Adam Cole made his big return to All Elite Wrestling at WrestleDream 2024 in what was essentially a parade of returns and run-in’s.
First, it was the end of the match where Katsuyori Shibata was unable to defeat Jack Perry for the TNT Championship. Daniel Garcia would run in to make the save when Perry tried to beat down Shibata some more after the bell. This prompted a return of MJF, who had beaten Garcia at All Out but ate a vicious beatdown from Garcia as well.
MJF proceeded to slaughter Garcia and talk about the return of his Dynamite Diamond Ring, only for YOU KNOW IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BOOM to explode over the speakers in the arena.
The crowd went crazy to see Adam Cole return and try to get his revenge on MJF. Wait. His revenge?
Yeah let me get this out of the way first.
Does it make sense that MJF is the heel and Adam Cole is the babyface in this situation? In reality? In a way. In wrestling? Yes.
If you’re reading this I am at least assuming you have watched pro wrestling for more than three years. If you have watched pro wrestling for more than three years you should understand this. If you don’t, either because you’re still new to this (welcome) or you’re intentionally being obtuse to have something to complain about (fuck off) let me explain.
When a wrestler, who is a star, and is a heel, disappears for a certain length of time? They always return a babyface. This has been Pro Wrestling 101 forever. The fans miss superstars, even if the superstars are bad guys. Roddy Piper returned a babyface in his return from Hollywood in the 80s. HHH returned a babyface in 2002 when he was part of the Two-Man Power Trip. Kenny Omega returned a babyface after his injury when he was the evil heel World Champion the year prior.
When Cole originally made his temporary return with Undisputed Kingdom, they had to take away his theme music just so the crowd wouldn’t cheer him. They had to go to great lengths to keep him heel even when he was injured and the fans sympathized with his situation. When MJF hit the Brainbuster on him to let him take a few more months to heal, that was the end of the MJF/Cole story for that time. The end of MJF the babyface who was betrayed and Adam Cole the heel who betrayed him.
Now, in October, MJF is once again the hated heel. He’s the guy everybody hates. Time and time again he gains your empathy and then uses it to stab you in the back. The story here is that Adam Cole is saying he knew it was coming and essentially did it first. Does that make him in the right? No. This isn’t Minority Report. You can’t punish someone for a crime they have yet to commit yet. But we also know MJF is a giant prick and the guy he was just beating down was a man he turned his back on out of sheer jealousy about another wrestler.
WE SAW MJF DO TO DANIEL GARCIA WHAT MJF WAS LIKELY GOING TO ONE DAY DO TO ADAM COLE AND COLE IS CLAIMING HE JUST DID IT FIRST BECAUSE HE KNEW IT WAS COMING.
Hope the bold helps.
That’s the story logic! But even then, there’s pro wrestling logic. Sorry bold coming back.
THE FANS ALWAYS WANTED TO CHEER ADAM COLE AND HAVING HIM COME BACK WITH HIS THEME SONG TO SAVE BABYFACE DANIEL GARCIA AGAINST HEEL MJF WAS ALWAYS GOING TO MAKE HIM THE BABYFACE GOOD GUY IN THIS STORY.
No wait. Time for bold and big letters.
THE ONLY THING YOU HAVE TO BE TO BE THE BABYFACE IS CHEERED BY THE CROWD. YOU CAN LITERALLY EXECUTE SOMEONE’S GRANDMOTHER FOR NO GOOD REASON AND IF THE FANS CHEER YOU ARE THE BABYFACE. YOU KNOW THIS. THAT’S WHY SWERVE STRICKLAND TURNED BABYFACE AGAINST HANGMAN ADAM PAGE.
IT’S A POPULARITY CONTEST NOT A MORALITY CONTEST.
Sorry. I just really hate when people do this, “DUHHH why is the guy a babyface he turned heel a year ago” thing because they are fishing to make a logical argument and ignore pro wrestling logic. Things only have to matter in the unreal world of pro wrestling. Your amateur Lit Crit gimmick sucks.
Anyway.
Anyway.
Adam Cole has returned to All Elite Wrestling. On Wednesday he opened the show explaining himself and continuing his feud with Maxwell Jacob Friedman in a promo that went way too long and was a heavy tonal switch from the opening video of Jon Moxley and the former Blackpool Combat Club explaining why they did what they did to Bryan Danielson at WrestleDream 2024.
We went from a declaration of war to the same ol’ same ol’.
You absolutely have to finish the story between MJF and Adam Cole with a match in the ring. These two main evented All In 2023 in front of over 70,000 fans. Full Gear is the right place to do it, so we have five more weeks. Once they have their match at Full Gear? Both need to move on. We don’t need this going to World’s End.
Once the feud is over, win or lose, what does Adam Cole do after that? He has dealt with several injuries at his point that keep derailing his momentum to the top. It absolutely feels like he was in plans to be a World Champion if he didn’t get injured in 2023. You could have Adam Cole face Jon Moxley (very fresh match up as they only faced each other once in a tag match in 2009) but I don’t think anyone would really buy into Cole taking on Moxley at this point.
What Adam Cole needs is to either move down a rank or move into the Tag/Trios division. Having Garcia, MJF, and Cole make run-in’s after the TNT Championship match made me feel like that was AEW President Tony Khan saying that they were established in that division. Adam Cole makes more sense taking on Jack Perry than Jon Moxley. It’s more his speed. More his tone as well.
Adam Cole isn’t a heavyweight by any means, and while some guys can be middleweight or cruiserweight sized and still hang with the heavyweights (Darby Allin and Orange Cassidy prove this week in and week out), Cole really isn’t that type of guy. Unless he gets back to his ROH size I don’t think he ever will be. Being a middleweight is perfect for him, as is facing other middleweights. MJF, Garcia, Perry, Sammy Guevara, Wheeler Yuta, Kyle O’Reilly, RUSH, PAC, and Ricochet are the type of guys that Cole should stay around.
Kyle O’Reilly. Hmmm.
Do you think The Conglomeration has room for one more? Cole certainly isn’t going back to the Kingdom. He probably can’t run solo in the Land of Wolves that is the Jon Moxley ruled AEW. Would he fit back with his Future Shock buddy?
I really like the idea of Cole in Conglomeration. He likes to be goofy and have fun. He could build chemistry with OC and Mark Briscoe. It gives Conglomeration a set tag team in KOR and Cole being Future Shock again and gives them some purpose. They’d be a great tag team addition in the ranks and a team that could actually move from a Tier 2-B into the Tier A with the right momentum.
If Tony really wanted to, he could even consider having Roderick Strong disband the Undisputed Kingdom, turn babyface, and re-align with Cole and O’Reilly. I know, it’s just going right back to the NXT well and we already had the Undisputed Elite once before when Bobby Fish was also in the company. But having Cole, Roddy, and KOR back together as a trios would be exactly what all three men need, and exactly what the Trios division needs. BCC will need contenders, and what better than three guys who ran ROH and NXT? If you want Adam Cole feuding with the top faction? That might be the best way to do it.
Whether it’s Conglomeration, re-uniting the ERA, or working the TNT middleweight division? Adam Cole finally being healthy and giving the fans who love him something to cheer is good to see. I personally am not a big fan of him in-ring but my days of hating on him are over. A few less Panama Sunrises and leg slap superkicks and a little more what made him one of my favourite guys when he first joined ROH and I’ll be happy to be on his side.
Just end the MJF feud sooner rather than later.
