Kofi & Austin Creed Talk AEW Debut, Creative Freedom, Tony Khan & More | Inside The Ring

In terms of being able to go out and do what it is that you want to do, there's not really a lot of restriction. And that's really exciting, you know, to know that if you have a passion, you can go out there and follow it without worrying about, you know, someone telling you that you can't do it for whatever reason. Yeah, Tony is very much, you know, he wants people to flourish. From what I can tell, he wants people to flourish in all ways and follow their passions. And that's really cool to see somebody push for you that way when he's in that position that he's in, you know. Welcome to TMZ's Inside the Ring. I'm Branson Cork. I'm Roger Corral. And today we are on a new level. Gosh, that didn't work. We on a new level. He likes it. I'm trying to get Branson to rap the whole song. But we are so lucky today. We have two guys that we love. Personally, we are massive fans of these guys. And to see them entering a new dawn, entering a new era of their careers. It was, well, I'll just say this. It brought a tear to my eye on Sunday. I had both eyes. You had both? Both eyes? Both eyes teared up, dude. Oh, I just had the one. Please welcome Kofi and Austin Creed, the new level. He had to specify. It was just the one. He went off and all the way cried. I mean, come on, you know. I'm sure you guys have heard of this. People like Branson and I have been fans forever. Everyone grew up with you guys. A bunch of people, I'm sure, have come up to you guys and told you that. Did you guys have tears in your eyes? I didn't have any tears in my eyes. It was very just like a weird, surreal feeling for me. Just like a weird, like a dream, you know? It was like, I just, throughout the whole entire day, seeing people that we haven't seen in a long time. Seeing people that we've watched on TV that we haven't actually met. Seeing, you know what I mean? Like, you know, Tony Khan is here. He's super excited about wrestling, you know? It was just a really, really strange day. And only now is it really actually settling in. Because even, you know, after All In, we were back on the plane the next day. And then back home. And then home for a little bit. And now we're back on the road going to Dynamite to Texas tomorrow or tonight. Today. Everything is a blur. But yeah, it was a great, it was definitely really emotional because it was a situation where we bettered ourselves, you know? And we didn't know 100%, right? Like, even though you say in your mind this is gonna happen, you manifest and you affirm and you make sure that you're in the right state of mind to make things happen. There's always a chance that it might not happen. We didn't really actually know. But it happened, you know? And we believed in ourselves. We bettered ourselves. And here we are. Yeah. I, Kof, I haven't talked to you about this. But, so there weren't, there weren't tears on my eyes during the entrance. When I went back and watched it the next morning, I couldn't hear while we were out there. I was, it was too hype. We were, we were too on. But they actually announced me as Awesome Austin Creed. And that's my, like, original wrestling name. And so to hear that in that arena, bro, I was talking about it yesterday. I watched it again. And it was my old tag team partner, who's actually married to Lily Garcia. I texted him or he texted me and he was like, man, that's pretty cool. I lost it again. I'm like, it's just, it's one of those things where that, that moment has so much attached to it. And the biggest one being that every single time we have believed in ourselves, every single time that we've bet on ourselves, it's worked out. We've made the right choices throughout wrestling. We have done our best to be good to everyone that we've crossed paths with. We have loved this business. We have loved the industry. We love so much about it. And now we get the chance to be in AEW, to come out at Wembley, to have new level by A$AP Ferg bumping through the speakers. And they said my OG wrestling name for when I was 17 years old. What? Like, I'm going to be 40 on Friday. Wow. Happy birthday. Thank you. Yeah. And so that's, that's, that's like the birthday present from 40 year old me to 17 year old me. I'm going to get, it's like we did it, dude. My biggest question is, and you talked about being on the plane again, right afterwards. I want to talk about the plane into London because I am so curious about this. How did no one spot you? How did you guys hide? Walk us through that. Can you tell us? Yeah. I just had a jacket on with a hood and I had a durag on because my braids and a baseball hat with that. And then like the little mask and sunglasses. We're good. Wow. But honestly, it's just the hood would have worked. Like, yeah, I was in a similar attire, but different. I was also wearing sweatpants and a hoodie, but it was bright green. Like, like Tiffany, Tiffany green, you know, blue, whatever it was. And I'm just like, what am I doing? I'm like, I'm supposed to be incognito, but I don't, I don't do that very well at all. No, luckily I didn't see, I didn't see anybody or if they saw me, they didn't say that they did. But then our hotel was also like 45 minutes away from where everybody else was staying. I think all the fans were already at Wembley and in that area. So and then people had already come in, right? Like, I think they've been here. They had been in Europe an entire week. So yeah, we got there a little later than everybody