At AEW World’s End last weekend, Adam Cole failed in his chance to defeat Maxwell Jacob Friedman for the Dynamite Diamond Ring.
Even though that was the circumstances of the match, the real purpose was the Devil Storyline that began way back in 2023. Adam Cole was at one point rumoured to be defeating MJF for the AEW Men’s World Championship but broke his ankle, leading to plans shifting. Both men had injuries to deal with, both returned later in 2024, and with both healthy enough to finally wrestle, we finally got this one on one encounter between them.
It’s clear that everyone is over this story. MJF spent more than half of it on a Hollywood set instead of week to week for AEW tapings. Adam Cole seemed to care more about poorly recreating NXT matches and trying to reform Undisputed ERA. Or Undisputed Elite. Paragon. Whatever you want to call it. Based on crowd reactions after initial theme music? They are definitely over this as well.
MJF beat Cole but the match ended with Kyle O’Reilly coming out to toss MJF back in the ring so Adam Cole could punch MJF with the ring on, MJF held by O’Reilly and Roderick Strong. The three men along with Kingdom members Mike Bennett and Matt Taven walked out of the match like they won the thing.
Sometimes a program just doesn’t have life anymore and it doesn’t matter what you try to do to save it. This is one of those examples. Delaying it with the Full Gear match being Roderick Strong against MJF instead of Adam Cole didn’t help add any life to the program. The Kyle O’Reilly side story didn’t help. Him leaving The Conglomeration for Undisputed Kingdom feels like either a step backwards or at best a step sideways.
The worst part about it all? I argued that this was the best thing for the three men!
ERA Disputed
People like Roderick Strong having exciting wrestling matches. Same with Kyle. Adam Cole isn’t half the wrestler he used to be due to multiple injuries, from the concussions to a disintegrated ankle. Maybe one day he can turn back the clock through hard training and rehabilitation but his matches have continued to disappoint in All Elite Wrestling.
When you have a wrestler that’s a name, doesn’t cause issues backstage, but isn’t the wrestler they used to be? The best move possible is to hide them in a tag team or a trios. It made sense to do Better Than You Bay Bay because Cole could lean on MJF to do the heavy lifting. Now it’s about doing ERA all over again, an NXT act, and it’s the best thing for Adam Cole on paper.
I say on paper, because the problem with ERA coming back together is it isn’t an AEW act. It’s an NXT act.
Years ago I wrote Former WWE Wrestlers are not WWE Property. I discussed that wrestlers should be graded and evaluated based on what they provide to AEW now and not what what team they used to play for. I stated that AEW is an alternative not because of the employment background of the wrestlers but how they perform under AEW’s lights. I still believe that.
However, there’s more to it than that. Any wrestler who comes to AEW, whether they come from WWE, from New Japan Pro Wrestling, from AAA, CMLL, or anywhere else? They have to eventually be a version of themselves that’s molded in AEW. Jon Moxley isn’t Dean Ambrose. Chris Jericho in AEW is not Chris Jericho in WWE. Swerve Strickland isn’t Isiah Swerve Scott.
As I said in my tweet, there’s nothing about Athena that feels like it’s from WWE/NXT and there’s nothing about Adam Cole that feels like it’s AEW.
People were quick to argue that Cole is acting like his ROH self and NXT just took that, and while I don’t entirely agree, it doesn’t change the fact he isn’t Adam Cole of AEW. There is no Adam Cole of AEW. There is a Roderick Strong of AEW (his shouting gimmick) and there was a Kyle O’Reilly of AEW (in The Conglomeration) but Adam Cole is the biggest star of the group and he has yet to really create his own identity in AEW.
It doesn’t help that, like I said, he’s dealt with multiple injuries that have limited him from being the wrestler he used to be. I wasn’t a big fan of what he used to be, but he was at least someone who had believable big matches and could be bought into winning matches with major wrestlers. He was supposed to feud with Kenny Omega when he first came to AEW. Could you believe that program now?
Future Shocked
I hate harping on Cole. I like the guy. I hate even having to preface this about that. Nobody likes to talk about a genuinely nice person this harsh. But I have nothing personally against him. I can only see what’s best for the AEW product. I do think he was succeeding for some time in the MJF program in 2023, as much as some hated their BTE level comedy antics. It was at least popular.
Now anytime Adam Cole comes out he gets a pop for the BOOM! entrance and then he can barely hold the crowd on his side. MJF had to work overtime as a heel just to keep the crowd against him, and even when they held MJF to give him his just desserts? There were more boos than cheers. I said in November and I’ll repeat it: Adam Cole is overpushed.
So what do you do with the Undisputed Kingdom? It’s tough.
You can’t take them off TV for months since several people in this group had been gone for injury issues and they absolutely want to work to get back in ring shape. To take that away from them feels cruel.
The first thing I would do is trash the Undisputed Kingdom name. No more “Undisputed” and no more “Kingdom”. These names are poisoned with too much negative baggage. They need something going forward that says, “This isn’t those older groups, this is something new.” I don’t know if they had trademark issues to use Paragon, an AEW trademark yet to be utilized, but it would be something to consider.
Cole, O’Reilly, and Strong would be good to stay in Trios action. It might also be good if they stayed away from any title programs or major stories. I heard the crowd groan when Adam Cole and company saved Swerve Strickland from Ricochet. Don’t… don’t make that a long term thing. Keep those programs separate. Swerve and Ricochet is red hot right now. Don’t need Undisputed messing that up.
I would have the team as a staple of AEW Collision and have them essentially earn their keep in biweekly trios matches.
I would also consider using the five men a few times in Ring of Honor to show they are willing to go back to their roots to find themselves. Bennett and Taven belong on that level as it is, and it might be better for Cole, KOR, and Roddy to work teams like Shane Taylor Promotions and the Dark Order. I actually think Dark Order would be a great program for them to work as they do have familiarity with each other.
Kingdom Come
It feels like every few months I’m writing about the failures of these men. It’s so often the weakest parts of AEW Dynamite when they are involved. It’s dragged MJF into something he desperately needs a fresh start on, and it feels like he’s finally going to get that with him proclaiming he wants his AEW Men’s World Championship back.
I’m tired of ragging on them. I want the best for them. I want them to be able to contribute to All Elite Wrestling and feel like they are part of the solution instead of the problem nobody wants to fix. I don’t want them to feel like an ROH nostalgia act. I don’t want them to feel like an NXT nostalgia act. I want them to feel like an AEW act firing on all cylinders.
You see Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley in Hurt Syndicate? That’s what I want for these guys.
I don’t know how they can do that together. I don’t know how they can do it separate. I don’t know how to fix them other than push them to change their images up completely and embrace an uncomfortable future.
I don’t know how to do it, but I know one thing: the way through is never to just brute force it. AEW President Tony Khan knows it doesn’t work. He tried it with QT Marshall as a heel. He tried it with Sammy Guevara as a babyface. He needs to realize now that there’s no forcing this act to work. The fans have to organically accept them again, and that takes moving them out of the upper card, maybe even move them out of the midcard, and put them somewhere they can help rise talents up to their name value while repairing that name value as well.
The next time I write about Undisputed Kingdom? I hope it’s me writing about them proving critics like me wrong, because if they don’t? I might as well be writing about their exit from All Elite Wrestling.
