In the immortal words of Stone Cold Steve Austin, if there’s one thing I can’t stand about professional wrestling today, it’s the “Can they co-exist?” story.
Personally, I could never see an odd couple tag team storyline for the rest of my wrestling fandom and I would be just fine. That is how over it I truly am.
We have seen this tired trope countless times over the years, especially from WWE, and it hasn’t reached the desired results in what feels like decades. I could list them all here, but I don’t want to look like Chris Jericho reading off all 1,004 of his holds.
(I’m still waiting to see the Saskatchewan spinning nerve hold, by the way.)
But I am also willing to make exceptions. And in this case, that is the budding bromance between Maxwell Jacob Friedman and Adam Cole.
While nothing is guaranteed, I think we all have a pretty good idea of where this is going. Eventually, MJF and Cole will go from bros to foes and probably put on a classic match together to boot. But the end result isn’t really the most important aspect of this story. It is the journey leading up to it.
The journey is the key ingredient WWE routinely forgets when producing its latest “Can they co-exist?” story. Instead, it gets right to the infighting between the two sides, which doesn’t have much of an impact when we never saw either side find some sort of common ground.
AEW is making the smart decision of not only having MJF and Cole find that common ground, but essentially turning them into two peas in a pod. MJF and Cole have matching gear, matching merchandise and the most devastating tag team finisher since the Doomsday Device, the double clothesline.
They even have a mash-up of their respective theme songs. That’s when you know it’s real.
Cole and MJF have also done multiple segments where they interact with each other outside of the ring. In these segments, we can literally see their friendship truly blossom right before our very eyes. It will make it all the more heartbreaking when they inevitably go their separate ways.
This specific story is not without its flaws, as the dance number before the finals of the tag team eliminator was an odd direction to go in. Other than that, I am actually here for it.
My favorite aspect of the story is the conflicting emotions of MJF. The current AEW World Heavyweight champion has literally referred to himself as the Devil in the past, which does not sound like a good omen for Cole.
However, MJF has fully bought into liking Cole, despite his instincts telling him not to do so. MJF was even distraught after their tag title match against FTR on the July 29 edition of Collision, mainly because he was the one who took the pinfall.
AEW could have easily had Cole take the pin, have MJF blame Cole for the loss, and quickly turn on him soon after. Instead, it was MJF who took the fall. He then wrestled with the decision to turn on his newfound friend before deciding against it.
It is a wrinkle that I found very intriguing and much more interesting than anything WWE has produced in this realm in a very long time.
So yes, I am actually enjoying a “Can they co-exist?” story. But I maintain that I would be just fine with never seeing it again.