else. Wow. That's crazy. It's funny. We had a, we had Kayla Becker here in the studio a few weeks ago and we asked her about you guys. And she said she loves you guys. And she was like, those guys are natural leaders. She can't imagine a previous locker room without you guys. And she said something about everyone that meets you guys is always super impressed. She's never heard a bad thing about you guys. Not a single incident. I want to know, is there pressure to be nice? I feel like you guys, you guys can't mess up, man. Ow, my goodness. What do you mean pressure to be nice? Roger, what the hell? What the heck, man? Are you good? I'm just asking questions. You okay? I feel like that's just, that's just how we move. Like the way that wrestling was explained to me when I was coming up, it's like, this is a fraternity, like, and these are your brothers and sisters, like brothers and bumps, you know? And so, yeah, I, you love wrestling. Like I love wrestling. So we're clearly friends. Well, you know, because there's always, again, there's this reputation that you guys have that you guys are, again, the best people that anyone can meet. I feel like even with fans that I meet, everyone feels like a connection to you guys without even meeting you. And I don't know if that comes with a certain pressure, even when you go to fan conventions and meet people. I could imagine when you show up to a new locker room, you know, there's expectations that people have about you just based on stories that they've heard. It sounds like you're saying this because you're like, hey, I don't really get it. Like, I'm talking to them now and it doesn't really seem like, you know, it's all good, man. But we, we, we take, we take a lot of pride in just like being human beings at the end of the day. Like, we're all just human beings, you know, what we get to do to be able to travel the world, to be able to have matches, to be able to go to these different countries and to threaten to ground kids in France and to tell, you know, kids in Japan that I'm going to come into the crowd and I'm going to, you know, you better listen to me because I'm going to go, well, what are we doing? You know what I mean? Like, how can you be mad? How can you be angry? How can you be in a bad mood? You know what I'm saying? Like, this is such a blessing to be able to have this career. And now to be able to do it with AEW is even crazier because the amount of talent on the roster is insane, especially within the tag team division. Like that's, you know, it's, it's going to be so much fun. We, we sit there, we watch AEW matches and we're jumping out of our seats because we feel like fans again. You know what I mean? Like we feel like they're, they're doing things that you shouldn't be able to do. The passion just, it, it shines through and into all the work and all, all the matches and then being there backstage, it was the same thing. Everybody just really, it felt like a family vibe and it felt like we fit right in with the family. Everyone was super cool, super welcoming. So yeah, man, we just all went and treated people with respect, treated people with kindness. And that's the way that life, life should be. Regardless of what you do, wherever you go, you should always be kind to people. Who approached you guys first when you, when you got to the locker room? So we were like in our, in our own little area cause we were, we were hiding. So we got there, what, Saturday to, to go and see some stuff. And I want to say, I think the first person we walked by was Jack Perry. The first person that I walked by, I think, but then in the locker room, like when we got there on Sunday, we were told by security, like Cesaro wants to come and talk to you or sorry, Claudia wants to come and talk to you. I was like, yeah, yeah. We want to see him too. But it's really cool because when we, you know, got in the room with, with all the guys that are in the match, it's like, man, this is a ton of people. And I know some of them and this is dope. Get to say hi to everybody, you know, dap up with people I haven't seen before, get to shake hands with, and then meet people that I've never met before, but I know who they are. So it just doesn't, it doesn't seem like, like the, the new kid at school mentality as far as like, oh, I don't know anybody or nobody wants to talk to me. Everybody was so pumped that we were there. And there's, there's something about that feeling of just knowing you're wanted, knowing people are excited that you're there and being able to, to bring that type of energy to the room is, it's awesome. And it's nice feeling wanted Branson. I know that I can't even imagine. But you said everybody was great backstage and everything. So after the match at Wembley, you guys go backstage. I'm sure everybody was approaching you. How about Tony? How was that interaction? And in that conversation with him after he saw you guys and what you guys did incredibly by the way that night. Hey, thank you, man. Yeah. Tony has been amazing the entire time. So enthusiastic and so passionate. And you know, it really like, that's what, when they talk about the energy starts up at the top that he, he has so much energy and so much passion throughout the entire duration of the show. He's jumping out of his seat. You know, he's like really getting into all the matches, like super excitement, you know, big hugs. And it feels good to be able to deliver for someone like that, you know, for him to believe in us enough to, to bring us aboard and be a part of