AEW’s All In was supposed to feature a TNT Championship match between Adam Cole and Kyle Fletcher, but unfortunately, that didn’t end up being possible. As fans learned during the pay-per-view, the match was changed from a one-on-one Title defense to a 4-Way match, and the prize would be the now vacated TNT Championship. The reason for that change was due to an unknown injury to Cole, but it appears to be more serious in nature, as Cole came out to the ring and addressed the fans, revealing that he will be gone for a while, and he was holding back tears at several points throughout this time in the ring.
Cole didn’t go into detail on what the health issues are, but he is not medically cleared to compete, and that’s why he vacated the TNT Championship. It’s also not known if he’s going to be competing again anytime soon, as he did broach the subject of retirement temporarily, and while he isn’t ready to talk about that possibility yet, he did acknowledge that this could be goodbye, and if it is, he wanted to talk to the crowd directly.
Cole said, “It’s really hard to put this into words, but I wanted to come out here and talk to you all. Very sorry that I let everybody down. I can’t wrestle tonight. I have some health issues going on at the moment that not only will not allow me to defend this Championship tonight, but I am going to be gone for a while, and I don’t even want to think about talking about retiring because I am not in the right headspace but I wanted this opportunity to come out and talk to you all, if this is indeed goodbye, because you are the best damn wrestling fans in the world.”
“Since I was 9 years old, I’ve always dreamed of being a professional wrestler. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do, and all of you made that dream come true for me. You supported me across multiple promotions all over the world. You have no idea how much that means to me,” Cole said.
“With my highest moments and recently my lowest moments, all of you have been so supportive every step of the way, and dammit, I will love you forever,” Cole said. “Thank you so much. I don’t want to take up any more of your time because we have the best damn wrestling pay-per-view you’ve ever seen happening right now. We’re going to have a new TNT Champion tonight. Once again you will continue to watch AEW do pay-per-view like nobody else in the world does. And from me, honestly from everybody at AEW, thank you for making AEW what it is. Thank you for making AEW so special, and thank you all so damn much for changing my life. I love you always.”
A New Champion
After Cole left the ring, there was a match for the TNT Championship between Kyle Fletcher, Sammy Guevara, Dustin Rhodes, and Daniel Garcia. The match got started with a chaotic brawl, but then moved into more one-on-one exchanges, including a big superplex by Garcia to Guevara. Rhodes almost scored a pin, but it was broken up, and then Rhodes returned the favor by breaking up a pin by Guevara later on in the match.
Garcia then looked to secure the win after getting his knees up during a Guevara frog splash, locking Guevara in a submission until Fletcher broke things up. Fletcher then delivered a few power slams and seemed poised to win, but then Rhodes managed to roll up Garcia and get the pin and the win. Dustin Rhodes now holds Title gold in AEW and is the new TNT Champion, which genuinely shocked the crowd.
As for Cole, hopefully, we will learn more about what is going on soon, but we here at ComicBook wish Cole all the best and hope for a speedy recovery.
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