Adam Cole made a surprise debut during Sunday's AEW All Out pay-per-view.

It was not originally believed Cole was backstage at the event, but AEW managed to keep his debut a surprise for all.

During the post-show media scrum, Cole was about his decision to join All Elite Wrestling, having recently just left WWE. Cole revealed he was excited about his debut today his legs were shaking at one point and calls his debut a highlight of his career.

Cole said he had "an excellent” 4-year journey in NXT", and "knew for a while" that he wanted to join AEW so the decision was an easy one.

Interestingly Tony Khan said, Adam Cole was the one that struck fear in him during the NXT vs. AEW Wednesday night wars.

Cole told Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp that he thought his contract with WWE lasted another 6 months. but it actually expired:

"Yeah so, funny enough, believe it or not, I was also surprised. Yeah, I was under the impression that it was like six months later. So it was a surprise to me. It was a surprise to them. It was public knowledge for a lot of people that I had signed a little extension, I was in the middle of a really serious angle with Kyle O'Reilly, which was very important to me. He's one of my best friends in the entire world. Then after that is when stuff kind of opened up for me, but very surprising to me. It was just as surprising to me."

Adam Cole's last WWE match was at the recent NXT TakeOver: 36.

ADAM COLE BAY BAY!!! #AEWALLOUT pic.twitter.com/HAFTbgkYgg

, Denise Salcedo (@_denisesalcedo) September 6, 2021

Adam Cole says that he had an excellent 4 year experience with WWE but he knew for a while he wanted to come to AEW said it was a fairly easy one. #AEWAllOut

, Denise Salcedo (@_denisesalcedo) September 6, 2021