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Adam Cole was introduced to WWE's main roster audience on Friday night when he had one of the matches of the year against Daniel Bryan in the SmackDown main event. What makes this even better is the fact that the NXT brand didn't make it to Buffalo until mid-way through the show, which means that Cole and Bryan didn't have very long to put their match together.
Of course, this isn't the first time that Cole has been seen on the main roster since he had a cameo in the Royal Rumble back in January 2018, but since then he has been able to become the NXT Champion and dominate the entire developmental brand alongside Roderick Strong, Bobby Fish and Kyle O' Reilly in Undisputed Era.
Whilst Adam Cole has been in the wrestling business for a number of years and is a well-known star, there are many fans who don't know a lot about The Panama City Playboy, so here are five interesting facts about Adam Cole.
#5 He isn't actually from Panama
Many wrestlers have created entirely separate personas for themselves inside the squared circle over the years, and Adam Cole is one of those stars since his character isn't actually from Panama despite many of his moves being named after the state.
Much like Carmella isn't from Staten Island, according to USAToday, Adam Cole was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and currently resides in Coral Springs, Florida, which is more than five hours away from Panama City, Florida.
That being said, Cole decided that he wanted his in-ring character to be from Panama, which is why he has a move called Panama Sunrise and is often refered to as The Panama City Playboy.
#4 He has been in a four-man team before
The Undisputed Era has dominated NXT over the past few years, their domination has taken over the brand and now all members of the team are holding gold. Adam Cole is NXT Champion, Roderick Strong is the NXT North American Champion, whilst Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly are Tag Team Champions on the developmental brand.
Cole has slotted into this group so easily and this could because it isn't the first time he has been part of a four-man group. During his time in PWG, Adam Cole was part of a four-man group alongside Kevin Owens and The Young Bucks, Matt and Nick Jackson.
The group was known as the Mount Rushmore of professional wrestling but were often just referred to as Mount Rushmore when competing together. That being said, it's easy to see why the stars would call themselves by this name since Kevin Owens is now a former Universal Champion, Adam Cole is dominating in NXT and The Young Bucks have definitely proven their worth as part of the AEW roster in recent months.
#3 Cole was almost accidentally signed by WWE in 2010
Adam Cole has been wrestling ever since he was a child, he made his wrestling debut when he was 19 years old and has been around the wrestling scene ever since. Cole has competed in companies including Ring of Honor, Combat Zone Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and Evolve.
Many believe he didn't make it onto WWE's radar until he signed with the company back in 2017, but this isn't the case. Cole had been making waves all over the world years before this and had tryouts with WWE dating back to 2010 when he had only been wrestling for two years.
In 2010, he worked backstage on SmackDown where he was seen in a bar drinking with Straight Edge Society's Serena Deeb. This was because WWE was looking to sign Austin Watson who is Xavier Woods, and accidentally almost signed Adam Cole, who's called Austin Jenkins, so they offered him a spot on SmackDown as a way to apologize.
The company later came knocking in 2013 where he attended tryouts at the Performance Centre in Florida, but wasn't signed for another four years.
#2 Adam Cole has appeared on the main roster before
Adam Cole main-evented SmackDown on Friday night against Daniel Bryan in a match that many of the WWE Universe believe was his debut. In fact, Cole made his main roster debut over a year ago when he was one of the stars chosen to represent the NXT brand in the 2018 men's Royal Rumble match.
Cole was entrant number 23 the night after he endured hell as part of his Extreme Rules match at Takeover: Philidelphia, when he took on Aleister Black. Cole was later eliminated from the match by Rey Mysterio, but he had a fantastic showing and proved that he would be a future star on the main roster when he was given his chance.
Cole proved this on Friday night when he had what was considered to be a match of the year contender against Daniel Bryan. It was a match that had serious Ring of Honor vibes and just pushed The Panama City Playboy into the spotlight even more. He was able to defeat the former World Champion clean in his own backyard.
#1 He's dating current AEW star Britt Baker
Adam Cole has become a huge star in NXT over the past few years, so much so that his own girlfriend has even been able to work for the company. A few months ago, Britt Baker appeared in a match against Women's Champion Shayna Baszler on NXT, but was injured by The Queen of Spades and the match had to be ended prematurely.
This isn't the end of Baker's story though since the qualified dentist is now part of the AEW roster. The Pittsburgh born star has become one of the staples in their women's divison and looks to be the next woman in line to challenge Riho for the Women's Championship.
Despite their careers going in different directions, the couple has been in a relationship for the past few years, even wrestling each other on a number of occasions and even won the Big Top Tag Team Championships at WrestleCircus together back in 2017.
The couple hasn't been able to work together for a while, even though Baker has been spotted at ringside in NXT a number of times supporting her boyfriend.
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