something special that they built over here to be able to like, let him know that he made the right decision. It it's good. You know, it feels, it feels great. It feels validating in a lot of different ways. And it feels like we're doing exactly what we're supposed to do. Incredible. I mean, I mean, I really don't want to get into too much of the weeds about this. And I know you guys spoke a little bit about this on Errol Hawani and everything and in your time in the past, but I already, are you guys seeing kind of like a new, a new sunrise and in terms of, of what you can do, which I guess my question is, you couldn't do some things before maybe in WWE, but now in AEW, are you kind of seeing a new horizon of creative freedom and things like that? Is that excite you? Yeah, definitely. You know, over the years, we've done a lot of stuff in the video game industry. So I feel extremely lucky to be able to have like not one, but two passions. So, you know, pro wrestling and video games and the ability to do stuff in that space in the way that I want to do it, knowing that I will be the one reaping the fruits of my labor as that tree grows and possibly being able to bring other people in the locker room into that, to bear that fruit as well. It's a crazy feeling because we have so many ideas and so many things that we want to do and try and see if we're good at. So to be able to have, I guess, like, like the gates kind of open to allowing that space in your brain to, to get out and stretch its legs some, I think is going to be really fulfilling. And at the end of the day, that's, I think one of, if not the most important things about you going about your day. Do you see already kind of some change in that sense? Yeah, absolutely. And that was really one of the things too, like from the jump, even when we were negotiating with the contract and everything like that, being able to, you know, there's a lot of things in there that are very, I get player friendly, right? Like we're wrestler friendly, you know, in terms of being able to go out and do what it is that you want to do. There's not really a lot of restriction and that's really exciting, you know, to know that if you have a passion, you can go out there and follow it without having, without worrying about, you know, someone telling you that you can't do it for whatever reason. Yeah. Tony is very much, you know, he wants people to flourish from what I can tell. He wants people to flourish in all ways and follow their passions. And that's really cool to see somebody push for you that way when he's in that position that he's in, you know? So, yeah, we're very excited about being able to take on all these new opportunities. And then even with this past, like our hiatus, right, the past like 90 days or so, there's a lot of things that we've been getting involved in. I've been starting to take like voice acting lessons and to know that that doesn't have to stop or be put on hold because the results are going to be allowed. You know what I'm saying? It's cool to be able to keep on with that progression. So that's cool, too, because, you know, work is cool, but being able to level up in life as well is important. And to be able to find things that you're passionate about, you know, not having any restrictions on that is a cool thing for sure. That's fire, bro. And now that, you know, we're in a new era, I want to know straight up waffles over pancakes, right? No, it's all the same batter, bro. What do you mean? Come on, man. He said, what do you mean? I'm trying to drive a wedge in the breakfast. Just eat what you eat, you know? I don't care what you put in your stomach and your mouth, you know, I'm going to eat what I eat. You eat what you eat. You know, you like waffles, I like pancakes. We can still have a good breakfast together. I know, especially since there's the new Chick-fil-A waffle sandwich. Oh, dude, that's the best sandwich. It's so good. I haven't tried it yet. We're not Chick-fil-A sponsors. Kofi, a question for you. Obviously, the ending of your match, having that elimination that you did and everything, a lot of focus on that. How is the chemistry doing that with Princess Nana? Oh, man, it is so crazy. So this is, I don't think I've ever told this, but initially, you know, when I first debuted as an onscreen character, I was Kofi Kingston from Kingston, Jamaica. And people on MySpace were like really mad at me. Jamaicans were mad at me. And then Ghanaians were also mad at me because I wasn't represented. They knew that Kofi, it's like Mike in Ghana. You know what, Kofi, if your name is Kofi, you're from Ghana. We know that. How come you're representing Jamaica? You don't want our culture or whatever. But one of the big reasons that I went away from a Ghanaian character was because Prince Nana was already doing it in ROH. So I was like, I don't want to just come out and be like another guy. I got to do something different that hasn't been done. So he and I have crossed paths a little bit throughout the duration of my career. So to have it come around and to have him be involved in an elimination spot, to actually have it work, you know, it actually worked. You know, we actually ended up winning the match after all these years. You know, it was really cool. He's been really awesome. Just a great personality, very knowledgeable about the business. I think underrated in a lot of different ways. But yeah, really cool to be alongside of him. It's just crazy how everything always comes back around. I love that. Austin, I