10 Shocking AEW Behind The Scenes Revelations

Right now, Adam Cole is very much back in the AEW spotlight in a major way, with the ridiculously talented fella having made his triumphant return to action after a nine-month concussion-enforced absence; not to mention being front 'n' centre alongside his partner Britt Baker in AEW All Access.

Cole is great, Cole has been great for years now, and Cole is only going to become a greater, more important part of the AEW puzzle across the next few years. As such, it was no surprise that AEW had major interest in the former ROH World Champion when he became a free agent back in 2021. What maybe is a surprise, though, is the lengths taken to keep Cole's debut at All Out 2021 a secret.

As the star himself detailed to Sports Illustrated shortly after his arrival in AEW, it was only a couple of days before All Out that he decided he wanted to sign with AEW rather than pen a deal become part of the WWE main roster. From there, everything was done to keep Cole's impending debut hush-hush.

This "hush-hush" meant that only a handful of people in AEW knew that the one-time Undisputed Era man was a) signing with AEW, and b) was to appear at All Out. Likewise, Cole's AEW contract wasn't actually signed until the day of All Out 2021, and he was kept hidden on that night until the CM Punk vs. Darby Allin match was in motion; as in, the third-to-last match on the card.

Even when Cole did appear backstage, that was only to meet privately with the talents who would be involved in the post-main event segment where both he and Bryan Danielson would be making their company debut. To further keep all of this hidden, the real-life Austin Jenkins didn't even fly into the Chicago locale that was housing All Out. Instead, he flew to a different city on the day before the PPV, wore a face mask for his entire flight, stayed out a different hotel to Danielson, and waited in a trailer outside the Now Arena throughout the bulk of the show.