Adam Cole – ‘I Was Afraid I’d Be Told To Retire’
During a recent interview with Barstool Rasslin’, AEW wrestler Adam Cole recalled the period of his extended layoff due to concussion issues and if he ever feared he’d be forced to hang up his boots.
Cole made a surprise return to AEW Programming for the first time in 5 months on the January 11 edition of Dynamite, delivering a promo thanking the fans for their support during his long recovery and warning the locker room.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On if he was afraid he’d have to retire due to injury: “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.] 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.”
On fearing he’d have to be told he’d have to step away from the ring: “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.’”
Adam Cole faces Chris Jericho later this weekend in an Unsanctioned Match at AEW Double or Nothing 2023. The event is scheduled for tomorrow (May 28) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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