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Adam Cole Joins The Elite Following AEW Debut

By TJR Staff • Published 6th September 2021
Adam Cole at All Out

Adam Cole’s days as a free agent are over because the talented former WWE NXT Champion has signed with All Elite Wrestling. In addition to that, Cole has rejoined some of his best friends as part of The Elite heel group that is currently dominating in AEW.

Cole has been a coveted free agent in pro wrestling since his WWE contract expired on August 27. It actually expired earlier than that, but Cole extended it so that he could finish his storyline with former best friend turned foe, Kyle O’Reilly. That led to O’Reilly beating Cole in their final match at NXT Takeover 36 two weeks ago. Cole worked for WWE’s NXT brand for four years from August 2017 to August 2021.

Last night at AEW All Out, AEW World Champion Kenny Omega beat Christian Cage in the main event of the show. After it was over, Omega and The Elite beat up Christian as well as Luchasaurus, Jungle Boy and Marko Stunt. Omega did a promo bragging about how nobody can beat him, so that led to Adam Cole making his AEW debut.

When Cole got into the ring, it appeared as though he was going to fight Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, but instead, Cole hit Jungle Boy with a superkick. Cole embraced Omega, The Young Bucks and others while Omega made it clear that Cole was one of their best friends.

Cole did a quick promo saying that The Elite is the most dominant group in history. Cole said: “Ain’t no chance in hell” that anybody is going to stop them. The “No Chance in Hell” line was a reference to WWE Chairman Vince McMahon’s theme song.

Following Cole’s debut where he joined the top heel faction in AEW, Bryan Danielson made his AEW debut to help the babyfaces clear the ring and send the crowd home happy.

Regarding Cole’s wrestling future, there have been a lot of updates about his contract status. There were reports that Cole’s WWE deal expired in July and that’s why he agreed to have it run past Takeover to finish his feud with Kyle O’Reilly. Apparently, WWE thought that Cole’s deal expired in December, so something went wrong there.

Prior to the NXT Takeover 36 match against O’Reilly, Cole had a meeting with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. Apparently, the talks went well while also noting that if he stayed in WWE then Cole would likely be on Raw or Smackdown rather than staying in NXT.

Cole did not sign a new contract with WWE even though there was a belief from WWE that Cole was going to re-sign with them. However, no deal came to fruition, so Cole was a free agent after his WWE deal expired on August 27.

There are a lot of obvious reasons that drew Cole to AEW, mainly that his long-term girlfriend Britt Baker is one of AEW’s top stars as the AEW Women’s Champion. Baker even did a “Pittsburgh Sunrise” move last night at All Out, which was similar to the Panama Sunrise that Cole uses. Cole also is close friends with members of The Elite like The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega. Another factor that could have played a factor is that Cole refused to give up his Twitch account, which WWE forces their superstars to do, so now that Cole is in AEW he can still be an active user on Twitch where he enjoys interacting with his fans.

Cole tweeted about his AEW debut this morning with a simple message.

Adam Cole will likely make his AEW Dynamite debut this Wednesday in Cincinnati.