Adam Cole Reveals The Hardest Part About Leaving WWE For AEW

Adam Cole of AEW fame joined Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette to talk about joining AEW earlier this month at their All Out PPV. Cole continued to talk about having the time of his life since joining the promotion, and also revealed that, while the decision was easy, it was one particular moment that led to him deciding to go with AEW.

"I feel, not to sound cliché, but I feel like I'm on top of the world," Cole said. "These past few weeks have just been the best. Anyone who knows me, I've been very open about watching AEW since it started and following it closely. And seeing the fans and seeing locker room and seeing how happy everyone is, that was a really eye opening thing for me actually, as far as my decision and how easy it was. There were many people I had known while they were elsewhere or doing other things, and seeing these people in AEW and seeing how much fun they were having, how happy they were, I was like 'oh my god, wow. That's really, really awesome.'

"I don't know if I ever really jumped into this. I'll never forget it, but it was a couple days before All Out, where I was still kind of making my decision. It had gotten to a point where we were getting press close. Don't get me wrong, I was pretty sure from the gate that AEW was where I wanted to go. But it was still not an easy decision to make. 9 year old me fell in love with pro wrestling because of WWE, so it was a 'oh, what do I do?' I remember it was 1 in the morning, Britt was fast asleep right beside me and I'm just laying there just awake. I'm a night owl, so I'm normally much later than she is and get up much later than she does. But I was laying there, my eyes were shut, and I was just thinking about showing up in AEW. And I got that giddy, 9 year old feeling thinking about it. So I was like 'that's it.' I've always followed my gut and I've always followed my heart, and the idea of coming here made me so excited and made me feel like a kid again. These past few weeks have just been proof that I made the right call. I could not be more excited right now. I'm so pumped."

One downside of Cole heading to AEW is it means he's no longer able to be part of DaParty alongside WWE stars Xavier Woods, Cesaro and former WWE star Tyler Breeze. Cole even said that the hardest part of moving on from WWE to AEW was not being able to appear with DaParty anymore.

"Very hard. That was probably the hardest part of the decision I think," Cole said. "I really formed a close bond with Woods and Swiss (Cesaro) and Breeze over the pandemic. The backstory of that is so funny too, because Claudio and Breeze and Creed all wanted to start producing more content since the pandemic started. And they were like 'I think we want to start playing Uno, we need a fourth guy.' I didn't know this, but when I did the first episode, I was kind of on trial. That was my audition and I didn't know that.  I was like 'alright, I'll do it', and they all knew immediately 'oh my god, this is our four man crew.'

"I talk to those guys every single day. We have a group chat and we talk every single day. So that makes me feel better, because it feels like I haven't lost that connection with those guys. But the most important thing, for sure, was so many different messages that we have gotten, so many different situations that people have been in. I'm talking about family members passing away or an animal passing away or them losing their jobs or whatever it was. And them saying those videos really helped them get through a really rough time is so crazy and so humbling and so cool. I wish so badly there was a way for us to still do stuff together, I really do. But I did say it's not goodbye, it's just see you later. So it doesn't mean it's done forever. But I love those guys to death, I loved everyone who watched Uno and watched all the content we did, because what an amazing group of people. I'm going to miss it a lot."

Cole then turned back to his AEW debut, detailing the travel that he and fellow AEW signee Bryan Danielson took to get to All Out in secret. He also discussed why he felt his debut, followed by Danielson's debut minutes later, worked so well.

"Me, and I'm pretty sure Bryan did as well, though I don't want to speak for him, we flew into Milwaukee the night before and then stayed in a hotel," Cole said. "Me and Bryan stayed in different hotels, drove to Chicago and we were in a trailer the entire time. They kept us in the trailer so long that the main event ended and I'm still in this trailer and I'm like 'is someone going to come get us?' I've never even been in the building, I don't know where the entrance is. I was starting to freak out, so they brought us the last possible second.

"But it was so cool to be a part of. I had a great time in NXT in the four years I was there. But still to feel that amount of excitement and so ready to go for that PPV, it felt like such a magical night. Top to bottom, the card was excellent. The whole surprise thing, I think everyone did expect Bryan, because I remember, when Kenny got on the mic afterwards, the whole crowd's going 'YES! YES! YES!' and they're chanting for Bryan Danielson. So when I came out they were like 'whoa! We didn't expect that.' And then I think for a second they were like 'okay, they'll save Bryan Danielson for later.' Three minutes later, there he is!"

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription