AEW's Austin Creed Talks New Day Heel Turn In WWE, Explains Where It Went Wrong

It's hard to believe that the group who once preached the "power of positivity" would eventually pull off one of the most shocking heel turns in professional wrestling history, as Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods' betrayal of Big E in December 2024 was a moment that nobody thought would ever happen. Immediately, the New Day felt like the hottest act in wrestling, but their heel run didn't seem to be a priority for WWE, with there being a lack of creation direction for Kingston and Woods the following year.

During a recent interview on "The Ariel Helwani Show," Woods, now known as Austin Creed in AEW, reflected on the New Day's heel turn, claiming that the initial segment with Big E was great, but noticed that WWE wasn't focused on growing tag team wrestling.

"It felt like we got a really cool opportunity to tell that story with E. Being able to be in that segment was incredible. And the thing that I really enjoyed about it is they kind of just gave us time to do it and they let us put it together and bring that to the screen which I thought was received really well," he explained. "The show just shifted some, a little bit less of tag team stuff on there and so we don't have a ton of big tag team stories on the show at that point. So, we're not as involved as we wanted to be ... So, being able to focus on tag team wrestling now is an incredible feeling because that's where the heart and soul of this is, is tag team wrestling."

After being asked to take a pay cut, Kingston and Woods, now known as Kofi and Creed, chose to leave WWE and just debuted in AEW this past weekend at All In: London as The New Level.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Ariel Helwani Show" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.