#character: adam cole

[grizzledyoungimpact]

The Devil's In The Details

Whumpuary 2024 January 1-2, 2024 Captivity/Snow/Secret Revealed MJF/Adam Cole

The worst thing that should have happened that night was he couldn't get his arm up in time. After the months of torture at the hands of the Devil and his Demons, Maxwell had not really been surprised when it turned out Samoa Joe was in league with those men. Were they all men? Sometimes it was hard to keep track when there were so many of them. It didn't matter though. Hell, Joe taking his title didn't really matter.

Not when he had Adam by his side.

In the beginning, Adam had been nothing but an annoyance that wanted his title. Max had no intentions on getting involved with the other man. Had it not been for the surprise of being thrown together in a tag team, Max would have kept on being alone. From hot wing dinners to video game sprees to even winning the Ring of Honor tag team championships, Max had found that being alone wasn't what he wanted at all. Having a friend was what Maxwell wanted.

Adam Cole was what Maxwell wanted.

The injury to Adam's ankle had thrown a wrench in everything. Adam wouldn't be there by his side, wouldn't be able to defend their tag team championships. Adam had wanted to relinquish them, but no. No. Max wasn't able to let his friend down like that. Max wasn't able to let Adam go. For the first time in his life, he felt loved. Maxwell felt needed. Giving up the titles meant giving up on Adam and Max refused to give up Adam.

It was why losing those Ring of Honor tag team championships had hurt so badly. Of all things that The Devil had caused to happen, the loss of such a special memory was what hurt so badly. Joe would pay for the double cross. Joe was going to lose the one thing that he loved so much, the chance to ever become a champion. Joe had to lose to make up for taking Adam and Max swore to have that retaliation.

Or, at least, he wanted to be that retaliation.

Joe's Coquina Clutch had taken away the chance Max had to make him suffer. Joe walking away with the Big Burberry Belt in his hometown was more painful than he could ever begin to fathom. Adam cradling him, talking him through his pain was helping. The touch of Adam's hand was helping.

The arrival of the Devil's Demons wasn't even enough to take the feeling of Adam's praise away.

Max did his best to fight for his friend, but it wasn't long before both he and Adam were on their knees in the center of the ring. It took two men and the previous match to stop Maxwell from getting to his friend. The man between them held a chair and all Max could think to do was beg.

"Adam, no! Adam no!" Max screamed as the largest of the masked men raised the chair above his head with intent to hit his best friend, "You hit me. Hit me. Do not hit him! Don't you fucking hit him! Hit me! HIT ME!"

The lights cut out and Max knew this was it. The man beneath the devil mask was on his way. Max assumed it was someone like Swerve Strickland or Hangman Adam Page. At this point, maybe even Jack Petty. Max was prepared to fight. Max was prepared for any one of those men to try and take everything from him.

Max had been ready for everyone but the harsh reality that he faced once the lights came up.

Sitting in the same chair Max was certain was about to hit either him or Adam in the head, was Adam. The masked men stood behind him, as if awaiting the word to attack. Max knelt in shock, tears welling up in his eyes. Of all the possibilities in the world, Max had never thought it could be the man he considered his best friend. Max had never wanted it to be his friend. Adam pushed his long hair out of his face, looking up to stare Max in his eyes.

"Not you man..."

The Devil's Demons were evident before they ever unmasked. Roderick Strong made sense. He was Adam's supposed best friend, maybe even real best friend now? The men who had taken his beloved Ring of Honor Tag Team Championships were The Kingdom, Matt Taven and Mike Bennett which, again, made sense. There was a little confusion upon seeing Wardlow, but even then, Max understood that it made sense.

Max felt his throat run dry, "Not you, man. Not you. Anybody but you! I lo-"

Before he could confess, the Devil's Demons rushed him to attack. Adam's men rushed him to attack.

He had known better in his heart than to believe anyone could ever love a scumbag.

