Adam Cole is back bay-bay and he isn’t stopping until he comes the number-one draw on AEW Dynamite. During the AEW flagship show’s return to Los Angeles, last night, the former WWE Superstar made his surprise appearance. The January 11 episode marked the top AEW Superstar’s first appearance on TV after six months.
For those who don’t remember, Adam Cole was out of action due to a serious concussion picked up at the AEW and New Japan Pro-Wrestling collaboration event Forbidden Door that went down on June 26 of last year.
Cole’s return received major pop from the fans
The former contender for the AEW World Championship came down to the ring after a brief introduction by Tony Schiavone and promised the audience some good and bad news. The good news was for himself as he’s now cleared to compete in the ring after a long time while the bad news is for the AEW locker room as he intends to run through everyone.
Adam Cole had to brave through a serious concussion
It was also noted in the promo of Adam Cole that he used to vomit in a car after staying in it for longer than 15 minutes. It was a hard road to recovery for him but a ton of support was there from the fans and peers that helped him to be back inside the squared circle. He wasn’t going anywhere and the crowd did give him a huge pop following the promo.
According to Dave Meltzer in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter coming out of the show, the former NXT Superstar suffered a concussion that led to a “rushed and awkward finish” to the four-way match for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title. Jay White pinned the leader of the Undisputed Elite to retain his title in that match. There were some genuine concerns about concussions permanently causing the injured star to be out of action but thankfully that’s not the case.
Heading into Forbidden Door, Fightful Select also reported that Adam Cole has already been dealing with a torn labrum during his AEW World Title feud with Adam Page. However, he felt strong enough to compete at Forbidden Door and prior to that at the AEW Revolution pay-per-view in March. The report added that the AEW wrestler was “banged up for quite a while” and “battling a series of injuries” for a long time.