One former Ring of Honor World Heavyweight Champion is headed to WWE.
That former champion is Adam Cole. Multiple news outlets have reported that Adam Cole has signed with WWE and will be featured on the NXT brand. He is slated to begin training at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida this week.
With Cole signing with the company being confirmed before NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III this weekend in Brooklyn, New York at the Barclays Center means there is a good chance that will be his debut at the event by sitting in the crowd and being shown on camera.
WWE has done this with several past Superstars. Most recently, Drew McIntyre earlier this year the night before WrestleMania 33 at NXT Takeover: Orlando.
Cole was with Ring of Honor from 2009 - 2017. During his run with the company, he held the World Championship three times and World Television Championship one time. Over the last year, it was expected that Cole would sign with the sports entertainment company and would have happened sooner had the WWE and Ring of Honor legal issues not taken place.
As soon as WWE started signing former ROH stars like Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly, Cole, who the company has had eyes on for years, was imminent as far as coming in.
During an interview with ESPN earlier this year, Cole spoke about possibly signing with WWE. Here is what he had to say:
"I would want to [start in NXT] because, first of all, I'm a fan of NXT," Cole said. "I think the brand is cool. I think the Takeover shows are awesome. I think the fans are great. I love the roster of guys. I think it's something that's going to be looked at as a very special time in pro wrestling, so I want to be a part of it. Secondly, of course in a perfect world, if I went to NXT, I wouldn't want to be there forever; but I like the idea of going there and performing there and getting accustomed to the WWE audience and them getting accustomed to me and then eventually making the move to Raw or Smackdown. I think it'd be a lot of fun, and I think I would really enjoy working in front of that audience."
Cole's debuting in NXT has been a foregone conclusion since he finished up with ROH and New Japan. Fish and O'Reilly both debuted on NXT TV recently.
The former ROH World Heavyweight Champion said his goodbye to the promotion at their War of the Worlds pay-per-view in New York and post-PPV television tapings in Philadelphia in May and has since worked some indie matches.
What are your thoughts on Cole signing with WWE? Have YOUR say in the comments section below, and the fourth episode of GiveMeSport’s WWE podcast is here!
Check it out via this link: https://soundcloud.com/user-818579649/gms-wwe-podcast-money-in-the-bank-fallout