Now in AEW and free and clear to talk about anything, Austin Creed and Kofi of The New Level have not been shy about the reasons they decided to leave WWE earlier this year and arrive in AEW at All In 2026. And while the main reasons appear to be WWE's request that they take a significant pay cut, as well as Creed and Kofi's desire to test themselves against AEW's tag division, Creed has cited a more personal reason for the move. Appearing on "The Ariel Helwani Show," Creed revealed that he knew it was time to depart WWE after he had a conversation with his son over a situation where Creed and his family ignored interacting with his former New Day stablemate, Big E."He [my son] was like 'Why didn't he [Big E] talk to us?'" Creed said. "And I was like 'What?' He goes 'Why didn't he talk to us?' I'm like 'What are you talking about?' He's like 'You talk to Kofi.' I'm like 'Yeah.' He's like 'You talk to E?' I'm like 'Yeah.' He goes 'But he didn't talk to us.'"He was remembering at Mania, because we were 'Grrr' [with E] at Mania, we walked past E on the red carpet, and I, like, pulled my family along. He's three [my son]. I said 'I cannot do that. We cannot do that. We have to go. That's not okay.' So being able to leave and be in a space where we will never do that again feels awesome."Creed later clarified that he no longer wanted to kayfabe with his family, especially when it came to Kofi and Big E, and wanted to set an example for his son regarding how one treats his brothers. And even though the encounter was months ago, Creed was still often catching his emotions over it."I'll tell you, it bothered me in the moment, but when that happened, that shook me to my freakin' core," Creed said. "So we won't do that again."If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Ariel Helwani Show" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
