WWE’s gamble keeps looking worse after New Level’s AEW arrival

Life at the top is hard enough, only to watch WWE and TKO find a way to make it harder.

The top brand in sports or business is easy to punch up at because everyone else is the underdog trying to carve or cement their place in a respective industry. You just never want to make it easier for your competition or give the customers a reason to second-guess how they feel about you. 

There is no getting around that how WWE and TKO are said to have handled things with the New Day is a less-than-ideal look for a company already presented as cold-blooded about their bottom line, from ads all over the mat (you can pay $250-$300 to put your own name on it, too), Club WWE, commercial-filled premium live events and sky-high ticket prices. 

Austin Creed (l.), Swerve Strickland (c.) and Kofi (r.) at AEW All In on Aug. 30, 2026. Photography by Ricky Havlik

Kofi and Austin Creed only threw another log on that fire when discussing their WWE departure on “The Ariel Helwani Show” on Tuesday, two days after debuting for AEW to kick off the All In main card at Wembley Stadium.