Former WWE NXT star Adam Cole made his AEW debut at the 2021 All Out PPV. Cole spoke with media after the show and talked about his WWE contract expiring:
“Yeah so, funny enough, believe it or not, I was also surprised. Yeah, I was under the impression that it was like six months later. So it was a surprise to me. It was a surprise to them. It was public knowledge for a lot of people that I had signed a little extension, I was in the middle of a really serious angle with Kyle O’Reilly, which was very important to me. He’s one of my best friends in the entire world. Then after that is when stuff kind of opened up for me, but very surprising to me. It was just as surprising to me.”
Cole also commented on why he signed with AEW:
“I’d seen everything that AEW was doing. I’ve been here countless times to support Britt [Baker] and hang out with the crew and it’s just the best crew. The shows are amazing, the fans are amazing but at the same time I had really built a reputation for myself there [in WWE] as well. But I knew in my heart pretty early on that I wanted to come here and it was no knock whatsoever on them. I had a very excellent four-year experience but I wanted to come back and work with a crew who I love being around 24/7… A crew that is just as passionate about pro wrestling as I am and fans that feel the exact same way that we do so making the decision was a fairly easy one.”