[underratedandoverit]

(not) your finest hour

~2,6k words orangekip (orange cassidy/kip sabian)

actually i think this is my first orangekip without it being exclusively set in the corruption arc lol. they are just dating. kip says fuck a few too many times. i dont know how to write kissing scenes sorry about that. also my first time writing both cole and uno again im sorry proofreading past what spelling mistakes docs pointed out to me doesnt exist i die like the man i am not

@midnightpretenders0 @stormbornpirate

on ao3

----------

Kip stopped behind the hotel room door, glancing towards the blond that had been wandering behind him down the hall as Kip basically pulled him by the hand so they wouldn’t be late to the scheduled appearance. Cassidy looked just about as interested to be here as he did with anything else, but Kip knew he was just as excited as he was; they hadn’t done an episode of All Elite Arcade together before more than once, and they had finally convinced Uno to give them an episode together, for the title Cassidy was holding nonetheless, promising him great content in return.

Kip gently yanked him closer by the hand he was still holding, watching as Cassidy’s traveling eyes landed on him finally. He had the sunglasses with him but then weren’t on his face yet, him waiting to pop into character right before dropping in on the stream, so Kip enjoyed watching those bright eyes looking over at him, being followed with a small smile tugging in the corner of his lips.

“You ready?”

Cassidy just shrugged, Kip smiling back at him as he pulled the blond even closer, closing the gap between them with a quick kiss. “For luck. You’re gonna need it.”

Kip heard something resembling a snort coming from his boyfriend, but Cassidy just smiled back at him a little. “Do I need to remind you that I’m the champion?”

From the corner of his eye Kip saw him lift the backpack that Cassidy was holding in his other hand, giving it a little jiggle, the hardware tinkling quietly inside. He was very well aware of the steaks brought to the table, this had been their idea after all. Kip just laughed at him a little, suppressing any possible objections from Cassidy before he could even get started with them with another kiss before he turned around, finally giving a knock on the door.

Kip could feel the warm hand leaving his, taking a quick look over his shoulder towards Cassidy, watching the blond finally pull the sunglasses from his jean jacket pocket, slipping them on his face before the hotel room door was pushed open. They were warmly welcomed into the room, both hosts of the show already in there setting everything up and preparing the small set inside the hotel room.

“You ready, champ?” Adam asked, patting Cassidy on the shoulder as he took the seat designated for him after everyone had exchanged the morning pleasantries. The blond shrugged a little. “Confident you’re going to win today?”

“He doesn’t stand a chance,” Kip piped in with a chuckle as he sat down on the armchair next to him, getting Cassidy a look from over the top rim of his sunglasses as he raised his brows at Kip slightly. “Whatever you got for me champ, I’m here for the win.”

“Well, we know the first game is going to be Halo,” Uno stated as he plugged the Xbox into the hotel room television. “And you requested GoldenEye, I believe?”

Kip nodded as the masked man glanced towards him before returning to finishing the setup for the stream, the Brits eyes traveling back to Cassidy, giving him a smirk. “Prepare for your defeat, Clementine.”

Cassidy just shrugged again. “Whatever.”

Kip didn’t take it to heart, he knew Cassidy was just slipping into character as they were mere minutes away from the stream actually starting. The other man was very particular about the way he portrayed himself whenever in public with the character he had, so this wasn’t anything new for Kip to experience. And nobody else in the room didn’t seem to be bothered by him basically shutting down either, taking this in just as a normal behavior, as Adam and Uno continued to chat it away while setting everything up as the stream countdown kept steadily running down.

As they eventually got started with the streams and the games, it didn’t take too long until both players were very deep into the competition. Kip had tried to study Cassidy’s previous title defenses to pick apart his strategy and play style, but admittedly it didn’t seem to be enough compared to how well Cassidy already knew the type of gamer Kip was; hotheaded and easy to distract. Not that Cassidy necessarily had to fall down to any dirty tactics to keep the championship, but it definitely did help that he knew exactly what buttons to push to keep Kip on his toes throughout the entire first round of Halo.

