The Extra Cost Of WWE Letting New Day (New Level) Go To AEW

AEW

WWE’s decision to try and renegotiate The New Day’s contracts – with a more than 50% pay cut – is one that has elicited both anger and confusion from fans, who continue to ponder why the company would disrespect two veterans who have given their all over the past two decades?

The former Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston – now Austin Creed & Kofi – unsurprisingly opted to depart WWE rather than take their new contract offer, much like another WWE vet Sheamus reportedly did before his exit from the company in July.

According to Austin Creed, none of WWE’s true higher-ups even reached out to thank he and Kofi for their years of service after their decision to depart; summing up the ruthless nature of WWE – which somehow seems even more cold under the TKO era than it did before.

WWE’s loss is AEW’s gain however, as The New Level have now arrived in Tony Khan’s company, and are already holding championship gold.

While Austin Creed and Kofi’s contributions to AEW inside the ring will be considerable over the coming years, they also add a ton of value behind the scenes, as we will now get into.

UpUpDownDown Lies Dormant, But AEW Games Could Be Set For A Major Shot In The Arm

One of the more unsung benefits of WWE keeping Austin Creed around in the company was the UpUpDownDown gaming channel on YouTube.

While UpUpDownDown is WWE property, the project was Austin Creed’s baby and he was always front and center in whatever content was posted by the channel – and Kofi was among the most regular guests to feature alongside him.

The channel was more than just an excuse to get WWE stars playing some video games together, it also played a big part in promoting each year’s entry in the WWE 2K franchise, so much so, that Creed and Tyler Breeze’s popular Battle of the Brands GM Mode series helped lead to the revival of the MyGM Mode from WWE 2K22 onwards.

While WWE obviously have more than enough revenue streams that they don’t necessarily need UpUpDownDown, don’t think they haven’t realized the impact letting Creed go has on the gaming side of their business.

Not only did WWE re-sign Tyler Breeze after his release so he could continue to feature as a part of UpUpDownDown, but they reportedly attempted to do the same with Creed after his WWE exit in May.

AEW have their own gaming channel: AEW Games, which very much follows the UpUpDownDown blueprint of having the company’s talent showing off their gaming chops against each other.

Much like UpUpDownDown, that channel has gone months without a new upload, but with Creed’s experience in the YouTube space it could be rebooted and grow significantly.

Fans will be interested in seeing Creed reuniting with many of the familiar ex-WWE faces who once featured on UpUpDownDown way back when, most obvious of all being DaParty’s Claudio Castagnoli and Adam Cole.

With Tyler Breeze now also no longer under WWE contract, there’s nothing stopping a full reunion of the gaming foursome – something that would attract new eyes and subscribers to AEW Games.

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• AEW
• wwe
• New Day
• kofi kingston
• Xavier Woods
• kofi
• austin creed
• The New Level
• New Level

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