The emotional moment at AEW All In where Adam Cole vacated the TNT Championship was completely legitimate, and the star’s wrestling future is now in serious doubt. On today’s episode of Wrestling Observer Live, host Bryan Alvarez provided details on the situation, confirming the severity of Cole’s injury.
A Legitimate Injury
Alvarez stated that Cole suffered a legitimate concussion during a match on the Thursday night episode of AEW Collision. “Kyle Fletcher lariated him right in the jaw, and he ended up with a concussion, and he talked to Tony Khan, and ended up he’s out,” Alvarez reported.
He stressed that the segment fans saw at All In was not part of a storyline. “Everything you see is everything that happened… everything that you saw on television was 100% legitimate, everything he said, all of it,” Alvarez said.
Retirement Was a Real Possibility
The situation was so serious that, according to Alvarez, Cole was prepared to announce his retirement from professional wrestling live on the pay-per-view. “From what I can gather… he was pretty much ready to go out on Saturday and retire,” he revealed. “And I guess, you know, cooler heads prevailed, and it’s exactly what he said. He was like, ‘I’m not in the right headspace to make that decision right now.'”
Alvarez concluded that Cole’s future remains uncertain. “His future as a wrestler is very much in doubt, and it’s just going to be a matter of time when he feels he’s in the right headspace, he’s going to make a decision, and we’ll see what happens,” he said. The wrestling community has shown an outpouring of support for Cole since the news broke.
In the wake of Adam Cole vacating the TNT Championship, a four-way match was held at All In, which saw Dustin Rhodes capture the title for the first time in his career. There is currently no timetable for Adam Cole’s potential return to AEW. We send best wishes to him and hopefully, this is not the end for him as a pro wrestler.
