Adam Cole

Lore & Background

Cole began his eight-year tenure with ROH in 2009 and went on to become the first-ever three-time ROH World Champion. In addition, he is a one-time ROH World Television Champion, and the winner of the 2014 ROH Survival of the Fittest tournament. Cole has also wrestled for several independent promotions, including Chikara, Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), where he is a former CZW World Junior Heavyweight Champion, and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), where he is a former PWG World Champion; he holds the records for longest reigns for both titles.

He also worked in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he was part of the Bullet Club stable. From 2017 to 2021, Cole was signed to WWE and performed on their NXT brand. During this time, Cole was the leader of The Undisputed Era, whose membership included Bobby Fish, Kyle O'Reilly, and later Roderick Strong. Cole was the second wrestler to become the NXT Triple Crown Champion, having been the inaugural NXT North American Champion, a one-time NXT Tag Team Champion, and is the longest-reigning NXT Champion of all-time.

After Cole's WWE contract expired, he joined AEW in September 2021. During his tenure there, he has won the AEW TNT Championship once and was the inaugural winner of the Owen Hart Cup in 2022. Between WWE and AEW, he has headlined several pay-per-view events.

Reader's Guide

Austin Jenkins was born on July 5, 1989, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and raised in nearby Manheim. He has a younger brother. His parents separated when he was 10 years old. Jenkins took karate lessons as a child.

Jenkins competed in wrestling at Manheim Central High School before quitting his senior year so he could get a job to pay for his professional wrestling training. He wrestled his first match on April 26, 2008, losing to Tsunami at American Championship Pro Wrestling in Springfield, Pennsylvania. His first victory was defeating Alex Colon on May 31, 2008, at Eastern Wrestling Alliance in Baltimore. Jenkins was trained at the Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) Wrestling Academy by D. J. Hyde and Jon Dahmer.

He became an official student at the Academy on November 14, 2007, while he was still a senior in high school. He made his CZW debut at No Pun Intended as Adam Cole on June 21, 2008, when he teamed with The Reason in a loss to GNC (Joe Gacy and Alex Colon). In 2009, Cole teamed regularly with Tyler Veritas and they won a tag team gauntlet match at X: Decade of Destruction – 10th Anniversary in February. At the following show in March, they won a four-way match.

After Cole took a hiatus from CZW, he returned at A Tangled Web 2 on August 8, where he and Veritas won another four-way match. At Down With the Sickness Forever on September 13, Cole and Veritas challenged for The Best Around for the CZW World Tag Team Championship, but were unsuccessful. For the remainder of 2009, Cole and Veritas began focusing on singles competition, as they both entered the tournament to determine the inaugural CZW Wired TV Champion, with Cole defeating Alex Colon and Rich Swann en route to the final at Cage of Death 11, where he lost to Veritas.

At Walking on Pins and Needles in March 2010, Cole wrestled Sabian to a 15-minute time-limit draw. Later in 2010, Cole began challenging for the CZW World Junior Heavyweight Championship and on April 10 at Swinging for the Fences, Cole faced defending champion Sabian in a match that ended in a 20-minute time-limit draw. On May 8, 2010, Cole won the CZW World Junior Heavyweight Championship by defeating defending champion Sabian and Ruckus in a three-way match at Fist Fight. Cole successfully defended the championship against Ryan Slater in both June and August and Blk Jeez in September.