10 Wrestlers AEW Stole From Under WWE's Nose
7. Adam Cole
It was deemed an Inevitability that Adam Cole would finish up with NXT and move straight to All Elite Wrestling when his contract expired - such was the radically different landscape of wrestling in 2021.
Crowds had returned to buildings and Dynamite was rocking thanks to an on-fire Elite saga and the incredible return of CM Punk giving the company unfathomable momentum. Conversely, AEW’s former black-and-gold rival was on its last legs, and despite headlining it for several years, Adam Cole’s main roster follow-through scanned like parody.
Never particularly fond of the call-ups from the era, Vince McMahon allegedly wanted to make Cole Keith Lee’s manager. Celebrated-wrestler-entering-wrestler-prime Cole was excited to reunite with so many of his friends in AEW that surveying the landscape wasn’t that crucial - but the prospect of that pitch curtailing his trajectory on Raw or SmackDown as it had done for so many likely double sealed the deal.
He finished up his epic (arguably too epic) feud with Kyle O’Reilly, even signed a brief contract extension to make it so, and parted ways amicably. Sweetheart stuff as usual.
And as it transpired, he wasn’t coming alone…