A WWE Hall of Famer believes Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods would need to be brought into AEW as an established tag team for the move to work, but questions whether the company currently has room for them.
Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, now working as Kofi and Austin Creed, departed WWE on May 2 after rejecting restructured contracts that reportedly included significant pay cuts. Their respective runs with the company lasted 20 and 16 years, with their 90-day non-compete periods expiring at the beginning of August.
Speaking on Grilling JR, Jim Ross was asked whether he expects the longtime New Day partners to eventually join AEW.
Rather than predicting whether a deal will happen, Ross focused on AEW’s roster and whether there is currently a meaningful position available for them as a team.
“Well, you got to make sure you got a spot on your roster for a team. It’s different than signing a single, so you got to have space. You got to have a place. They got to have their quote-unquote spot. So as a team, not as two singles.”
Ross believes Kingston and Creed would be at their most effective if AEW kept them together, although he questioned whether the current state of the roster would allow that.
“For them to be as effective as they could be, they need to come in as a team, but I don’t know that that’s feasible. It all depends on who’s here, who’s hot, who’s doing what they’re doing.”
The WWE Hall of Famer reiterated that finding a high-level position for Kingston and Creed as a team could ultimately be the biggest obstacle to bringing them into AEW.
Ross was also asked how WWE approached signing established tag teams during his time overseeing talent relations.
According to Ross, WWE would sign teams when there were available positions on the card, but the longer-term objective was often to identify wrestlers capable of becoming successful singles performers.
“We hired tag teams to find singles, and we knew that teams like the Hardys were less likely to break up. I didn’t think that was going to happen with the Dudleys, but it did.”
Ross pointed towards Bubba Ray Dudley as someone who went on to enjoy singles success before also highlighting Edge and Christian as a team WWE recognised had significant individual potential.
Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods Have Not Announced Plans For Their Post-WWE Wrestling Careers
Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods have not announced where they intend to wrestle next following their WWE departures.
The pair released an animated short titled Daybreak on July 29, showing two unicorns escaping from a circus and leaving their horns behind. The video was widely interpreted as signalling the end of their New Day presentation following their WWE exits.
Big E, the third member of The New Day, has not competed since suffering a serious neck injury in 2022.
AEW has already added another established tag team following the recent round of WWE departures. The Motor City Machine Guns signed with the promotion and made their debut on the July 30 edition of Collision in Detroit.
AEW’s next major event will be All In at Wembley Stadium on August 30, but there has been no official announcement regarding Kingston or Creed potentially joining the company.
