All of it seemed unimaginable just over a year ago for Adam Cole.
After suffering two serious head injuries, the second in a match for the IWGP World Heavyweight championship at Forbidden Door in June 2022, the thought of even getting on a plane, let alone wrestling again felt like a monumental task for the AEW star as he dealt with serious concussion symptoms and the threat of his career ending.
It’s why it’s still wild for him to think about being able to head to London to wrestle twice at AEW All In in front of 80,000-plus fans at Wembley Stadium on Sunday (1 p.m., Bleacher Report).
On the “Zero Hour” preshow, Cole will team with on-screen best friend MJF to face Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis of Aussie Open for the Ring of Honor world tag team championships and then again in the main event against MJF for the AEW world championship.
“To fantasize and imagine being in the main event for the AEW world title in front of a record-breaking 80,000-plus audience was not even close to something that was in my brain,” Cole said. “It was just the idea of maybe getting to return, cut a promo and maybe someday have a match of some sort.
“To have something this huge be happening really so close to when I just returned is wild, so not in my wildest dreams did I imagine that this was going to be something that would happen.”
Being in NXT at the time forced Cole to watch the first All In in 2018 from a hotel room as his friends Matt and Nick Jackson along with Cody Rhodes put on a wrestling show that ended up being the proof of concept for AEW and caused a major shift in the wrestling world.
Cole said he’s trying not to think too much about the chance he has this time around because “the next thing you know I won’t be able to sleep for the next few nights.”
When he returned to AEW in January he admitted there were mental hurdles to clear.
Even after 15 years in the business, the struggle to get over the fear of another head injury in the ring was real and something he “didn’t expect.”
Cole, 34, is past that now and the injury scare left him “no choice” but to really pay even more attention to his diet and training regimen.
“Lately, this is the best I’ve felt in years, even before the injury,” Cole said. “I physically feel great. I mentally feel great.”
It’s led to him doing some of the best work of his career with MJF — someone he admired from afar for many years, always curious about what the two could achieve together.
“I was so impressed by the way he carried himself, the way he wrestled in the ring, and obviously the way he spoke on the microphone,” Cole said. “And this was when he was a year or two into wrestling. He was a guy who clearly was a sponge. He would sit there and watch every single match. He would ask for input and advice.”
Cole said he had minimal contact with MJF — who considers the former NXT star one of his dream matches — before AEW.
They talked here and there, but never really had a close connection.
But there was one thing Cole knew for sure.
“He was someone who I really, really, wanted to work with eventually,” he said.
That chance came in June as he and MJF wrestled to a time-limit draw — with Cole appearing seconds away from scoring a victory and earning a shot at the world title.
AEW continued the story by making Cole and MJF partners in a blind eliminator tournament for the promotion’s tag team championship — which they would win before losing to title holders FTR.
It was then that the unexpected magic began and the two — through a series of vignettes at the gym and playing video games — forged a genuine and unlikely on-screen friendship.
Cole said he expected fans to be interested in them wrestling and cutting a promo on each other for the first time but the level of reaction they got as a team “completely floored” him.
They have become one of the top ratings draws and merchandise sellers in the company.
“I did not in a million years think the crowd was gonna respond as well as they did when we started teaming together,” Cole said. “I was hoping they were gonna have a good time and I was hoping they were gonna enjoy it, but the investment in the team of Adam Cole and MJF was certainly surprising to me.”
So how did this palpable and natural chemistry develop between two people who weren’t close and had never worked together before?
Cole said it stems from him and MJF having a “very similar approach to what we love about pro wrestling” from the athleticism, the storytelling in the ring, the promos, the vignettes.
“We both have such similar mindsets on what we feel pro wrestling is and when it’s done best,” Cole said. “That’s a big reason the chemistry has been so well. We both just eat, sleep and breathe pro wrestling more than anything in the entry world. To have that connection with someone where you’re totally on the same page, you really, really hope that the magic happens.”
It’s led to them consciously trying to put together a storyline that feels very different from anything AEW has done before — leaning much more in the sports entertainment side of the business.
MJF threw Cole an in-ring birthday celebration with a cake, they competed in a dance-off with Daniel Garcia and Sammy Guevara to start off their match, had MJF throwing dodgeballs at young kids at the trampoline park and did their best Crocodile Dundee impersonations in a vignette to prepare for their match with Aussie Open.
The fun and silly have been paired with the serious, Cole talking about how much winning the AEW title means to him and MJF — who was the biggest heel in pro wrestling — opening up about dealing with Attention Deficit Disorder and Rejection Sensitive Disorder to explain why he’s such a “scumbag” as he begins to embrace his role as a good guy.
“I think me and MJF, we wanted to bring out as many different emotions as possibly could,” Cole said. “I think the big reason this sticks out so much is because it’s so different from what’s been on the show in the past.”
That included MJF suggesting while crashing Cole’s Twitch steam that they do a double clothesline together.
Fans ran with it and it’s become their signature and most anticipated move, which MJF also teased using a kangaroo kick to beat Aussie Open.
“It’s absolutely bonkers and absolutely insane,” Cole said. “I don’t know how I feel about this kangaroo kick. We got lighting in a bottle with this double clothesline I can’t believe it’s worked, but it has.”
He’s happy all of his has brought out a different side of MJF to the audience, the same one he saw so many years ago.
“I think MJF is damaged and I don’t mean that in a negative way,” Cole said. “I think he’s talked about his story a lot, how he was bullied and how he came up with the solution to striking first before someone strikes him.
“I think deep down in his heart and deep down in his soul there is a good guy in there. I think the world is finally starting to see that. They’re finally starting to recognize that. It’s just hard for him to trust people and I understand why.”
The on-screen trust between Cole and MJF’s characters isn’t ironclad.
Cole’s real-life and on-screen friend Roderick Strong has taken issue with the pairing and both Cole and MJF have teased turns on each other they ultimately chose not to pull the trigger on.
It’s left plenty of intrigue around what happens at All In.
“Not really knowing where the story’s gonna go or fantasy book if you will. A lot of that is the most fun when it comes to really, really good television,” Cole said. “I think stuff like that is incredibly important and I’m so glad our audience is paying such close attention to all of those details.”
The details that are undeniable is the success of AEW’s first foray into the UK with All In, which broke WWE’s one-night tickets distributed record for WrestleMania 32 and is a few thousand tickets away from the paid attendance mark.
It’s the start of a huge summer for the company with All Out on Sept. 3 at the United Center and then Dynamite: Grand Slam at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sept. 20.
“To me, it’s very, very telling that AEW is not only growing at an incredible rate but AEW is here to stay,” Cole said.
The magnitude of the event, having been a world champion in every promotion he’s been in and getting this chance at All In so quickly after a carer-threatening injury, makes it feel imperative to Cole that he leaves with the AEW world title.
“I think for me to solidify my legacy, not just in AEW but pro wrestling as a whole, to have this opportunity of representing AEW and being the AEW world champion, especially after everything that I went through is so, so important to me,” Cole said. “To me, it just shows that all my hard work has paid off. Coming back from this injury has paid off and really just my 15 years of blood, sweat and tears have paid off. This is the most important match of my entire career on so many different levels.”
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