{"id":51491,"date":"2026-09-04T23:01:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T04:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=51491"},"modified":"2026-09-06T23:01:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T04:01:41","slug":"a-new-level-of-disappointment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=51491","title":{"rendered":"A New Level of disappointment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

First of all, I\u2019m a big fan of Austin Creed and Kofi, formerly known as Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston and The New Day.\u00a0 They are incredible workers, seem like amazingly positive personalities, and in the few lucky interactions I\u2019ve had with Creed at past Dragon-cons, he\u2019s always been chill.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the WWE basically forced them to quit, I was definitely and immediately on the side of Creed and Kofi, because they were clearly being disrespected, insulted, and getting the rawest of deals.\u00a0 And I use the accusation that they were forced to quit, because that\u2019s precisely what a company is trying to do to an employee(s) when they demand that they take a paycut allegedly between 50-75%, lest they be released from their contracts and it makes me wonder why the fuck contracts exist if they can be treated like at-will employment, and it continues to feed my general resentment of the whole progression of TKO owning the WWE and how in spite of his horrific history, thinking Vince McMahon still had his superior attributes when it came to running a professional wrestling promotion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obviously, everyone knew that they were far from finished as far as their careers were concerned, and that it was not an if, but when, they were going to migrate over to AEW.\u00a0 There was never any question, no hypothetical going to Japan for a shake, even though Austin Creed is a giant nerdy weeb-type who would probably love it out there, no pulling a Karrion Kross or Matt Cardona and going the route of indies, in case the E would ever want to scoop them back up on a moment\u2019s notice.\u00a0 They were going to end up in AEW, and the only question was, when?<\/span><\/p>\n

Well when had arrived, and they were unveiled as Swerve Strickland\u2019s (not-so) mystery partners <\/em>at their All-In show in London, and as is often times the case for most former E talent who make a splashy arrival in AEW, they immediately were given gold, in the form of winning the AEW Trios Championship.<\/span><\/p>\n

As is often times the case, I do think the formula is a little overused, trite and a little eye-roll-ey, but at the same time I know these guys are human beings and their livelihoods are partially tied to their on-screen successes, so I\u2019m still happy that they\u2019re given some shots of Nitro<\/a> upon arrival.<\/span><\/p>\n

But in spite of my general love for the performers, I can\u2019t help but feel disappointment in the package that they are presented as in AEW, and I\u2019m very curious to know which party had the lion\u2019s share of responsibility for going in the direction they went, between Creed & Kofi and Tony Khan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe New Level,\u201d just makes me kind of cringe and disappointment face<\/a> meme just reading it.\u00a0 It seems like really low-hanging fruit to swap out a word in their old name, but otherwise keep the general presentation and the brand exactly as their prior iteration.<\/span><\/p>\n

See, this is why I want to know who was in the driver\u2019s seat when it came to their AEW branding, because it will help me gauge how much I feel like I can criticize, because if this were all Creed and Kofi\u2019s doing, I just feel not mad just disappointed<\/a><\/em>, but if it were primarily at the behest of Tony Khan, it\u2019s I knew it, that fucking money mark dork<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless though, as much AEW wants to (constantly) proclaim that they\u2019re an alternative to the WWE, they sure lean on WWE property when it comes to often times not really changing much about the presentations of former E talents that make the switch.\u00a0 I get that there\u2019s a small air of deception at trying to hook the less-educated fans that don\u2019t really know the differences in promotions as much as they know of the existence of specific talents, but in this day and age, pro-wrestling fandom is so dedicated by those who follow it, that such a notion doesn\u2019t seem necessary anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n

I feel as if any time a worker has the opportunity to jump ship, they also have the opportunity to really repackage and restart themselves as performers, and regardless of if it\u2019s AEW to WWE or WWE to AEW, it always seems like a disappointment when they basically end up being the same character, but just under a different name.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hey, I can (often) be wrong too and sometimes it just works, but there are plenty of characters out there where some degree of change is necessary, it doesn\u2019t happen, and then the same creative walls that handcuffed them in one promotion, just carries over to their new home.<\/span><\/p>\n

But getting back to The New Level, the fact that such potential change was limited to a single fucking word seems kind of lazy in my opinion, and I feel like someone could have done better, creatively.\u00a0 Like, if the name weren\u2019t already taken by an eSports franchise, something like Unicorns of Love<\/a> is just so campy and extra, that I feel like Creed and Kofi could really have some fun with a name like that or similar.\u00a0 Plus, it keeps the merchandising vein of unicorn shit open to them, and lord knows just how much useless unicorn shit they moved under the E banner.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of the day, it\u2019s just a name, but AEW really relies hard on the grand entrances of incoming talent, because lord knows they have had a tendency to forget about old toys when shiny new ones become available, and although I don\u2019t imagine a lot of former WWE guys mind occasionally getting forgotten in catering, while they enjoy a lesser workload and get paid, some of them never get back on television, save for the occasional too-many-men tag team match.<\/span><\/p>\n

But as fans of Austin Creed and Kofi the human beings, I want better for them, because I want them to enjoy all the successes they are deserving of, and I look forward to their inevitable clashes against the Young Bucks and Creed\u2019s inevitable showdown with Kenny Omega.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First of all, I\u2019m a big fan of Austin Creed and Kofi, formerly known as Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston and The New Day.\u00a0 They are incredible workers, seem like amazingly positive personalities, and in the few lucky interactions I\u2019ve had with Creed at past Dragon-cons, he\u2019s always been chill. When the WWE basically forced … Continue reading A New Level of disappointment<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[131,100,83,54,49,55],"class_list":["post-51491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-branding","tag-comparison","tag-observations","tag-wrestling","tag-wtf","tag-wwe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51493,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51491\/revisions\/51493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}