WrestleZone.com reader RockNSock5230 sent along the following …
Ring of Honor World TV Champion and 2012 MCW Shane Shamrock Memorial Cup winner Adam Cole joined Kayfabe Wrestling Radio Tuesday Night. In a nearly 45 minute interview, he discussed the way he was first introduced to the world of professional wrestling, his beginning with CZW Wrestling and a typical day of training, the “bad” reputation that CZW has, what it’s like to travel around the world wrestling, his involvement with Pro Wrestling Guerilla, other independent promotions and Survival of the Fittest 2012 tournament, how he got into Ring of Honor and the difference between Adam Pierce and Delirious as head booker of ROH, his teaming with Kyle O’Reilly as well as their match at Hostage Crisis and almost having it stopped due to blood loss and so much more.
How he became interested in pro wrestling- “What happened was, I grew up in a great family but also in a very conservative area; I had very loving parents and a great younger brother. Right when I was growing up, right in that 9-10 (years old) age, that was when pro wrestling, as a whole, was transitioning into that Attitude Era, where wrestling was becoming more sexual and more violent, so my parents never really gave me the opportunity to watch it. However, when my parents split up when I was 9 years old, I started taking karate lessons and I was just enamored by the entire thing; I really looked up to my instructor and looked to him as a father figure. I would get there early and I would stay there late just because I loved it so much, it was a Monday through Friday kind of deal. And I’ll never forget, one day I got there early and he was running on the treadmill watching a taped RAW from the night before, where Kane and Stone Cold Steve Austin were putting Paul Bearer in a sewer; that was my first wrestling memory.
But my instructor looked at me and said ‘Oh, you watch pro wrestling?’ and I said ‘Yeah, all the time’ but in reality I’d never seen it before; I just wanted to fit in with him so badly. So then he shared with me ‘Well I have Wrestlemania 15 taped; it was in Philadelphia this year. You can borrow it if you want, you just need a written note from your parents.’ So I went home and bagged her to let me borrow his tape, and I guess she figured if a karate instructor is teaching young kids about discipline, honor and respect, that pro wrestling couldn’t be that bad. So, she let me borrow the tape and the first time I saw Stone Cold Steve Austin versus the Rock, I was just hooked.”
How he became a part of Ring of Honor- “At this point, I’d been training pretty heavily and wrestling heavily at CZW and I started working a little bit for Gabe Sapolsky’s Dragon Gate USA and EVOLVE promotion and, at the same time, I had started going to Ring of Honor shows, and at this point, I was just helping set up the ring and tear down the ring, just hoping for an opportunity. Eventually, I got some dark match opportunities and I did dark matches for about a solid year, and I remember each and every time I would have a match, I would come to the back and ask Adam Pierce how I did and he’d say ‘Yep, good job’ and that would be it; no opportunity to wrestle on television or anything like that. So I started thinking ‘I need to give him different; something to give him a reason to want to invest in me. So, I remember I decided that I was going to send him an e-mail and send him some promos of mine, some heel promos, and he really enjoyed the promos. So, for my next dark “opportunity”, he wanted me to go into the ring and cut an in-ring promo, that was it.; I was supposed to come out, before the show, cut a promo and leave. And as Adam Pierce was watching it, Jim Cornette also happened to be watching it and both of them really, really enjoyed it. When I got to the back, they said they enjoyed what they saw, and I was offered a contract right from there.
Who is his favorite tag team to face within Ring of Honor- “Oh man, that is so, so tough to say. I really take this very seriously when I say that, especially when Kyle and I were wrestling teams like The Kings of Wrestling and the Brisco Brothers and the American Wolves, I really felt that the tag team division within Ring of Honor just could not be touched. There were just so many good teams to work with, so to pick just one would be so hard, but if I had to pick one, I would have to say the American Wolves, Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards. They really taught us, from the get-go, about pushing ourselves and making sure we always get better and wrestling that main event level and being looked at as potential main event guys; they have that down to a science. They are just two of the very best wrestlers in the world and it was just a pleasure to just get into the ring with them and I fell like when we wrestled them that one time at No Escape in North Carolina, I think a lot of people consider that one of Kyle and I’s best tag matches in Ring of Honor against those guys and I think rightfully so, that a lot of it had to do with them. Those guys are definitely up there as favorite team to get in the ring with.”
Almost getting his match with Kyle O’Reilly at Hostage Crisis stopped because of being busted open – “We knew going in with it a Hybrid Fighting Rules match that it needed to be extra intense and extra edgy because of the stipulation that the match entailed. However, obviously, me getting busted open that way was not intended with that punch Kyle O’Reilly gave me right to the face that completely split my lip in half. Even at that point, I didn’t realize how bad I was cut until me and Kyle had finished an exchange and I collapsed on the mat because of exhaustion, and if you go back and watch the tape, I’m lying on my back and I immediately shoot up to my side because I was choking on my own blood. At that point, I realized how much blood there really was, I saw the puddles already starting to form, I saw the audience begin to rise up and they’re pointing and looking at their friends with concern and even referee Todd Sinclair looked like he was going to hurl looking at my face. That’s when I knew I was pretty badly cut and in that very moment, that was a situation where we caught lightning in a bottle and got to show a level of toughness I hadn’t been able to show quite yet in Ring of Honor. So, I think definitely, for me, that match in New York City will probably hold up as one of the break out moments for me in Ring of Honor.
… Actually, there was a point in the match where the doctor had actually come down to the ring, and this was as legit as it gets; the doctor that came down to the ring was the same doctor that stitched me up. He really did come out with the intent of wanting to stop the match, and I really did look him in the face and tell him there was no way in hell he was stopping the match. That was all completely real; that was as real as it gets. So yeah, absolutely, there was definitely concern from the New York State Athletic Commission because of how much blood I was obviously projecting at that point. But with that moment that we had and what was going on in New York and the way the crowd was reacting and kind of the magic that was being created, I knew there was no way I was going to let the doctor stop it and fortunately, he didn’t run into the ring or anything; I think when I told him off, that was enough to wait a couple more minutes.”
For more information on Ring of Honor’s “Death Before Dishonor X” iPPV on September 15, go to www.rohwrestling.com for tickets and information on ordering the event. Follow Adam through his Twitter (@AdamColePro) as well as through his Facebook page (www.facebook.com/adamcolepro) and personal website (www.adamcolepro.com). You can also follow Ring of Honor Wrestling on Twitter (@RingofHonor) as well as their website, www.rohwrestling.com, to get information on broadcasts through the Sinclair Broadcast Group stations.
