About the Series: Shelby’s Wrestling Corner discusses wrestlers in AEW and WWE who made an impact over the last week. Whether it’s a cool move that made the crowd gasp or a promo that stuck with fans days later, this is a place to celebrate professional wrestling. This week, we will be looking at performances from Aug. 28, 2026, to Sept. 3, 2026.
All Elite Wrestling has officially leveled up with the addition of The New Level, including Kofi and Austin Creed.
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Seeing these men make their AEW debut at All In: London was the highlight of my weekend. I am a long-time fan of The New Day, their name in WWE when they teamed with Big E, and an avid watcher of UpUpDownDown, Creed’s YouTube gaming channel, and I couldn’t be more excited about this debut.
Which is why this week’s Wrestlers of the Week are The New Level Austin Creed and Kofi.
An 18-year-old Shelby Reeves meets The New Day at a bookstore in 2018.
Debuting in London with Swerve Stickland was perfect. At home and in the stadium, people wanted this team to be the wild-card entry to the trios match. In a great turn of events, not only did they enter the match, but they won the entire thing and became trios champions. Kofi even gave us an over-the-top rope save on his first night out.
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Tag team wrestling is arguably my favorite form of wrestling. Now that AEW has the New Level, Cope and Cage, FTR, Motor City Machine Guns and the Young Bucks, tag team fans like me will be entertained for months. That isn’t getting into the trios opportunities, because I know The Elite vs. Swerve and The New Level will be amazing when it eventually happens.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Shelby’s Wrestling Corner if I didn’t a personal story about a wrestler. In 2018, I went to a book signing for The New Day. Now I had, and continue to have, a lot of wrestling shirts I could have worn, but I specifically chose to wear a shirt of Disney’s Gaston, the villain from Beauty and the Beast.
Why? Great question: it was because I had a plan.
As I said, I regularly watched UpUpDownDown and I had heard Creed talk about his love for Gaston before, and as a Beauty and the Beast fan, I get it. So in my mind, I was going to wear this shirt and he was going to notice me.
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In what can only be described as an absolute highlight of my life, every single member of the team noticed my shirt and Big E even brought it to Creed’s attention making sure he saw it. Not only did this man proceed to tell me he liked my shirt repeatedly, but after my mom took my picture with the group, he handed his phone to the attendant and had her take one of us.
Moments like that are what fangirls like me dream of.
In all the years since, I have never seen that photo that was taken of us on his phone, but that moment lives on in my brain and always makes me smile.
If you have a favorite professional wrestler that you want to talk about, send your name and comments to SReeves@Gannett.com for a chance to be in the next edition of Shelby’s Wrestling Corner.
This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Shelby’s Wrestling Corner levels up with new tag team addition to AEW
