The New Level Confirm And Comment On Massive WWE Pay Cut Request

The New Level, formerly The New Day in WWE, made their AEW debut at the All In PPV event from inside Wembley Stadium over the weekend. Kofi and Austin Creed joined Swerve Strickland in the Roulette Royale match and became the new AEW World Trios Champions.

Rumors swirled for months regarding the future of Kofi and Creed after they abruptly departed WWE earlier this year. They left the company after WrestleMania and soon after the official talent cuts that the company makes around that time each year.

Reports indicated that the reason for Kofi and Creed leaving the company was due to a request from the company to take a cut in pay. During a new interview with Ariel Helwani on Tuesday, Kofi confirmed that WWE asked the team to take more than 50% pay reduction.

"I don’t know exactly what’s out there," Kofi said of the pay rumors. "I will say it was more than 50%. A lot of people don’t know. It was more.”

In the interview Kofi said that compensation and the cut request was a big reason he and Creed decided to walk away from WWE. He said that the bigger reason was the fact that they wanted to work and wanted to stay active. Kofi said that he and Creed wanted to do what they loved.

Kofi says The New Level were approached with an unfair offer to stay in WWE

The bottom line regarding The New Level leaving WWE had to do with getting what they are worth as talents. Simply put, the offer they received to stay with WWE was unfair.

“We just thought that the terms that they wanted us to perform under were not fair based on what we brought to the table," Kofi said. "Based on what we're worth. Based on the knowledge and prowess that we have as performers, as wrestlers, and what we can give back to the younger people."

The New Level will make their AEW Dynamite debut this week on the show. After winning AEW trios gold at All In, they will defend those titles on Wednesday against The Rascalz. It appears that New Level and Swerve Strickland will be attached on WWE television for a while. Strickland confirmed that the group will stay together, even if that meant achieving success away from one another.

Kofi Kingston says WWE's offer would have cut pay by more than the reported 50%:

“It was more than 50%. More than a lot of people know.

The compensation is a big part of it, for sure, but the bigger part is being able to go out and live your dream the way you want to live it… pic.twitter.com/Yw4TPzyPGu
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) September 1, 2026

In WWE, The New Level as The New Day were former tag team champions. The group, which also included Big E, currently hold the record for most tag team title victories in company history.

Add us as a preferred source on Google