“Come on, man!” Kip sighed, slapping his thigh in frustration as Cassidy got yet another kill on him, the blond barely emoting over his easy victory. “This game is garbage!”

“It’s not my fault you don’t know how to play,” Cassidy stated back, getting a little ‘oooh’ in the background from Adam. Kip sent Cassidy a quick glare before preparing for the next respawn, but unfortunately the results against the currently reigning All Elite Arcade champion weren’t that much different this time around. He got a few good shots in, but ultimately was downed, time and time and time again.

“How is this even fair?!” Cassidy just shrugged, lowering his controller on the table as Uno was announcing him the clear winner of the first round, leading the championship challenge now with one to zero wins. “I swear you’re cheating! You are not that good in this game!”

“Born a champion, baby.” Kip glared at him, clearly not being amused by the nonchalant replies he was getting back. “Maybe you just need to pick up your game and stop complaining.”

Kip remained quiet, barely accepting the new controller Uno was handing his way. His confidence definitely had gotten a blow by losing in a first person shooter, his trademark style of game, to someone seemingly as non-gamer as Cassidy. Obviously Kip didn’t come into this situation thinking this was going to be easy, he had seen all the previous title defenses and knew Cassidy was actually good at this. But Kip just hadn’t expected it like this. He wasn’t supposed to be better than him at this.

“I hope you’re ready to get absolutely dragged,” Kip muttered from between gritted teeth, but Cassidy didn’t reply. It was part of the psychological warfare going on, Kip was aware of that, but despite knowing the blond’s game plan, Kip couldn’t do much to prevent it from getting to him. “That title is going to be mine.”

“Then you have to play better than that for it.”

Biting his teeth together, Kip refused to answer back as he tried to focus on the new game starting up. This was a game of his choice for this challenge, he knew he was good at this, but at the same time a voice in the back of his mind was taunting him over the loss in the previous round and it definitely didn’t help his situation.

As was painfully obvious almost immediately as Cassidy got an easy first kill over him.

“Come on, Kip, what’s wrong with you?” he chuckled, enjoying him maybe a little bit too much to see the seething rage slowly taking over Kip. “Look, I’ll stand right here and let you make the first shot. Sounds good?”

“I don’t need your pity points,” Kip muttered under his breath, barely holding himself back from cursing out loud. The bad words were bouncing around in his head, but he bit his tongue back. “I can beat you without your stupid mercy.”

“Suit yourself,” Cassidy shrugged, taking aim once again as he was expecting Kip to try to jump him again, almost fully understanding his game plan already. Which only further infuriated the already on edge Kip, pushing him into making mistake after mistake after mistake, until the outcome was undeniable.

The curse was so loud it was probably heard outside the room as well, stunning everyone inside of it momentarily as Kip bounced up from the seat, throwing the controller in his hand away. Cassidy barely looked up to him, just blankly staring at the television screen, ignoring the tantrum happening right next to him. He could feel a little stab of regret in pushing Kip, as this really hadn’t been his intention with all of this, but at the same time trying to remain calm and in character was the top priority in his head right there and then.

“Well, there you have it folks.” Uno’s voice was slightly hesitant after Kip’s sudden outburst, only making the Brit scoff loudly, finally making Cassidy look up at him. Cassidy offered him his hand for a sportsmanship like shake, but Kip just flipped him off before storming out of camera, and eventually out of the room. Cassidy glanced after him, the concern hidden behind his sunglasses, brows barely furrowing in a visible manner. He didn’t think Kip was going to take it this hard, this was nothing but a friendly competition. For a belt, sure, but even then it wasn’t that serious.

As Uno was trying to focus back on talking about the champion retaining the title, Adam slid off from his seat on the bed in the background, quietly making out of the room. Kip hadn’t obviously gotten far, he was currently sulking in the hallway, obviously not very happy about the situation.

“Hey, everything okay?”

