WWE NXT Champion Adam Cole was recently interviewed on Indulge Express to talk about several professional wrestling topics.
Here are the highlights:
How he started his wrestling journey:
I’ll never forget how I started following pro wrestling, specifically WWE. I remember, I was about nine years old. I was taking karate classes four times a week and I absolutely loved it. I built a really good relationship with my instructor. One day I got there early, and I was just stretching.
My instructor was running on the treadmill and he was watching a taped WWE Monday Night Raw from the night before. Kane and Stone Cold Steve Austin putting Paul Bearer in a sewer. I was just fascinated by watching the TV. My instructor looked at me and asked, ‘Do you watch pro wrestling?’ I said, ‘Oh, yeah, I watch it all the time.’ I lied to him because I wanted to fit in with him.
He then told me he has a WrestleMania 15 The Rock versus Stone Cold Steve Austin tape and said if I get a note from my parents, I could borrow it and watch. I begged my mom to let me borrow the tape and she did… and the rest was history. I saw The Rock versus Stone Cold Steve Austin WrestleMania 15 and I was hooked onto wrestling. I became a die-hard fan from there.
How he’s evolved:
I have constantly been focusing on changing and bettering myself. When I first started training, I remember I had the goal to Main Event WrestleMania and win the WWE Championship someday. That was me at 18 or 19. The goal was so far out that it got really overwhelming. So I told myself early on, ‘I’m going to focus on what I can do and better myself.
Whether it is studying wrestling, going to different seminars, wanting to wrestle in as many different parts of the world as possible and learn different styles – these things have been are crucial to me. I believe, the guys who never stop learning, the guys who watch matches and find little things that they can improve on are the ones who succeed. We’re now even in India.
You can see me on NXT TV every week on Thursday. It’s surreal to think how a guy who was wrestling in front of 30-40 people is now wrestling all over the world on HDTV. It is really, really cool.
His thoughts on performing in empty arenas:
It’s bizarre. It’s really, really bizarre. So much of our performance is about engaging the audience and then feeding off of their energy and seeing how they’re reacting. When they’re really excited, it makes us more excited. And just we’re so focused on them. At the same time, we’re very aware of what’s on the line right now and how important this NXT television show is.
We know we have a live show and we’re going to perform. We know that people are watching. So even though there’s no one in the arena, in our brains, we’re aware that people are sitting at home and watching NXT, wherever they are in the world. They have this expectation of what NXT is supposed to bring to the table. So we use that pressure and still perform. I’m very proud of the WWE with the way we’ve managed to still be able to perform shows, while at the same time really respecting the guidelines.
It’s a very limited crew. Everyone’s wearing masks, we’re washing hands all the time, keeping a social distance, only with the exception of the matches, that are underway, and making sure everyone’s healthy. But generally speaking, yeah, performing in front of no one is very strange.
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