Adam Cole opens up about his love for Ring of Honor.
The AEW star and former three-time ROH World Champion spoke on this topic during an interview with Superstar Crossover, where he explains how ROH helped evolve modern wrestling into what it is today.
I think Ring of Honor may be the most important company that has helped evolve what modern pro wrestling is today. Seriously, when you look at all the talent that came from Ring of Honor, Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe, the Briscoes, AJ Styles, The Young Bucks. I mean, the list goes on and on and on of these guys who have come through Ring of Honor in some capacity, and also the style of wrestling that kind of started to transcend and move forward a little bit into the casual wrestling audience and what they liked in wrestling matches was huge.
Cole attributes a lot of his success to his time in ROH, adding that he would not have been noticed by NJPW, NXT, or AEW if his run in ROH didn’t happen.
Again, these were guys who not all of us are 6’4, 265 pounds, a lot of us had this certain style of pro wrestling that we really wanted to showcase. The athleticism was huge. The hard-hitting style was huge. The crazy passionate fan base was really important. So to this day, you know, I spent seven years in Ring of Honor and my first wrestling contract ever was with ROH. So there is no doubt in my mind, I would have not gone to NXT, I would have not gone to New Japan Pro Wrestling, I might not be in AEW if it wasn’t for my time in ROH. That’s just for me personally. I think a bunch of guys can say the same thing. So ROH is incredibly important in the modern era of wrestling that we’re in, and the history is incredibly important.
Elsewhere in the interview, Cole spoke about the very first time he met current AEW World Champion MJF and how he knew the Salt of the Earth was destined for big things in the professional wrestling industry. You can read about that here.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)