Current ROH World Champion Adam Cole recently spoke with ESPN.com about his career. Here are the highlights.
On starting out in ROH: “I did dark matches with Ring of Honor for a year and a half,” said Cole. “And I got the same response every single time I got to the back — ‘Good job, keep it up.’ That was cool the first two or three times, but then it was like, OK, what do I have to do differently to kind of stand out more?”
On his serious injuries in 2014: “It’s very, very hard to walk away from something that means a lot to you, [especially] not having that escape that wrestling has always been for me. When I was forced to miss four months of action because of shoulder, tricep and elbow surgery, it was tough — and, of course, when it rains it pours. My grandmother passed away while I was out injured, and while I normally would have just focused on wrestling, I just sat at home and really had to deal with that.”
On his goals: “When I win something like the Ring of Honor championship for a second time, I’m excited for a minute, but I’m already thinking, ‘How can I win for a third time? What’s my next goal?'” said Cole. “What’s the next mountain I have to climb? I don’t ever want to become content.”