Adam Cole once again opens up about the concussion that nearly ended his pro wrestling career.
The AEW star missed roughly nine months of action due to the injury, which he suffered back at Forbidden Door in June 2022. Cole appeared on Barstool’s Rasslin podcast to discuss this very subject, where he reveals that he was so focused on returning that the thought of voluntarily retiring never once crossed his mind.
No. I was afraid that I was going to be told that I couldn’t come back, for sure. That existed for months. But there was never a small part of me that went, ‘Okay, I think I’m gonna hang it up.’ I was so focused and determined on trying to come back because again, this is my entire life, since I was nine years old, this is all I ever wanted to do. The toughest thing was having doctors look at you with this discouraged [look because they didn’t know how it was going to go.]
Cole reiterates something he’s said in the past about his partner Britt Baker, and how helpful the DMD was to his recovery process.
I talked about it on the show, but Britt was incredibly helpful, my family was incredibly helpful. I tried to keep as much of an optimistic attitude as I could, but it was a tough road. Long winded way of saying no, I was so focused on trying to come back.
The former NXT triple-crown champion admits that it would have taken a doctor telling him he couldn’t wrestle anymore to stop because this was all he ever wanted to do with his life.
Yes. I was going to have to be told, ‘Listen, you can’t do this. You’re risking a huge portion of your quality of life or you can’t get back in the ring, it’s too dangerous.’ If I was told that, that would be a different pill to swallow as it came, but no way I was going to go ‘Eh, I think I’m gonna stop.
Elsewhere in the interview, Cole gave an update on his Undisputed Era (Elite) tag partner Kyle O’Reilly and when fans can expect O’Reilly back in AEW. You can read about that here.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)