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Young Cole in CZW and his early ROH run a young handsome Indy cruiserweight with good fundamentals and Mic skills
Cornette was still in ROH and saw potential in him. Then Cornette left and Steen and the Bucks ran the locker room.
Then Cole started PWG with them and developed a lot of smirking wink wink bullshit small room bad habits.
But unlike Steen and the Bucks, he took stupid bumps that fucked up his shoulders and started his concussion history.
By the time he went to NXT he was already banged up. And he was only signed to steal him away from ROH and NJPW. In NXT he wasn't produced and was allowed to be as self indulgent as he wanted because it wasn't about preparing him for the main roster, it was about selling NXT to smarks.
When Vince finally saw him, he figured Cole still had the looks and Mic skills to: be paired with Keith Lee as a HBK/Diesel combo with Cole doing the talking as a part time manager whose level was the IC title.
Everyone who bailed on wwe to go to AEW is just bitter that Vince didn't see them as mania main eventers. He was right
