Adam Cole Recalls His WWE SmackDown Match Being Very Last Minute

During his tenure with WWE, Adam Cole was a mainstay of the "NXT" brand. However, in November 2019, a delayed flight from Saudi Arabia caused a number of last-minute changes to an episode of "WWE SmackDown," giving Cole an opportunity to make an unexpected main roster debut. Appearing on the latest "Swerve City" podcast, Cole recounted the story of his memorable match against Daniel Bryan on "SmackDown."

"It was like 1 p.m., and I was walking around in shorts, no shirt on, just casually making some food, and I got a phone call, and they said, 'Hey, you need to get on an airplane. I'm going to send you the address. You need to be there in an hour,'" Cole said. "I got the address a minute later, and the airport was 50 minutes from where I was from. So I had 10 minutes to throw all my stuff in a bag, and then rush to this airport." Cole said he made it to the show by 8:30 p.m. with the help of a police escort in Buffalo, New York. An hour later, Cole was out in the ring, wrestling Bryan in the main event.

"I'll tell you what the beautiful thing was about that," Cole continued. "I didn't have time to be nervous." Cole, who was "NXT" Champion at the time, made another "SmackDown" appearance later that month, but that would be the end of his main roster run in WWE. He returned to "NXT" for several more years before making the move to AEW when his contract expired in 2021 — ironically debuting in the upstart promotion on the same night as his "SmackDown" opponent, now wrestling as Bryan Danielson.