A suspected case of the flu caused Adam Cole to miss this year's AEWxNJPW Forbidden Door event, according to AEW President Tony Khan.

Prior to the event, Cole had been scheduled to face Tom Lawlor on the card, and their match was made official last week. Hours ahead of Forbidden Door going live, it was revealed that Cole was unwell and had been pulled from the show. Instead of Cole, Lawlor, the inaugural NJPW Strong Openweight Champion, faced Serpentico in a dark match.

Adam Cole missing this year's AEWxNJPW Forbidden Door show is just the latest setback for the former WWE NXT Champion at the event. It was at last year's Forbidden Door that Cole suffered a concussion that would keep him out of action for close to a year. During the post-show media scrum, Tony Khan went into detail about the decision to pull Cole from this year's event.

“I’m sorry that they weren’t able to have the match. It’s just terrible. Adam Cole came sick today, and we had to send him home. We didn’t want to get everybody else sick, especially post-lockdown, I think the measures are very careful. He’s a very tough guy, and he would love to fight, but he came in with a fever.

“He’s got what I think is a flu, and I think he’s gonna be okay. I hope he’s gonna be okay. But in this case, you just gotta be safe. He should be okay, I hope, and look forward to Adam Cole and a number of other great pairings that we’ll put together competing in the tag team tournament, when he’s better, but he wasn’t cleared for tonight.”

Tony Khan added that when Lawlor is available again, he thinks a match with Cole would be fantastic. Khan added that he intends for Lawlor to have a televised match for AEW after his bout with Serpentico was a dark match.