Last Wednesday night, AEW Dynamite aired its annual Grand Slam edition live from Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, NY. The main event saw MJF successfully defend his AEW World Championship against ROH TV Champion Samoa Joe. It also, unfortunately, featured Adam Cole suffering an injury. As Friedman lay lifeless in Joe’s Coquina Clutch, Cole sprinted to the ringside area to cheer him back to life. On his way to the ring, he had to leap from the elevated Dynamite entrance ramp, and once he hit the ground, that’s when the injury occurred.
On last night’s Dynamite, Cole confirmed that he broke his ankle on top of tearing several ligaments. Due to the injury, he will require surgery, and now Friedman is set to defend the ROH World Tag Team Championships in a 2-on-1 Handicap Match at AEW WrestleDream. The conclusion of this week’s Dynamite saw Jay White, who shared words with Friedman on the show, attacked by a group of mystery men. Following the beatdown, the camera cut to another mysterious figure, but this one was wearing Friedman’s devil mask.
Fightful reports that the belief backstage at AEW is that Cole’s injury is legitimate and not some kind of work. There has been rampant speculation that he was faking it in order to set up some kind of swerve, possibly revealing himself as the mystery man at the end of Dynamite. There was also some confusion over his injury status as following Grand Slam, indie promotion DPW announced that Cole would be taking on Chris Danger. The promotion later announced that the match was off due to Cole’s injury.
The report noted that it was not made clear to them whether or not Cole would continue to appear on AEW TV in some capacity as he recovers. However, they were told to “not expect him” at upcoming Dynamite and Collision tapings.
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