Report: WWE Wanted Adam Cole To Be Keith Lee's Manager On The Main Roster

Adam Cole would have been used as Keith Lee's manager on the main roster if the former NXT Champion had re-signed with WWE, according to a new report.

Cole's WWE contract expired earlier this year and the 32-year-old agreed to a short-term extension with the company to finish his storyline with Kyle O'Reilly. 

If he had re-signed long-term with WWE, Cole would have been called up to the main roster but he wouldn't have been wrestling. 

According to Dave Meltzer, WWE wanted to book Cole as Keith Lee's manager and they would have had a similar dynamic to the 2018 Lio Rush-Bobby Lashley partnership.

"They were going to bring him [Cole] up. The idea was to turn Keith Lee heel, have Adam Cole be his manager, probably with a different name because of the last name 'Cole' and Michael Cole, with the idea of a kind of Lio Rush and Bobby Lashley thing where you have this little guy who's a big talker and he hides behind this big, massive African American guy," Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio.

"So that was kind of the dynamic they were looking for for him, more as a manager than as a wrestler... One person told me that it was Bruce's [Prichard] idea, another person told me it was Vince's."

Cole ultimately opted to leave WWE and he made his All Elite Wrestling debut at All Out, reuniting with The Elite in the process. Speaking about joining AEW following the pay-per-view, Cole admitted it was a "fairly easy" decision.