Jim Ross Weighs In On Kofi Kingston, Austin Creed To AEW

Jim Ross says he sees plenty of appeal in Kofi Kingston and Austin Creed potentially landing in AEW, but he’s not convinced there’s currently a clear runway for them as a tag team.

Kingston and Creed, known during their two decades combined in WWE as members of The New Day, left the company on May 2 after declining restructured contracts that reportedly included steep pay cuts. Kingston’s WWE tenure ran twenty years, while Creed’s spanned sixteen. Their 90-day non-compete clauses expired at the start of August, clearing the way for them to sign elsewhere, though neither has announced a next destination.

Asked about the AEW speculation on his Grilling JR podcast, Ross didn’t question their ability — he questioned the roster math. “You got to make sure you got a spot on your roster for a team,” he said. “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 added that keeping the duo intact would maximize their impact, but acknowledged AEW’s current tag landscape complicates things. “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. And I know Tony Khan has got a sharp eye, and they have great charisma, those two guys or three guys, so it’d be interesting to see.” He admitted he simply didn’t have the answer, but reiterated that “the sticker might be you got to have a high-level spot on your roster for a team, not two singles.”

Drawing on his years running WWE talent relations, Ross explained that teams were historically signed with an eye toward eventually producing singles stars, since that’s typically where the real money was made. He cited the Hardys, the Dudleys, and Edge and Christian as examples — with Edge and Christian in particular viewed early on as destined for singles success despite their chemistry as a team.

Speculation about Kingston and Creed’s next move picked up after the pair released an animated short called Daybreak on July 29, featuring imagery many took as a symbolic farewell to their New Day characters. The duo’s former stablemate, Big E, remains sidelined from in-ring competition following the serious neck injury he sustained in 2022.

AEW has already made a notable tag team addition this summer, bringing in the Motor City Machine Guns, who debuted on Collision in Detroit on July 30. With AEW All In set for Wembley Stadium on August 30, the promotion’s tag division is very much in the spotlight — and if Kingston and Creed do eventually sign, Ross’s comments highlight the real question Tony Khan and company would need to sort out: whether there’s a genuine spot waiting for them as a team, not just as two talented singles competitors.