Kip just pouted back at him, running a hand through his light hair with another huff. “Yeah. Yeah, just fucking splendid.”

Stupid answer for an obviously stupid question, both of them had to admit that as Adam crossed his arms over his chest, clearly expecting a bit more out of him than that. Kip just sighed.

“It’s fine, I’m just… I’m just gonna go. Tell Clementine congrats from me.”

Adam nodded, but leaned closer to give a little empathetic pat on his shoulder. “We all have our moments. Take a breather.”

Inhaling deeply Kip nodded back at him, Adam giving him a couple more pats before turning on his heels, walking back to the door. Before he re-entered back into the hotel room, he glanced over his shoulder back towards Kip, watching him start slowly making his way down the hallway towards the elevators. Shaking his head a little, Adam unlocked the hotel room door, letting himself back inside.

------

Maybe half an hour later Cassidy pushed the hotel room door open, not being surprised at all to hear the television making sounds in the second room. He carefully kicked the door shut after him before walking in, lowering the tray of takeout coffee cups on the nearest flat surface he could find. He was sure Kip had heard him come in, but he couldn’t hear any reactions to his arrival, fully gluing him in on the fact that he was most likely still mad at him for what had happened.

Not that Cassidy really blamed him, he had probably pushed the buttons a bit too hard with Kip earlier, but that was also the name of the game. They had both agreed to this, and Cassidy was never opposed to Kip doing the same to him. Obviously he had gotten destroyed so badly that he never really had an opportunity to do such a thing, but the chance was always there.

Well, no reason to dwell on it now, he thought as Cassidy picked two coffee cups from the cardboard tray before making his way to the bedroom section of the hotel room. Peeking in from the doorway, he smiled faintly, seeing the familiar man sitting criss crossed on the bed, poking around on his phone, barely paying attention to his surroundings.

“Hey.”

Kip didn’t look up at him, just letting out a small noise of acknowledgment as Cassidy leaned against the door frame, observing him for a moment. He had definitely done some mental damage earlier, seeing how withdrawn into himself Kip was at the moment, clearly not being in the mood of interacting with him. Cassidy had thought giving him a moment to calm down would help, after Adam told him how pissed off Kip seemed after they went off the air, but apparently it hadn’t been long enough yet. Thankfully he detoured a bit and got some bribes in the shape of some hotel breakfast coffee instead of returning directly back to the hotel room, so that should hopefully help with some of the pain the Brit was going through.

“I didn’t mean to make you so upset out there.”

“I’m not upset,” Kip muttered as a response, but still didn’t look up from his phone. Cassidy sighed, pushing his shoulder off from the door frame, walking inside the room. Kip only glanced up at him as Cassidy offered one of the two cardboard coffee cups in his direction, but instead of taking it he just kept looking at Cassidy blankly before going back to his phone, playing a game as far as Cassidy was able to decipher from his screen. Shaking his head, he walked to the nightstand, lowering both cups on it before turning back towards Kip, the other man still seemingly not wanting to give him the time of day.

“Come on, you can’t seriously be mad at me for that.”

“I told you, I’m not mad.”

Inhaling deeply, Cassidy walked closer, stopping to the edge of the bed, just watching at him for a while.

“It was just a video game, Kip.”

Finally Kip looked up from his phone long enough to actually bother flicking the screen off, eyes landing on Cassidy. He looked tired, all sorts of annoyed, clearly not wanting to sit here and have this conversation with him right now.

“That’s so fucking easy for you to say. Half of your entire life doesn’t revolve around that stuff, you had nothing to fucking lose, you’re already the fucking champion.”

The excessive cursing was already a great sign that Kip was annoyed, as if the obvious pout he was putting on wasn’t. Cassidy looked at him, watching his boyfriend crossing his arms over his chest, but he didn’t reply anything back to the Brit.

“So congrats or fucking whatever, I guess.”

