Adam Cole On Being A Free Agent, Why He Didn't Re-Sign With ROH, Being ROH World Champ, Jim Cornette
Recently on The Ross Report, WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross spoke with pro wrestling's hottest free agent, Adam Cole. Among other things, Cole discussed his ROH run, including his role as world champ, Jim Cornette's influence on his pro wrestling career, and his future plans.
According to Cole, ROH was good to him and when the promotion gives a young talent a chance, it really gives him the proverbial ball to run with it.
"Ring Of Honor was so great to me and so great to many young talents where they really give you the ball. It's not that they give you a shot. They really give you the ball. And if you're able to succeed, and you're able to get the job done, then, I mean, the next thing you know, you'll be traveling the world, making a good living as a pro wrestler."
During the interview, Cole indicated that the most intimidating part about being ROH World Champion is that main event has to follow so many talented performers on any given card.
"Absolutely, I think that [having to follow many quality performances] is the most intimidating part of being Ring Of Honor Champion. It's just knowing the amount of talent Ring Of Honor has and then knowing on top of that, especially a pay-per-view night, everybody goes out with that mentality, 'we want to steal the show with the time we're given.' So when you're following guys like Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish, or The Young Bucks, or Jay Lethal, or The Briscoe Brothers, and you're going out and trying to really stick out and have a very memorable, talked-about main event, or the match of the night like the main event should be, it's really challenging."
Cole stated that over his ROH tenure, the company has grown to putting on shows for 600 to 800 people on a regular basis.
"I'll never forget Jim Cornette said, he was like, 'slow and steady wins the race for Ring Of Honor' and that's exactly what ROH [has] done. In turn, it [has] gotten them to the point where they are now."
On the subject of Cornette, Cole admitted that he owes 'The Louisville Loudmouth' for getting signed to ROH.
"I started there right around the time Jimmy was the booker there." Cole continued, "I loved working with Jim Cornette. Actually, I owe him. I don't know if a lot of people know this story, actually, J.R. I got signed to Ring Of Honor because Jim Cornette happened to be paying attention to something I was doing. Like, what had happened was, I had been working doing the preshow matches or the dark matches for Ring Of Honor before the shows. And I had been doing this for a year and at that point I was just getting the, 'good job – keep it up,' but nothing was really [happening there]. I wasn't getting what I wanted, and that was a contract offer, or permanent dates, or guaranteed dates going forward. So I decided, long story short, to send in a promo to Adam Pearce, who was booking at the time and he said, 'yeah, come in and we'll have you do a preshow promo before your match.' I started cutting the promo, Jim Cornette happened to see it, and he made everyone pay attention. And long story short, I come to the back, we all have this discussion, and I ended up getting a contract that day, so I owe him actually a lot for getting my start in ROH."
When asked about his current free agent status, Cole admitted that he is in a holding pattern right now as he's still waiting on offers. Moreover, 'The Panama City Playboy' explained that he did not re-sign with ROH because he has been with the company since 2010 and wanted to see what other offers were out there for him.
"I'm in a very interesting spot right now because for the first time in seven years, I'm a free agent. I've been contracted to Ring Of Honor since 2010. So for now, for me, I didn't want to re-sign anywhere because I just wanted to see what was out there, and see what was available, and see if there's an opportunity for me just to kind of, again, test the waters and see what's out there.
"For me, I'm still very much at a standstill. I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing. I'm not exactly sure the direction I want to go. For me, like I said, just entertaining the idea of knowing what would work best for me at this point and time for my life and my career is kind of where I'm at. And until then, again, I'm enjoying the idea of looking at all these different companies and looking at all these different possibilities. And then, weighing those options to make the best decision. And obviously, too, this decision is a big one, so you don't want to jump into anything too quick. You want to make sure that you've really thought about all the options and things like that. So, for me, J.R., again, I'm still very much at a standstill just deciding what I'm going to do, and where I'm going to go, and what's going to work best for me."
Click here to check out this edition of 'Slobberknocker Audio'. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit The Ross Report with an H/T to WrestlingINC for the transcription.
Source: The Ross Report