was just watching a clip of you singing with Claudio a while back was it called The Club? You guys were singing a song together. The Party. That's what it was. Yeah. There's so many funny clips like that. And obviously, you know, when you guys started up, up, down, down, it was such a big deal. And Kenny Omega just did his entrance modeled after My Hero Academia. I want to know your thoughts on getting that influence out there, potentially getting back on the ground and launching something like that again. Bro, it feels good because again, like I said before, having more than one passion and being able to smash them together into a space where people are now regularly doing this and leaning into that more like anime video game side of themselves. And I think anime, video games, wrestling, we're all the same kind of nerd. You know what I mean? So seeing all of those cultures mix into one essentially has been probably my favorite part of my career. If there's like, what are you excited to see the next generation keep doing? I'm like this. Super nerds. Like, it's awesome. So one thing about Kenny's All Might stuff, like if you realize what he's wearing, if you watch My Hero. He's passing the torch, bro. He's passing the torch. Yeah, man. It's crazy. Like the anime to wrestling storytelling, the parallels between everything are so dope because there's so much lore and it's so good. And if you don't get it, if you don't get it from the anime side, you still understand it from the wrestling side. But if you understand it from both, now it's even more of an intense show for you because you're like, oh, I see it and I feel this and it's genuine. And these people love this. So I love to see it. Love that. So I know you guys spoke about the timeline already with Ariel about, you know, coming into AEW and everything like that. But from the get go, were you guys both always on the same page in what you both wanted? Or was it a lot of conversations between you two? We're here now and this is what we're doing. Or was it always kind of like we're going to debut together? Or was that different in the beginning? Oh, no, it was always going to be together no matter what. If I can't do it with Austin, then I don't know if I want to do it. So the funny thing is, and it's funny now because we're employed, but it's like, you know, I was like, hey, you know, probably about a week or two weeks into the process. I said, dude, I would never wish for anyone to lose their job or to be unemployed. The fact that you and I are going through this together, I'm so grateful. It just made everything so much easier to know that we are doing this together, whether we wrestle or not. You know, I couldn't imagine having gone through all of this alone. You know, to have someone to talk to who knows exactly what you're going through because they're going through the same thing, because they want the same things as you. It makes the process a lot more fun and it makes it a lot easier. So, yeah, we've we always talk about like we mentioned this on the Ariel Hawani show, too, is that we have a hive mind. You know, we're always thinking the same things. We're always on the same page, same thoughts. And this was no different. So, yeah, it was always it was always going to be together. For sure. Wrestling wise and otherwise. I love that. Branson, if I leave, are you coming with me? No. Hey, man, times are tough. Times are tough in entertainment, my friend. You guys brought up Prince Nana. And, you know, aside from you guys being a major tag team, you guys are the trio champions with Swerve Strickland. And I don't know if you guys know, but this guy has been intense for the past year. This guy broke into Hangman's house at one point and did a promo on his baby. Like, you know, like like Harry Potter. I want to know what that relationship is like. I want to know if you guys have been able to mellow this guy out. How's that going? Oh, you're going to swerve, go swerve. You know, you know, you know, you know, he's going to swerve. He's going to cut a promo on that baby. But he is he is what he says he is. He's the most dangerous man in AEW, you know. And when we have the opportunity presented to us to be in a match where we get the chance to essentially beat what six other trios teams, which all have tag teams within them, that means we on our first night beat six of AEW's finest teams in the tag team division, which should shoot us up the ladder a little bit. So overall, I think everybody wins in this situation. I think everybody does win. It's so funny. When you first came out and did your debut, you grabbed the camera. I want to know, was that planned? Like, that's one of the coolest shots I've ever seen, Austin. You know what? That's why we do it. I think this is I have a lot of talks with myself while I'm on the treadmill and then I'll usually end up saying, hey, I have this idea for this thing and I'm going to flush this out. So then I'll call him a few days later. Like, cool. OK, so what if it's like this camera shot and we do this and then we're over here and then we do that? So that was one of the main ones in my head of what I wanted us to do, because it's like I haven't seen people do that. And there's there's there's more coming. So just keep there's more coming. Very specifically, like when when like video games come out, I really love being able to put whoever on that tag team entrance. But because of the entrance, you know exactly who it is. Yeah, like little mannerisms or little camera cuts. And that