Adam Cole Hopes History Looks Back On Black & Gold WWE NXT As A Special Era

During the black and gold era, WWE NXT was recognised by many fans as the best professional wrestling product in North America, with the developmental brand then headed up by Triple H placing an emphasis on work rate while featuring top stars like Adam Cole, Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, Samoa Joe, Sami Zayn, Adrian Neville (PAC), Tyler Breeze, and Finn Balor across several years. 

The brand has since transitioned away from its black and gold roots, first becoming NXT 2.0 before settling somewhere in the middle of both eras in the Summer of 2022. 

Adam Cole was a key part of the black and gold era with his Undisputed ERA faction mates Kyle O'Reilly, Roderick Strong, and Bobby Fish, having been featured on WWE NXT between 2016 and 2021. 

Speaking about his time on NXT, Cole admitted to Under the Ring he hopes people look back on the black and gold era as a special time. 

"I certainly hope history looks back on [the Black and Gold era] as a special one. I felt like we were in the middle of something very, very special. As far as what made it work, I think it was a combination of the timing being really right, I think you had Triple H, who was eating, sleeping, and breathing NXT at the time and a totally invested Shawn Michaels, the same thing. You had a roster full of guys who had known each other for years and just were ready to commit everything to making this the best show we possibly could," Cole said.

"I think for fans as well, even though NXT had already started this trend before I had gotten there and before the black and gold era per se, but you could see the fans with these early Takeovers with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn and Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura, you could feel the brand growing and you could feel more and more people joining this ride that was NXT black and gold," he continued.

"I think for a lot of people, it was the first time that they had seen that style of wrestling truth be told. Obviously, there were people that had followed a lot of us on the independents before then, but then you had some people that hadn't seen that sort of style and are seeing it for the first time through WWE's eyes in these huge arenas and it just created this movement that was absolutely unbelievable."

Cole left WWE in August 2021 after his contract expired. He debuted in AEW soon after, a promotion which has signed a number of former NXT stars, including Keith Lee and his former UE faction mates Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong. 

H/T to Fightful