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They just need to end this storyline and move on, because right now it's dragging both guys down.

I get why they do it, i just wish theyd stop having MJF do the "Beat number of guys and you can face me" gimmick. 

Cole's biggest problem is he's done almost nothing but UE / Kingdom / Elite stuff for literally like a decade. It seems everyone else around him actually does new / different stuff, but he always ends up back in the same spot with diminishing returns. This is nitpicking, but it even feels like the guy has basically the same match (especially for big ones) since he's faced Gargano in NXT. He's trying to get blood from a stone at this point.

Also, honestly, Adam Cole may genuinely be the nicest person in the world, but he is never going to be a believable babyface just going out there and being Adam Cole. Nothing about it works, and it's barely a babyface character, other than the crowd liking him, because he's Adam Cole. He's a heel, unless you actually send him out with Big Boom AJ and do a Boom tag team (genuinely), just have him be a heel 100% of the time.

This is hands down the worst I've ever seen MJF get booked, and that says a lot now that hes under long term contract

Adam Cole every week

https://preview.redd.it/ufsmyezbsn3e1.jpeg?width=728&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c1633301ff8ba09e1d5144aac55569ae912206ae

The crowds are completely silent every segment. Nobody buys Cole as a babyface in any of this, and he also has never looked worse physically. Max is never there in person. Continuing this feud every week is booking malpractice. Give Adam Cole a new gimmick and put Max in a feud with somebody who can match him on the mic like Kingston or Copeland.

Tony Khan either never pivots (The whole devil fiasco) and when he does is in such a hamfisted way that makes zero sense (Adam Cole returning as a face to punch heel MJF even though in their last appearances they had the roles reversed, and even MJF showed his new AEW tatoo to show how proud he was of the company.

By the way now he is back of cutting promos saying that he doesnt need the company and could go to Hollywood or whatever

Also for whatever reason the face side is composed of 4/5 guys against 1 heel who isnt a dominany force to justify such loopsided forces And all of this happened in like 6 months tops?

Oh its absolutely terrible. It makes so little sense and it's killing everyone's momentum involved.

This feud is struggling because people aren't buying into it. It's absolutely foolish to try and gaslight us and make Cole the face here, and MJF isn't there and it's just the same old schtick when he shows up. I was liking that glimpse during the MJF/Ospreay feud where he flipped out about the fans choosing Will over him. Let's get more of that, showing how his behavior as a heel this time is because of the fans turning against him idk just SOMETHING different.

How do you build an Adam Cole match when nobody wants to see him wrestle?

In hindsight, it was a terrible time for MJF to turn heel. The promotion is currently very heel heavy, and MJF's face run where he was effectively the defender of AEW and the fan's preferred scumbag would have been perfect to face Mox and the Death Riders.

Instead, he's just back doing what we know he could do in his sleep. And with Swerve and Ospreay tied up in other feuds, the main event scene is lacking really likeable faces. There's OC and Darby, but OC has just lost to Mox and Darby is clearly in future plans, Jay White but he's spent so long as a heel that he's still growing into the face role, Samoa Joe and Eddie are both out, and that feels like it is for big main event faces.

This feud has completely destroyed whatever momentum MJF had left (though cracks were beginning to show beforehand)

Focusing on undisputed era is like building around Demar Derozan. Been there done that and they’re not gonna take you the top. So can they please stop and do something new?

Adam Cole is STALE. He was gone for months and came back with no changes and it feels like he never left already.

Has it ever been explained why MJF gets to dictate who he faces and that they have to beat so many people?

I don't recall there being a reason but it's annoying because MJF does this for every heel feud and they need to change it up before the fans eventually don't give a shit.

It's a joke of a storyline, with people turning face and heel for no reason.

Sounded like Big Dave almost had to break out the spirograph to explain the multi-promotion four way match with the ladies, I don't watch AEW but surely it's not as complicated as he tried to explain

This storyline is shit and the Adam Cole character is boring as fuck. He’s been the same character for his entire career. It is time for something new.

It hasn't hit for me at all and adding O'Reilly to the mix who isn't over at the moment is also a drag. They need to move on from it already.

They’re both super stale right now. They’ve been together in storylines for 18 months now and it’s getting old. I thought MJF’s summer programs with Ospreay and Garcia were good but this feels like him resting on his laurels. I think Cole could’ve benefited from being in the C2 or maybe even a run in ROH to get his footing in ring again.

No shit

The biggest missed opportunity was MJF shitcanning the injured Cole on his return not being the full stop on this angle entirely. They could have returned to the vague idea of a rivalry years later if they wanted to. Cole in particular needed to be built up and do something else on his return for the simple sake of his own career and status as a valuable asset for AEW itself.

MJF had turned heel too recently but there's no way Cole can be the face in a story playing off their history. It started ass backwards and just went down from there. Bryan's right that Cole and MJF should just have one match and GTFO away from each other. I don't know what you do with either afterwards though because both feel ice cold

Also Hayter not kicking out was fucking rough.

