Adam Cole spoke with The Mirror to promote this weekend’s ROH Reach the Sky tour in the UK. Here are the highlights.
You joined Bullet Club at the end of ROH Global Wars in May this year, when you helped The Young Bucks attack Jay Lethal and Colt Cabana. What has it been like to become a part of Bullet Club, such an iconic faction in wrestling?
“It’s been huge for me. I think no doubt it’s been one of, if not the biggest things I’ve done in my wrestling career. Simply for the attention that it got. Bullet Club and the guys who were involved in the group have told me this, ‘we have a lot of people who really love us and we have a lot of people that really hate us’. You see it on social media and stuff. Fortunately the live crowds have been very receptive all over the world to Bullet Club. The night I joined on Ring of Honor pay-per-view in Chicago, no doubt, it was the most social media interaction that I have ever had, more so than both of my Ring of Honor world championship wins, more so than me going over to Japan for the first time, anything like that. Me joining Bullet Club was a huge thing and it forced me even more so to step my game up, because when I’m surrounded by guys of the calibre of The Young Bucks, of Kenny Omega, Hangman Page, who is really making waves and making a name for himself right now, it’s a challenge. It puts me in a position to try new things, play off of different characters and just continue to evolve the Adam Cole character – what he is and what he brings to the table. It’s opened doors for me in Japan, I’m now a two-time Ring of Honor world champion, so it’s been going really well. It’s been a hell of a year for me. I can certainly put joining Bullet Club at the top of that list.
You mentioned becoming a two-time ROH World Champion. You are one of only three performers in history – you, Austin Aries and Jay Briscoe, to accomplish that feat. What does that mean to you?”
“That was a pretty surreal moment for me. I always compare it to my first title win and how I felt inside. When I first became Ring of Honor world champion, I was 23-years-old, I was still a kid. I remember I couldn’t even enjoy the moment at all, I enjoyed it for maybe 15 minutes afterwards. Then the reality sunk in of this pressure that I had of being the guy who kind of leads the charge in Ring of Honor. That pressure that you’re put under, is something that not only you put on yourself, but comes with being the Ring of Honor world champion because of the list of guys who have held it – they are some of the best wrestlers in the world. So that was very difficult for me initially. But after dealing with that pressure and going through those matches and growing as a performer, it was really cool for me to be able to get that championship back. Of course that pressure is still there, but I can kind of sit back and smell the roses a little bit more. I know what this song and dance is, I know the matches I need to have, I know the position I’m being put in and it’s something that not only am I looking forward to, I know for a fact I’m ready for. Winning it for the second time was really cool because I think I could just enjoy it a bit more.”
