They’ve now made their AEW PPV and Dynamite debuts as The New Level, but many are still focused on the New Day’s exit from WWE back in May.
Asking the decorated tag team duo then going by Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods to take a pay cut was a topic of conversation from the first reports about New Day leaving WWE. But this renewed interest stems from Kofi telling Ariel Helwani the contracts they were asked to replace their existing ones with were for “more than 50%” less than they had been making.
Conrad Thompson stirred the pot again the morning after New Level’s Kofi and Austin Creed retained the AEW Trios titles they hold with Swerve Strickland on Dynamite last night (Sept. 2). On the latest Grilling JR, Thompson said:
“More than 90 days ago when we found out that New Day was no more in WWE, and there was lots of rumors and innuendo at the time that they were [offered] a 50 percent pay cut. The rumor and innuendo that I’ve heard is it was actually a 75 percent pay cut. And some of that was confirmed on an interview with Ariel Helwani. Now, they didn’t say 75, but that’s the number I’ve heard bandied around.”
f4wonline’s Bryan Alvarez was quick to respond to Thompson, writing:
New Day’s requested pay cut was not 75 percent. It was exactly what they said it was, which was just slightly more than 50 percent.
Personally, I’m not too hung up on the specifics. I understand why WWE wanted to shift New Day to a deal that more accurately reflected how they were being used, and I certainly understand Kofi and Creed telling them… “no”, especially since they know they be a lot more useful than how WWE would let them be.
But what about you, Cagesiders? Do you buy the almost 75% Thompson’s heard talk of? Does it change your feeling about the situation? Discuss below.