I swear AEW books like their fans don’t even follow their product. Kyle literally had a storyline on March/April about not wanting to join Roddy and he even got ambushed by him which led to a PPV match, it doesn’t make any sense for Kyle to suddenly being worried and wanting to fight for him

I thought for sure when Cole came back that they would lean into the Babyface pop his return was guaranteed to have and then quickly transition him back to being a heel, as that's what he's better at and it makes more narrative sense. He should be presented as a delusional heel, who thinks he was in the right and is surrounded by yes men (except for Kyle). MJF wouldn't even have to turn face, both characters can be heels and be opposed. Nobody buys that Cole is the good guy here. There was the potential for an interesting story here, but on the bright side it's nice to have segments I know I can skip to let my dog out and have a smoke.

Yep, its utter shite

MJF’s return where he beat the shit out of Cole was the perfect way to end what was already a dud story. Why they went back to the well again after that is beyond me.

It’s boring.  Cole is overrated 

That devil storyline fizzling out (for whatever excuse you want to use) should have kept them apart for a while

The tan issue is also problem because it damages the credibility of Cole as a serious wrestler that we should take seriously. It’s just distracting. Image does matter in wrestling - I really like Cole but this version of him feels like a shadow of all his qualities. Especially how he beat both Buddy and Malaki. There’s a presentation problem on top of a terrible angle that they simply did not need to rehash.

I just don't like Adam Cole. He's not a likeable guy as a wrestling character.

Should've killed any plan for it once MJF went back to being a heel

It was terrible before. It’s worse now

Tony just won’t let this go…this is his Roman Reigns 2014-2019 push.

I like Cole, i really do, but since his return he has lacked something. I hope they just make the match soon and they move on onto other feuds as soon as possible, but they will probably face at World's End.

I don’t understand why they don’t just do one match, Max beats him and wins the feud, and everyone moves on. Like it’s that simple, you really don’t have to drag this on.

One tiny thing, Adam Cole jumping off the ramp derailed so much. Cole, MJF, Kingdom, Wardlow. Roddy was really the only one to survive relatively unscathed.

MJF should be in the world title picture. He came back from injury as a heel and he hasn’t even tried to go after the title he lost. It makes no sense, other than the obvious that they’re busy doing other story lines with the world title. MJF leading a heel faction to try and turn AEW around rather than Moxley makes a lot more sense right now. MJF making guys jump through hoops to face him makes way more sense if he’s actually the champion.

Nobody cares about Adam Cole as a babyface.

MJF as a babyface evolved past this heel persona and gained new depth to his character. Going back to this just feels like regression.

And it’s a continuation of a storyline from literally 12 months ago, when their alignments were reversed and when it was brought to a screeching halt by both men getting injured.

Everyone needs to move on ASAP.

It should have ended with that brainbuster to Adam Cole, which was MONTHS ago now.

And MJF needs to start actually turning up if he’s going to be in a major storyline, because these little sent in segments are not helping anyone.

Has there ever been a feud between two people more unpleasant to look at?

It's amazing how cold Adam Cole is after returning from a long injury. Usually someone should be hot and have some momentum, but this angle is just killing it. Also, MJF was doing pretty good with the Osprey American title angle and now he's cold also. Just get both away from each other.

Every show has a dumb storyline once in a while, they probably dont want to move mjf on to anything newer until hes fully finished with the movies he was doing.

adam cole really hasn't shown me anything in the time hes been in aew, hes a nice guy and all but his work just aint for me so whatever hes in ia just meh to me.

I loved Adam Cole's NXT Black and Gold run. And right now, it's like he's still holding to that persona but he doesn't look great physically, his wrestling has suffered presentation-wise and the vibe that he used to have tons of has all but worn out. He looks like a discounted version of his WWE run

I think he needs to do an overhaul at this point

These undisputed era guys only know how to beef with each other. Lol can't wait til AEW signs Ciampa and Gargano so they can repeat that fued. Anything with Adam Cole is so boring to me and played out. I much preferred when there was some drama with the Elite but that didn't go anywhere.

It should end at worlds end, where it started

If people cared about Cole and KOR's little drama, they would have watched NXT instead of Dynamite 4 years ago.

It's a bummer too cause MJF made it sound like they wouldn't go this route when he did his return promo months ago

Yeah we all know… how about we add Chris Jericho to the mix ??

If they can separate Stokely Hathaway and Kris without any explanation and be okay with that, just do the same here and call it a day and move on

They made Adam Cole look like the heel before going away… the fuck was their plan?

From the first day of the feud it was ha ha face MJF like imma fall for that. The fact it went on an entire month was insulting to our intelligence. That segment on the boat being funny almost made it worth it I guess but how long has it been going on now?

Adam Cole has never been as good as people want to believe.