Cassidy inhaled deeply, slowly pulling the sunglasses from his face, dropping them to the bed. Kip watched him, brows furrowing a bit as he knew the meaning of that serious face he was getting back from the blond - either he was in for a stern talking or Cassidy was done with his shit, ready to just walk away from him to let Kip think alone about what he had just said and done.

But instead, Cassidy reached for him, grabbing a hold of his ankles. A bit confused, in his surprise Kip still allowed himself to be pulled to the edge of the bed. He didn’t have a lot of time to adjust to his new position as Cassidy already straddled down on his lap, both hands cupping his cheeks as he pulled Kip into a kiss.

Immediately any even faint thoughts of anger and upset disappeared from his mind, Kip’s hands already on autopilot helping steady the blond in his lap, gently pulling him closer to him by his hips as his arms wrapped around Cassidy. Kip’s hands easily found the hem of his shirt, slipping under it, feeling cold against his skin as his fingertips tracked along his back, making Cassidy pull away from the kiss for a second to catch a breath.

“You know I don’t care about the title. You’re my biggest prize.”

“You’re so fucking corny, you know that?” Kip sighed, but couldn’t hold back a grin as he carefully picked the back of the collar of his shirt from the inside, as a clear indicator that he wanted to take it off.

“Maybe. But I know you love it.” Cassidy smiled at Kip before pulling him into another kiss.

[fishwikipedia]

images fueled by something

[unseenbox]

Oh! So Adam Cole being a not particularly good babyface is 100% intentional and I can prove it!

See, this isn't the first time Adam was coming back from an injury and would thus (at least temporarily) be babyface:

Notably, in this promo he goes into some detail about how bad his concussion was. He's wearing light colors, and while he does make a general 'unfortunately for you' threat at the end, he's speaking honestly and from the heart in a way that would generate sympathy for himself.

Contrast this with his promo from last week. He completely dismisses any kind of 'omg i missed you!' reaction by saying he'd talk about his personal business later, and then digs into MJF's personal flaws in an uncomfortable way instead. He's wearing dark colors and the lights are dark around him when he starts speaking.

So: Adam Cole isn't really a babyface right now, just pretending to be, and this isn't an accident or aew forgetting what he did to Max, but an intentional bit of characterization at the moment.

[wendigoruble]

Ya know.. I get it.

Max has always been a horrid heel before he was friends with Adam. By any stretch of the imagination stabbing Max in the back should be cathartic and deserved. Look back at all of the underhanded shit he pulled.

But also Max endeared himself to the audience, still did heel stuff, but we loved him. Logically, he very much deserved to be taken down a peg.

[mackdaddyofthecravate]

Adam being a 'hurt the other guy so they can't hurt you first' person is SO interesting, I guess being around Max made him look in the mirror a little too hard this time huh 👀❤️

[daddicusfinch]

We saw Lisa Frankenstein and this was all I could think about

[highfunctioningfleshrule63]

I love how studious you are about wrestling. 🩶 proud of you 👏 I was the same when I was younger

this message made me so happy man!!! im so new to all this stuff so this was so surprising to hear. i always worry im not ‘getting’ certain things or coming across like a moron to seasoned veteran fans

also very glad to be your pinkman here. wipes tear. i saw this message earlier but wanted my response to be righteous and gracious so i made you some special adam cole edits and a fancam hehe

[wnightingales]

this marks two times that adam cole has tricked mjf into accepting a match using his insecurities and i just

i love the vulnerability to max’s character. despite him being such an asshole in his mannerisms it is so clear he might just hate himself as much as everyone else does

[aspiring-creative-person]

Cole acquired 🤩

Ok but fr the Lego store employee was so nice and helpful!! I just wanted Cole and not a set basically, and he showed me a site where I could get them. (Important; I specifically wanted one with hair, and while I prefer sleeveless, that wasn’t a dealbreaker.)

But 2 minutes later after I was browsing and he came up and was like “So there’s this employee survey thing” or something, and I’m like, “Oh! Is it a survey because you helped me?” I would gladly leave him a good review. But then he was like “No, we fill out surveys and we get these coins, and we put them in a machine to get Lego characters. So I looked in my bucket of all my characters, and he was near the top!”

