Speaking to the media after his shock appearance at the end of the All Out pay-per-view, Adam Cole has opened up about the process of leaving WWE for AEW.

Adam Cole spoke to the media about the fact that he and WWE were both caught off guard after uncovering that his contract was set to expire in August. 

Cole noted that it was important to him to sign a short-term extension to complete his feud in NXT with Kyle O'Reilly, who he described as being "one of his best friends":

Funny enough, believe it or not, I was also surprised. I was under the impression that it was like six months later. So it was a surprise to me, it was a surprise to them. And then all of a sudden it was like, ‘Oh no, we’re talking about it in three days’. It was public knowledge to a lot of people that I had signed a little extension. I was in the middle of a really serious angle with Kyle O’Reilly, which was very important to me. He’s one of my best friends in the entire world. And then after that is when stuff kind of opened up for me. But yeah, very surprising to me. It was just as surprising to me.

Adam Cole spoke about despite it being his dream to wrestle for WWE since he was 9 years old, it was a "fairly easy" decision for him to come to AEW.

Cole noted, having spent time at shows with his girlfriend Britt Baker, he knew that he wanted to work with people that he loved being around:

When you think about where I was, that technically was my dream since I was 9 years old. And then I’d seen everything that AEW was doing. I’d been here countless times to support Britt and hang out with the crew, and it’s just the best crew. The shows are amazing, the fans are amazing, but at the same time, I had really built a reputation for myself there as well. But I knew in my heart pretty early on that I wanted to come here. And it’s no knock whatsoever on them, I had a very excellent four-year experience. But I wanted to come back and work with a crew who I love being around 24/7, a crew that is just as passionate about pro-wrestling as I am, and fans that feel the exact same way that we do. So, making the decision was a fairly easy one.

Thanks to WrestleTalk.com for the transcriptions.