Update on Adam Cole and the Current Plans for Him in NXT

As mentioned yesterday, it is believed that former Ring of Honor World Champion Adam Cole has signed with WWE. PWInsider first broke the story and the belief is that Cole is going to be starting off his WWE career in the developmental brand NXT. Cole is the latest name in a laundry list of former ROH talents that have either joined or will be joining WWE this year. Fans have already been thinking of tons of different ideas and storylines for Cole, such as leading an ‘ROH faction’ that has been rumored as of late. However, it doesn’t look like Adam Cole is going to be getting such immediate attention when he does show up in NXT.
In the past, we have seen WWE sign stars such as Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode, and Shinsuke Nakamura, and they were almost instantly pushed and became NXT Champion. A new report from PWTorch states that WWE does not intend on doing this with Adam Cole. Sean Radican of the Torch reports that Cole will be getting a solid push in NXT, but he won’t be made the top heel or face of the brand anytime soon. Drew McIntyre did return to NXT this year and now currently has a match against Bobby Roode for the NXT Championship at Takeover: Brooklyn III this Saturday, but it appears as though McIntyre may be the last person to receive this treatment.
The reason why Cole won’t be immediately emphasized is because of a ruling made by Triple H to not immediately thrust independent wrestling sensations into the spotlight. This was made evident by the fact that Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish both recently made their NXT debuts by losing to Aleister Black. Another example is Kassius Ohno not being very heavily emphasized since returning to NXT. While all of these names are certain to receive a good push, Triple H is said to be concentrating on pushing talent trained exclusively at the Performance Center. This is why The Velveteen Dream, Sonya Deville, and The Street Profits have made their NXT debuts recently. Adam Cole is still reported to be joining the WWE Performance Center later this week.