From the sound of it, Adam Cole may have wrestled his final match for a long time, if perhaps ever. AEW CEO Tony Khan revealed that Cole’s health hasn’t gotten better since he was pulled from his planned TNT Championship defense at “AEW All In: Texas” against Kyle Fletcher in July.
Khan had a somber tone while discussing the 36-year-old’s future. While he optimistically proposed a situation where Cole can have a return match, reading through his sunshine-pumping nature, it’s more likely the Panama City Playboy will be with AEW in a different capacity moving forward.
“That's hard… That's hard… Adam Cole, I love so much, and I think Adam Cole is such a great wrestler, but also he's a really good friend. And it was very, very hard when I got the phone call the morning of All In: Texas that Adam Cole was not feeling well… I was really excited about what Adam Cole had done in 2025 to work his way into a top position and become the TNT Champion, And it was a great comeback story. I'm just glad that he was able to tell us when he didn't feel good about wrestling anymore,” Khan said when asked by Ariel Helwani about Cole.
“I think it would have to be the right situation for Adam to wrestle again. I think it's at least possible that we would keep Adam as part of the family, but I want to get to where he feels good about traveling and doing things every week again. I’ve been open with him that when he's ready, there's always a role in AEW for him. He had been a commentator at times, and he's been one of the hosts of the shows. He's great for that. He's a great talent. He could be involved in a lot of things.
“If he ever did want to wrestle again, and it was the right situation, and everybody could wrap their heads around it, so to speak, I think that it could make a lot of sense. But anything involving head injuries or serious injuries, I always want to look at it and evaluate. Does this make sense, and is there an opportunity to do this safely, where it's going to be a good outcome for everybody?”
If Cole is done, he will have gone out alongside his longtime stablemates from the Undisputed Kingdom/the Paragon/the Undisputed era, Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong, against Kyle Fletcher, Rocky Romero, and Trent Beretta of the Don Callis Family.
His final match in WWE NXT was against Kyle O'Reilly at “NXT TakeOver: 36” on August 22, 2021, in a “2-out-of-3 falls match” deemed “The Undisputed Finale.”
Cole made his professional wrestling debut in Ring of Honor back in February 2009.