Injured Adam Cole Was "Ready To Retire" At AEW All In Texas
Adam Cole "not in the right headspace" to make in-ring retirement decision.
An emotional Adam Cole appeared during this past weekend's AEW All In Texas event to broach the subject of possible in-ring retirement. Unsurprisingly, tears fell as Cole spoke from the heart about trying to get medically cleared for a planned TNT Title match against rising star Kyle Fletcher. He couldn't get clearance, so AEW boss Tony Khan changed the bout to a Fatal-4-Way instead (Fletcher vs. Sammy Guevara vs. Dustin Rhodes vs. Daniel Garcia).
Rhodes won the bout to earn his first major singles title since holding WWE's Intercontinental prize back in March-April 1999.
Attention quickly turned back to Cole's plight online though, not the new champion. Now, via Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez claims that the ex-NXT standout was poised to announce his in-ring retirement at All In. "Cooler heads prevailed" and Cole will now take some time to think on that decision before deciding whether or not to soldier on as an active pro wrestler and member of the AEW roster.
According to Alvarez, Cole wasn't "in the right headspace" to make that kind of call in Texas on the day: "His future as a wrestler is very much in doubt, and it’s just going to be a matter of time - when he feels he’s in the right headspace, he’s going to make a decision, and we’ll see what happens".
This is a huge bummer for Cole, AEW and wrestling fans in general. It stinks to see somebody so passionate struggling this way and questioning whether or not he'll even be able to wrestle going forwards. His facial expressions and emotions at All In suggest there's a better than average chance Adam's in-ring career is in real jeopardy.
He came close to calling it a career in Arlington.