And so he whips out this Cole Lego figure, and because it’s his and not the store’s technically, he let me have it for free??!?!?!

I tried to give him a tip, but he wouldn’t accept it, idk if they’re allowed to. I asked if I could leave a good review somewhere, he said I need a receipt from the store for that. I can probably borrow my friend’s receipt, I’ll do that when I can!!

His name was Adam. If anyone wants to leave a good review do it!!! (I’m not comfortable giving a specific location but it was a mall in GA)

Anyway!! Everyone welcome Cole to the family!!

[givemeyourknees]

Spot the difference (Impossible)

[grizzledyoungimpact]

Kay's Whumptober Day 13

Prompt #13: Aftermath of Betrayal Pairing: Kyle O'Reilly/Destiny Layfield (OC)/Adam Cole Mentions Of: Roderick Strong, Bobby Fish, Finn Balor, Pete Dunne Verse: Main

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Vengeance Day was the first time in a long time that one of four members of the Undisputed Era was not booked for the program. It meant that Kyle had plenty of time to enjoy the show, specifically the main event of Finn Balor and Pete Dunne. The match had gone well enough, with Finn coming out the better man. That would have been the end of it had Pete's cronies, Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch, not attacked Finn after the match.

That would have been the end of it if Kyle O'Reilly had not been a bleeding heart.

Kyle had led his Undisputed Era teammates Adam Cole and Roderick Strong down to the ring. The Undisputed Era, minus Bobby who was back at home, had beaten back Dunne, Lorcan, and Burch. Kyle had been the one to offer a helping hand to NXT Champion Finn Balor, pulling him to his feet and offering him a spot in the Era. Kyle had been the one to watch in horror as Adam laid out Finn with a superkick.

And then Kyle had been the one dropped by a superkick from the same man.

Kyle's eyes still watered as he sat in the medic's office, holding his jaw. He didn't know what hurt more, the physicality and shock of the attack or the fact that it wasn't the first time that this had happened. Like clockwork, when Adam didn't get exactly what he wanted when he wanted it, he would turn on those closest to him. To Adam, no was never good enough. It didn't matter that he and Adam had been partners outside of the ring for years, Kyle had sided with someone who wasn't him and that was a betrayal.

The sound of heels on tile alerted Kyle to the other person Adam had inadvertently turned on out there, their partner Destiny Layfield.

"Kyle, are you-"

Kyle outstretched his arms and made a grabbing motion to Destiny, a signal that he wanted to be held. His arms wrapped around Destiny and he closed his eyes, face pressed against her chest as he openly cried. Destiny's manicured hand, nails painted black and gold, gently scratched at Kyle's head in a comforting manner. "Why did he..."

"No clue, baby boy," Destiny soothed. What had started as Destiny dating Adam and acting as both a financial backer and manager to the Undisputed Era had turned into a...what was the world he had heard before...polycule? Polycule sounded right. She was genuinely everything to Kyle and one of the only thoughts racing through his mind as the medics had helped him back here was that she would leave too.

Obviously that wasn't the case.

"Did I do wrong?" Kyle sniffed, pulling back to look at her, "Is that why he..."

"No, you didn't do this, Kyle. This is all Adam's fault," Destiny assured, cupping Kyle's face in her hands, "You let me take care of it, baby boy. We'll get to the bottom of it."

[beepbeepdespair]

the lovely ladies and gents of my spotify wrapped artists' messages: part 1

[zombiified]

refs for artfight :D my user is same as on here

[redpool]

And here I thought I had seen all of the weird shit that could ever happen in wrestling, but no, I just witnessed MJF who is probably the most serious wrestler I've ever encountered, have a dance off with Daniel Garcia.

[defeatsthem]

mjf throwing a dodgeball at kids while on a date with adam cole wasn’t on my 2023 bingo card