level of detail is very important to the both of us. That always has been. And I think that's been one of the secrets to our success is that we're we think about this stuff constantly. And to the high mind point, like we'll text each other and we'll end up texting at the same time. Different words, but like the same idea. And so it's like when one of us has the idea, the other two know like, oh, this is this is this is destiny. This is what it's supposed to be. Love that. Speaking of video games, I want to know. I feel like you guys are experts in this. What's the best controller? Xbox, PlayStation or Nintendo? Easy Xbox like this. Oh, wow. I mean, you know, I consider myself a person who can adapt to anything. You know what I'm saying? So I'll play Xbox or PlayStation. I think in the locker room we had PlayStation overall, right? Yeah, I have very small hands. You probably can't. My hands are very small. So sometimes that Xbox controller, it's hard to press. It is clunky. It's a little, you know, a milligram for the left. It's a little bit difficult. The PlayStation one fits a little bit better in my hand, but I'll play either one then. I can tell, Austin, you're a PC guy. First off, why? Why would you say that, dude? Because people who game and twitch and all that stuff, like they're PC gamers. That's true. I am a PC guy, but you were saying the best controller. It's easily the Sega Saturn 3D controller. Ah, not even close, man. I don't even know what that is. That's the best controller. Well, the console wars are over, just so everybody knows. Console wars ended a long, long time ago. The consoles are basically dying too. South Park ended that, so it's all good. South Park ended that. Are you guys going to play GTA 6 when it comes out? Of course. We've been waiting for so long, you know what I'm saying? You know what's funny? I stopped playing video games for a while, and I don't know how to get back in, dude. Maybe this is it. Like, I just can't get back in. I don't think you can. No, GTA will get you back in. It will. There'll be a lot to do in there, man. Obviously, that's one of the games where it's like, you don't even have to play the actual game. You can spend hours and hours just running around through the city. There's something you can do now. You can take care of Lucia. Start the car or something like that. You have to have the keys to the car. I don't know, something. I don't know. I will see what it all is. It's been a long time waiting and anticipating, but that's going to take up a lot of hours. Not of my time, because I have kids, you know, and they don't allow me to play video games because we're always running around doing things for them. Sure. Yeah, a lot of people are going to be playing them for a long time. How are you guys going to deal with the increasing Don Callis family presence? It's a lot of people, dude. It's a big family. A lot of big people. We're used to it. I don't know. I mean, I mean, I heard those family dinners are like on another level. They like we just had Don Callis on last week and he said like anything I can imagine. It's beyond that. Whatever that means, I don't know. I feel like I got the long table like at the last supper. Yes. Yeah, that's essentially it. Every seat is filled. Are we comparing Don Callis to Jesus right now? I know I'm close. I said the table. You know, speaking of Don Callis, there are a lot of factions. Do you guys consider yours? I don't know. Is a trio considered a faction? How does this work? The wrong person to ask. Yeah, you're right. Do you guys do you guys consider yourselves? It's so fresh. We don't even know, bro. We don't even know what's going on, man. There are a lot of factions. But this is, again, one of the big reasons that we came to AEW is because of all the factions they have and specifically all the tag teams that they have. You know what I mean? Just the tag teams are plenty. It is. It just makes you salivate of the possibilities that you can have with in terms of matches and the talent that they have over there. Over here, over here, over here. I get to say that. I say I'm still getting used to it. But yeah, man, the level of talent is incredible. Yeah, we I don't I don't know. What are we? I mean, we're a trio. We're the trio champions. That's what we are. That's what they are. Do you guys see your style changing because of your now working with Swerve, like maybe more aggressive now? Oh, that's something that we'll have to see. I feel like, honestly, we're in a position where you probably see us get a little bit grimy. Put some extra knuckles to face crazy. Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, we really appreciate you guys coming on. I do have one last warning for you. Oh, boy. Just look out for Leo Rush backstage. Oh, wow. The rain on the rain. The rain, bro. He knows the rain. You know, he's been here twice and I still don't know how he gets in. Yeah, got that car in his mouth or whatever is in his mouth. I don't know. I had the tar in my mouth, and I can tell you it's not good. Why did you have the tar in your mouth? I had him here a few weeks ago, and he I was possessed by the rain. I'll just say that. Oh, wow. Umbrella hat. Yes, I had the umbrella hat on. Yes, nice. I'd like to not continue talking about it. Yeah, yeah. But Kofi, Austin, we really appreciate you guys coming on. We are really excited for you again. You guys are, we're huge, huge fans of yours. And thank you so much. Thank you. Been a pleasure. Thank you guys. You're gonna kill it. Bet you do.