At AEW Dynasty 2025, Adam Cole captured the TNT Championship from Daniel Garcia in a match that had no time limit and no outside interference.
It was a surprise to me, as I thought Daniel Garcia still had a little left for his TNT Championship. More importantly, I thought his eventual goal was to drop to Kyle Fletcher. The Continental Classic had him drop a fall to Fletcher, which I originally thought would be paid off at Grand Slam: Australia. Some were worried Fletcher would be cheered, but he was booed at the show. That’s how good of a heel he is.
It felt like a logical conclusion to have Garcia either avenge his loss to Fletcher or drop the TNT Championship to the guy Garcia even said in promos he felt had got ahead of him in development. Fletcher focused instead on Will Ospreay and Garcia worked the Zero Hour pre-show in an eight-man tag team match.
The focus instead became about Adam Cole, who had been doing great work in Undisputed Kingdom, which seems to be changing their name finally to Paragon. Cole finally looked like the worker he used to be years ago, long before joining AEW. If you want to be fair, maybe some of his first year performances were good, but after all of his injuries his in-ring performances had slipped. They were especially bad in the autumn, against Buddy Matthews and Malakai Black. That wasn’t a guy I thought was going to be holding singles gold soon.
Cole has put in the work, and his performances have been better, but I certainly expected his gold to be in the Trios variety and not just for himself. Winning the TNT Championship takes focus off what Paragon has been building in the Trios division and instead puts Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong on the backburner. AEW just did this when Cope went after the AEW Men’s World Championship when he was supposed to be in the Rated FTR team. Yes, FTR turned it into a story, but that’s why their Trios Championship shot against Death Riders didn’t have the heat it should have. The focus was gone and the team didn’t mean as much anymore.
I worry the same happening to KOR and Roddy as they support Adam Cole as TNT Championship. Maybe they can work in the tag team division in the meantime, but any work they do as a trios will just feel like a time waster. “Oh they are working a trios, I bet someone pins Cole and gets a TNT shot” type stuff. The purpose isn’t for the Trios division. The purpose is for the TNT Championship. It’s throwing one division in the shadow for another.
My disappointment aside, Adam Cole is still TNT Champion and seems pretty motivated to defend it. Starting off at AEW Collision: Spring BreakThru, Adam Cole re-started the TNT Championship Open Challenge, and his first competitor wasn’t easy. It was Claudio Castagnoli.
Claudio, just one night since dropping the AEW Trios Championship, was a good choice to face off against Adam Cole. It really felt like they could go ahead and put a championship on him since PAC was now injured and missing in action. The Death Riders could collect some new singles championships to replace the lost Trios Championship and try to regain their grip on the AEW landscape.
Claudio had earlier had a massive breakdown due to losing the Trios Championship, showing he’s lost his cool and is angry at the loss. Him accepting the Open Challenge soon after just shows how driven he is and like I said, I really thought they could do the title switch then and there. Cole did find a way to win against his UNO buddy off-screen and ensured he scored one successful defence in the TNT Championship Open.
As a Championship Open, anyone can vy for the championship. Nobody has to have wins, momentum, an AEW contract, anything. Step up to the plate and swing. Here’s five wrestlers I would love to see getting a shot against Adam Cole.
Josh Alexander
Making his debut at AEW Dynamite: Spring BreakThru as the Wild Card for Hangman Adam Page in the 2025 Owen Hart Men’s Tournament, the former TNA World Champion had an incredible showing against the former AEW Men’s World Champion, only to lose to a roll-up in the end. Soon after the match, Alexander showed his allegiance to the Don Callis Family, becoming the new member of the DCF.
Alexander is likely to get a push in AEW just like Speedball Mike Bailey has had, and a good way to make him legitimate quick would be to get him in the mix for the TNT Championship. As a fresh heel, he also needs babyfaces he can look physically imposing against and really bully around. I think Adam Cole fits that well for him. You can also move into a program where Paragon faces the Don Callis Family.
Anthony Bowens
Bowens put up a tweet back on April 10 which helps make him an easy choice to state as a contender.
You don’t post that unless the TNT Championship is your eventual goal, and it’s great to see someone in AEW try to start with a championship that isn’t at the top. Some would say that’s shortening your goals, but making the other championships important for a wrestler to want to capture helps make them more than just a prop.
I named Anthony Bowens as one of the Prime Seven in AEW, the wrestlers in the men’s singles division between the ages of 30-34 who are in the prime ages of their AEW career to develop and move up and be focused on.
I was happy to see him at Dynasty returning to essentially squash his former tag team partner Max Caster, but I was a bit apprehensive on the praise seeing Billy Gunn once again hanging around. Bowens has to get away from the nostalgia WWE pops of Billy Gunn and honestly stop leaning on the Scissor Me Daddy Ass stuff too. If you want to be a credible contender for an AEW singles championship it’s time to do it on your own.
Bowens absolutely has the ability in the ring and I think Adam Cole and Anthony Bowens can work a similar tempo to create a good singles match-up.
Big Bill
With Chris Jericho in the rearview mirror, I would love to see Big Bill get a shot at the TNT Championship. It probably wouldn’t be good for Adam Cole since Big Bill would absolutely have the shot of getting cheered over him, and maybe like Bowens he’d be a better contender for who I think is the next TNT Championship (more on that later) but even doing an Open Challenge where Big Bill physically dominates Adam Cole and forces him to find a way out would be a great defence and a way to keep Big Bill fresh and on our radar.
Ricochet
Ricochet has been the best heel in AEW for some time now, for all of 2025 especially. He’s honestly at a level higher than the TNT Championship which is the only reason I wouldn’t have him win it. He’d absolutely deserve it over Adam Cole and I think would do a great job as champion, but Ricochet should be going after Kenny Omega for the AEW International Championship and making a case for the AEW Men’s World Championship. He’s up to that level now based on great performances.
If they did put the title on him, he’d be a great opponent against the likes of Anthony Bowens and Big Bill as babyface challengers. He’s a great challenge for Adam Cole, but it might be one Cole doesn’t have a good argument in winning.
Kyle Fletcher
It all goes back to Kyle Fletcher for me.
Fletcher should have beaten Daniel Garcia for the TNT Championship. He isn’t getting to beat him? That’s fine. Have him beat Adam Cole then.
Whether they do it at Double or Nothing or Y’All In Texas to give Cole a little more time, or heck even do it on a random Collision Open Challenge? It’s all good to me. Kyle Fletcher absolutely needs to win the TNT Championship to continue his development in AEW.
He’s on in his mid twenties and a lot of his development came from his work in ROH as ROH World Television Champion. I know, he needs to finish the Owen Hart Tournament first. But once that’s over? Fletcher needs to be going after the TNT Gold.
Fletcher would be the perfect champion for when the likes of Big Bill, Anthony Bowens, and other babyfaces try to stop him as TNT Champion. It also gives him regular matches on Collision and keeps the Don Callis Family competitive now that they lost the International gold to Kenny Omega.
You can even start it with Josh Alexander getting an Open Challenge, Paragon getting on DCF’s bad side, and eventually moving into The Protostar wanting the TNT Championship. Once you get that rolling in people’s minds, you do a trios match or two, maybe Cole defends against Rocky Romero or Trent, to eventually have to face the big boss in Kyle Fletcher and dropping the TNT Championship.
The purpose of this TNT Championship run should just be to continue increasing Adam Cole’s confidence, but ultimately his place on the roster isn’t working in the singles division. His best work as been beside Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong again. The sooner we get back to that? The better both the TNT Championship and Trios Championship divisions will be.
