the opportunity, if such a deal were to be made, where we could do something really special," he continued.

"It was a great audible. This was a great call. There is no way I could’ve planned for it because never in a million years would I have ever thought Austin and Kofi would be free agents. We’ve been doing this seven years and it was unthinkable that Austin and Kofi would be free agents. When they were, I had to go in with an open mind, but we’re in business and we had to figure it out. I couldn’t just assume it was going to get done. I was very pleased that we were able to figure it out and make it happen."

The New Level and Swerve Strickland have already been announced for their first AEW World Trios Title defence against The Rascalz on the post-All In edition of Dynamite, and Tony Khan has revealed The New Level want to be full-time in All Elite Wrestling.

"Something that got me excited about New Level, these guys are not afraid to work very hard. They told me, 'We see Jon Moxley at Dynamite and Collision basically every week. We want to be at Dynamite and Collision basically every week. We're going to be there practically every week.' That's really exciting to have people coming in like that. It’s only going to bring more fans and attention," Khan added.

Elsewhere in the media scrum, Austin Creed explained working for WWE was a relationship that was "no longer one that we felt we needed to be in."

H/T Fightful