Featured Photo Credit – AEW
This is an article a few months ago, when Adam Cole shocked the world and debuted in AEW at All Out in September, that I ever thought I would be writing. After the leaked alleged plans that WWE had for Adam Cole on the main roster, it was pretty much unanimous that Adam made the right decision in jumping to AEW. So how do you leave NXT after arguably the greatest run in that brand’s history and are the hottest free agent talent on the market and have all that momentum and AEW just completely drops the ball with how they are booking him in my opinion and a lot of fans agree that the Adam Cole that AEW is giving us is not the best version.
I had previously written about Adam’s career, as he was finishing his NXT run and he would soon be deciding on where to go next. I’m not going to rehash his entire career here, but the man is the only 3-time ROH World Champion and the longest reigning NXT Champion and has had countless classic rivalries over the years especially over the past few years with Tomasso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano and Kyle O’Riley.
All this momentum behind him and a proven star that you can build around and the first thing you have him do is putting him with the Elite. Listen, I fully get re-uniting him with the Bucks because of their history both on and off screen but the Adam Cole character has established himself in both ROH and NXT as a cutthroat man that will use others in order to take the top prize. So, aligning himself with the Bucks in order to get close to the champion to gain his trust definitely fits the MO of the Adam Cole character. I was kinda hoping for a turn on Omega, but perhaps because of Hangman being groomed as the one to defeat Omega and Omega also taking time off to heal up injuries, it never happened.
Now that Omega is out, and Hangman is the AEW World Champion, the most logical heel to challenge him would be Adam Cole, but he is not only not feuding with Hangman, but he also isn’t trying to get any other gold in AEW at the moment. This doesn’t make at all when looking at the history of the Adam Cole character that very much wants to be the top star in whatever promotion that he is in. From a booking standpoint, knowing his character and the fact Omega is out, wouldn’t the ultimate opportunist in Adam Cole come out and say he is “avenging” his fallen friend and will bring the gold back to the Elite? But AEW didn’t do that despite it being a logical move that could eventually set up a returning Omega, who will want his title back, but Adam Cole is not the type to just relinquish the throne and the loyalty of the Bucks would be called into question like Paul Heyman’s loyalty was questioned between Brock and Roman.
AEW was then given an absolutely insane opportunity with being able to bring ReDragon into AEW to reform one of the best and hottest factions of all time in the original three members of the Undisputed Era by pairing them back with Adam Cole.
Having them back at his side should have been the catalyst to the Adam setting his sights on the AEW World Championship but no that isn’t the direction that decided to go but instead they went with a feud with Orange Cassidy. This is incredibly frustrating because you know what Adam Cole is capable of and his talent is being wasted in a feud with Orange Cassidy. The problem I have with Orange Cassidy unlike someone like Danhausen is that Danhausen has always presented himself both as a character and in ring as comedy character but can wrestle. Danhausen never throws tap punches or tap kicks like Orange Cassidy does. Yes, we all know wrestling is scripted but at least have some believability to it in the ring that doesn’t insult the fans intelligence when you are in a heated rivalry.
When you look at his feuds with Ciampa or Gargano or O’Riley, you were able to suspend reality as these men beat the hell out of each other but when watching Adam try to sell this rivalry with Orange like it is the equivalent of his feud with those guys it just falls flat and isn’t believable at all. I fully get that the Orange Cassidy character is one that doesn’t appeal to me, but other people do but it kills whatever story you are trying to tell in the ring when Orange does his shin tap kicks during a match. So, they had a lights out match this week because their feud “has reached its boiling point”. So, they are having essentially an unsanctioned match, as I said this rivalry really isn’t anywhere near heated or believable enough to even warrant the need for this type of match but if you are going to do it, at least do it justice.
They fought all over the arena and that stuff looked good, Danhausen made his debut, which was strange to do in this match but due to his independent history with Orange and him being such a bizarre character it somehow worked. Personally, for shock value it was an entertaining debut, but for a feud that is supposed to be so insanely heated, it probably wasn’t the best idea from a story perspective. However, when Orange pulled out his shin kicks in this thing it was just really stupid. However, the finish may have been one of the worst finishes to any match. Scrawny Orange bear hugs Adam Cole, who has pure terror in his eyes as they both go flying off the stage and Adam Cole loses.
Final Thoughts:
Come on AEW, seriously you can really do better than this with Adam Cole! After seeing what they have done with him so far it leads to the question is this another Bret Hart jumping to WCW situation? Both AEW and WCW inherited the hottest talent with the most momentum coming into their company, and both squandered it. In AEW’s case, they have time to right the ship and give us the real Adam Cole because as of right now his stock is worth less today than it was before he joined AEW and that is because of really poor booking. Adam Cole certainly has the talent, but AEW needs to present him like the talent he truly is and put him in feuds and in the title picture so that he can live up to his complete potential. Have Adam lead the reformed UE, with the addition of his real-life girlfriend, Britt Baker and have them run over and dominate AEW and go for all the gold. Adam Cole, UE and Britt Baker are all money talents, and they need to be presented as such. A resurgent UE could easily feud with Hangman, Dark Order, Jurassic Express and of course Omega and the Bucks. The storyline possibilities of giving us the real Adam Cole that we have seen in ROH and NXT and his UE team around him is pure money if booked correctly.
Photo Credits In This Article – WWE & AEW
