The Factory Member Joins Jay Lethal's Faction
Cole Karter, formerly a member of The Factory, jumped factions during the 11/2 episode of "AEW Dynamite," aligning himself with the group of Jay Lethal, Satnam Singh and Sonjay Dutt.
Towards the closing stages of the Lethal vs. Darby Allin match, a person in a Sting coat and mask struck Allin with a bat on the outside, allowing Lethal to hit the Lethal Injection for the pinfall victory. After the match, the mystery person revealed himself to be Carter. However, the crowd at the Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena in Baltimore appeared perplexed with the whole situation, reacting with near silence to Carter's unveil.
Lethal & Co. were then met by Sting's music, until the cameras switched to the ring where WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett shockingly appeared and clubbed Allin with a guitar shot. Jarrett seemingly joined the faction that also includes Lethal, Karter, Dutt and Singh.
Karter, FKA Troy "Two Dimes" Donovan in "WWE NXT," made his AEW debut in early April shortly after his WWE release. He would subsequently join QT Marshall's Factory during an episode of "Dark: Elevation" in August following a victory over Serpentico. Since then, Karter has been seen in numerous multi-person matches on AEW's YouTube shows, most recently a tag match where he & Marshall lost to Brian Pillman Jr. & Griff Garrison of Varsity Blondes.
Although Karter has been wrestling regularly on "AEW Dark" and "AEW Dark: Elevation" since April, he made his "AEW Dynamite" debut in a match against Ricky Starks on July 20. Shortly after the match, a report confirmed that Karter had signed "a tiered deal" with AEW, which is presumably why the young wrestler did not receive the customary "Wrestler is All Elite" message from AEW President Tony Khan on social media. It remains to be seen if there's a change to his contract status following the events that transpired Wednesday.