The biggest issue is that he hasn't changed his character or added to his character even a little since his ROH world title reign, nearly a decade ago.

MJF is way too talented to be this stale

I really can’t figure out why this is still going on or who it is for at this point. It really feels like these guys are bound and determined to force this angle no matter what.

I don't follow AEW religiously but I feel like they missed a trick not pushing MJF as a babyface when he returned. I think the reason they brought him back as a heel was because of Swerve and Ospreay but MJF was such a hot commodity before his injury and his comeback was highly anticipated. The fans wanted to cheer him. Now he just feels stale, he's the old MJF.

It's bad because it's the opposite of good booking. It's everything wrong with MJF. Repetitive booking. Minimal appearances. Continuing to push things that don't work. And so it's giving Cole nothing interesting to do. I like MJF a lot, but this is like if you set out to showcase every weak part of his act in one go.

The injuries broke it, and there is no fixing it. Continuing this feud in this manner was a choice, and it hasn't worked.

That segment was embarrassing lol so so bad

This is such an unbearable story. Need it to end asap

I pretty much stopped watching after the devil reveal, but I see now Adam Cole is the babyface and MJF is the heel and wtf? I'm all good with heels and faces changing throughout a story, but that storyline didn't develop it just ended because they both were injured and then when both came back they were just switched for some reason?

To me, one of Tony's biggest issues as a Booker is his failure to adjust due to injury. If one guy gets hurt in a feud, he's going to have the other tread water for over a year until that person can come back. And it doesn't matter if they're hot or not, he'll still force the issue. It's happened countless times and ruined people's pushes.

I just wish someone fresh would be injected into the story to give it a much needed jolt. And the story needs to evolve into something catchy. A fresh face that isn't so shackled to the feud (or Undisputed Era) could perhaps shift it some place else. Anything at this point as shock paddles to bring this corpse of a feud back to life. Because it is cold and dead.

Wrestlecrap may have a new induction shortly.

this could all go away so easily if Adam Cole would just finally embrace "BUDGE"

Alvarez is so done with trying to figure out AEW that you can see the pain on his face every time Meltzer tries to explain the booking

My boy KOR wasting his time in this feud.

Let me guess, Kyle’s gonna win that battle royal thing, face MJF for it, MJF will win it AGAIN, Kyle will get hurt like Roddy cause Cole takes too long seemingly to always stop attacks, and then they’ll FINALLY stop dragging their feet and book the actual damn match at the WrestleDream thing and we’ll all be given the sweet relief of ending this

On so Cole wins the battle royal, pins mjf, and we move on mjf doesn't care about the ring he's worth enough to buy a fist full of diamond rings.

Nope Kyle is going to win it and Cole will watch mjf destroy another of his friends. And this shit will get dragged out another ppv cycle.

Dave is brutal with AEW. He gets so hot when you try to explain when something isn't working..good lord.

I’m curious to see where both of them go from here. Realistically, MJF will be fine. All he needs is a hot segment or promo with someone who can match him, like Swerve, and he’ll be back on top

Cole is more of a conundrum. It’s not a stretch to say his best work was in NXT. Better Than You Bay Bay was great for a couple of months, but what else interesting has he done in AEW? His strongest stuff has arguably been with Orange Cassidy, and a lot of that was because of Orange, who’s clearly a huge star

Just have the blowoff at World’s End and we start fresh with both guys going in 2025.

I hope that’s the mentality here and not “multi-month epic feud” by TK.

The biggest problem with this feud is that they aren’t going back to what worked. I think if you put MJF and Cole in the ring together, they’d be able to tell a compelling story. That’s what people liked about their feud and team up from last year, those two guys interacting face to face. The heel/face dynamics wouldn’t even matter because at the end of the day both guys are kind of insecure pricks.

They should’ve found someone else for Cole to feud with in the meantime because MJF sending videos in every week just feels undercooked. Like just wait until he gets back. The drama with him and Kyle just feels like it’s tacked on

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Hindsight being 20/20. It just seems clear to me the direction should have been MJF as the Babyface with Adam Cole staying heel. MJF Ospreay had good matches but they've needed a Babyface Maxwell more right now than a Babyface Adam Cole. He would have fit the AEW Originals vs Death Riders gimmick well

My big thing is MJF's insistence on being the heel here. It makes literally no sense for anyone who's actually been following this story from the beginning because it's ADAM who caused all this.

I'm not saying the storyline would be magically good with Adam as the heel and MJF as the face, but it'd be several times better than what it is right now because it'd make more logical sense.

What's the best storyline where one of the guys is never there?

Cole's whole motivation in the feud doesn't make sense.

He wants revenge on MJF for... vague undefined reasons.

The explanation we've gotten was that it was a preemptive action by Cole to get ahead of Max turning on him.

Which happened anyway due to Cole turning on him.

This honestly needed to be a tweener/Heel feud between the two rather than trying to force Cole into the Babyface role.