Austin Creed and Kofi Kingston, the core of WWE's New Day tag team for a decade, departed the company after refusing revised contracts that included salary reductions. The pair debuted at AEW All In in Arlington under the name New Level, appearing without advance promotion during the multi-team ladder match that closed the card. Combined WWE tenure for the two performers exceeds 30 years.
WWE confirmed the exits on internal communications dated the week prior to All In. The revised contracts, presented in late June, featured base salary cuts averaging 18-22% according to two people familiar with the terms. The reductions were framed as "market adjustments" following WWE's transition into the TKO Holdings structure, which merged WWE and UFC operating groups under a single P&L in September 2023. Creed and Kingston declined the terms. Their previous deals, signed in 2021, carried annual guarantees in the $2.1-2.4 million range before merchandise royalties.
The timing matters for two reasons. First, the departure lands six weeks before WWE's traditional October contract review cycle, when a second cohort of mid-card performers face similar renegotiations. Agents representing WWE talent have begun positioning AEW as the credible outside bid, a shift from 2022-2023 when Tony Khan's company was seen as overpaying for diminishing returns. AEW's All In gate in Arlington exceeded $6.2 million, the promotion's second-largest live event after Wembley, giving Khan room to add payroll without alarming Warner Bros. Discovery finance teams ahead of the media rights renewal window that opens in Q1 2025.
Second, Creed and Kingston are not developmental prospects or disgruntled veterans working out final dates. They are established, merch-moving performers with licensing footprints across WWE's gaming and toy partnerships. The New Day brand generated an estimated $11-14 million in combined merchandise and licensing revenue for WWE in 2023, per two executives with visibility into WWE's consumer products division. Losing that IP to a competitor—even if AEW's licensing infrastructure remains fractional compared to WWE's—creates a small but real margin problem for WWE's consumer products group, which has been tasked with delivering 7-9% annual growth under TKO's operating plan.
WWE has been recalibrating talent costs since the TKO merger closed. The company reduced its active roster by approximately 12% between Q4 2023 and Q2 2024, releasing performers whose downside guarantees exceeded algorithmic projections for their merchandise and gate contributions. The internal model, built by TKO's strategy team, weighs live event draws, merch sales per appearance, and social engagement against fully loaded compensation. Performers falling below a 0.78x return threshold receive revised offers or release paperwork. Creed and Kingston were above that line but not materially so, which explains why WWE extended new terms rather than simply releasing them.
AEW has been selective in 2024 after overextending payroll in prior years. The company added Creed and Kingston at rates believed to be in the $1.6-1.9 million range annually, below their WWE walk-away numbers but above AEW's historical mid-card band. The bet is that an established tag team with a decade of WWE television exposure can help stabilize AEW's inconsistent tag division, which has struggled to produce reliable pay-per-view undercard matches. New Level's debut drew a 0.42 rating in the advertiser demo during the All In broadcast, slightly above AEW's Q2 average but not a breakout number.
The broader implication is that WWE's cost discipline, imposed by TKO's operating model, has created an arbitrage window for AEW. If Warner Bros. Discovery renews AEW's media deal in the $180-200 million annual range—current negotiations are targeting that band—Khan will have budget to add three to five more mid-tier WWE defectors before the end of 2025. WWE, meanwhile, is projecting $250 million in annual cost efficiencies from the TKO integration, with talent expense reductions comprising roughly 22% of that target.
Watch for WWE's October contract cycle, when performers including Ricochet, Dolph Ziggler, and several NXT call-ups face renegotiations under the same algorithmic framework that triggered the Creed-Kingston exits. AEW's next U.S. pay-per-view, Full Gear in November, provides another insertion point for debuts if Khan continues adding talent. Warner Bros. Discovery's upfront presentations in Q1 2025 will clarify how much runway AEW has to sustain this strategy.
Creed and Kingston's agents began fielding inquiries from three other wrestling promotions within 48 hours of the AEW debut, suggesting the market for WWE-trained talent remains active despite broader entertainment industry cost pressures.
The takeaway
WWE's algorithmic pay cuts opened arbitrage window; AEW signed proven tag team below their WWE rate but above historical band, testing whether Warner renewal supports sustained talent poaching through 2025.
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