Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Adam Cole on Keeping a Positive Mindset, AEW Debut, Leaving NXT, How He Met Girlfriend Britt Baker

Episode Date: October 15, 2021

Today's guest is Adam Cole. Adam Cole (real name Austin Jenkins) is a professional wrestler known for his time in AEW, NXT, and Ring of Honor. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his AEW debut at ALL OUT, his decision to leave NXT, The Undisputed Era, his entrance theme, why he says his trademark "Bay Bay" catchphrase, how he met his girlfriend Britt Baker on the dating app Bumble, his time in Ring of Honor, becoming ROH World Champion, his positive mindset and much more! If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleas! Here we go, my friends. Welcome back to another audio adventure on Insight. I'm Chris Van Fleet. Hope your week has been going amazing. Thank you so much for being with us on this episode. And thank you for helping us hit 300,000 subscribers on YouTube this week.

Oh, man. 300,000 on the main channel. And then my other channel, CVV clips, where I post short clips, and short highlights of these interviews, it hit 25,000 subscribers the very next day. What a week! And I'm super grateful that you're with us here on this journey. Thank you so much.

I said we were going to have a big guest when we hit 300,000 subscribers. So here we are at 300K. Here we are with a big guest. Here we are with Adam Cole, baby. And he tells a great story about where the Bay Bay Bayekhphrase came from. among many other things during this conversation.

He just has so much positivity. I love it. And we've been talking so much about YouTube here. If you're not subscribed yet on my YouTube channels, yes, plural, or if you're not subscribed here on the podcast, it would be so great if you could change that today. And if you're not following Adam Cole, baby, on social media, you can change that today as well.

He's at Adam Cole Pro, and I am at Chris Van Vlo. Thank you to PBKFMV for being our fan of the week for leaving this review that says probably one of the best podcasts out there. When it comes to wrestling podcasts, I like to stick with the actual professionals. Ooh, ouch. At first, I didn't take CVV seriously until I heard the podcast with Jonathan Coachman, so I was curious about other guests on his show. Turns out I downloaded over 50 episodes.

CVV has this ability to not make it sound like a typical interview. It sounds like he traveled with the wrestlers for years, the way these wrestlers open up and answer personal questions. It pretty much sounds like he's actually good friends with a lot of these pro wrestlers. I also like how CVV lets the guest talk as long as they want without being interrupted. CVV sounds like a cool dude. Sounds like somebody I could hang out with and grab a beer with. If he doesn't drink beer, then a glass of water is cool with me.

Everybody should love water. I agree. Keep up the good work, CBV, and thank you for bringing us weekly entertainment. Well, thank you. That was very kind, and I'm sure that took you a long time to type out. And I will have you know that I'm a fan of both water and beer. Really into the hazy IPAs these days. Had a great one at a brewery in Newport Beach the other day. Oh, so good.

I could do a whole episode about beer. In fact, I could do a whole podcast series about beer. But I digress. Yes, let's have a beer together sometime. and I will read one review on every episode of the show. So if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, please just leave a few words on there. And I'd be happy to read them out.

Happy to promote. Happy to promote whatever it is that you want me to promote. And if we're talking about cool dudes and someone you want to grab a beer with, someone you want to hang out with, then you are going to love today's conversation. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Cole, baby. I am so pumped that we're finally making this happen.

and thank you so much. Me too. Absolutely, man. It's been, we were just talking about this like two years in the making. This interview has been, so. Two years in the making and here we are. We're finally making it happen. I feel like it's impossible to say Adam Cole without then additionally saying Bebe. Right. It is very difficult. It's very difficult for thousands of people all across the world. When did Bebebe get attached to Adam Cole? So, great question. So I've been doing Adam Cole. since 2009, actually. But it didn't catch on until I'd say about 2014, 2013, 2014.

So it kind of started because I had done a, I was really, really early on in my wrestling career, and I was at Maryland Championship Wrestling Show. And Joey Matthews was on the show, Joey Mercury in WWE. And he was in the finals of the Shane Shamrock Memorial Cup. And he was walking around. He was the heel.

And he just kept going, Joey Matthews and putting his fist in the air like this and he said it so many times and I remember sitting there thinking like that is so smart because if you're not really a hardcore wrestling fan if you remember one

name from that show it's going to be Joey Matthews so I'm like how can I incorporate that into my own thing obviously I'm a huge Chris Jericho fan and what he would stand on top of someone and flex and go come on baby I was like oh I'll do Adam Cole baby or it started as I think it actually

He did start as Adam Cole baby. And then it got more and more obnoxious. But literally for four years, I would do it and no one would do it with me or they would boo. I did it a lot more than I do now as well. But eventually what had happened was I got injured. I had to get shoulder, tricep and elbow surgery in 2014. And I was away for four months. So I had that blessing of the fans missing me when I was gone in Ring of Honor.

And when I came back, they started doing Adam Cole Bebe with me. And then it just turned into this incredible thing now that has been such a huge part of what I do. Don't you feel like when you start something and you're doing it that often and that frequently that if it doesn't catch on, you're just going to look like an idiot who's just trying something. It's not working. Yeah. So funny enough is initially when I did it, it was never done with the intention of people doing it with me. Philly. Like it was, I was a heel. I was trying to think of cocky, arrogant things to do. In my brain, it was never, I'm going to turn this into a catchphrase. Really. It really never was. It was like something small to do in between my matches to get people to boo. And that's exactly what happened in the early stages of it. You know, in the middle of a match, I would do it and everyone would boo. So that was always the plan. The fact that it's turned into this huge catchphrase is,

something that went above and beyond my expectations. So there was no real disappointment for it not catching on because it was never supposed to catch on it. But then here we are. Well, now everything you're doing, I feel like is catching on. Like in the wrestling world, you can't say boom now without thinking of you. Right, right, which is so crazy because that was just a little thing. Like I had been doing the finger look up and point at myself for a really long time. Again, also in Ring of Honor, I'd been doing that. So it's crazy. how that has caught on now as well, too. It's, it is, it's wild.

Was that just because it was the undisputed era of music and it just happened to say boom in it? I think so. Like, so, yeah, because again, it was one of those situations where I was, I was just at rehearsal and I was messing around. And again, I, for years had pointed it myself and said boom or said something,

whatever I felt like that, that night. And then again, because at that point in the song, it had said it, I forget who, I think it was Road Dogg was watching it. He's like, hey, yeah, you should, You should definitely make sure you do that, even though I had been doing it for quite some time, but they kind of noticed. So then I made sure that I consistently did it all the time. And again, then that caught on as well.

So it was, it's amazing, man. It's so cool. We need to point out how professional this setup is here because I've done a lot of Zoom interviews. So for the last year and a half, but I mean, you are a professional streamer. Thank you. That's right. That's, well, maybe not quite a pro streamer yet. But yeah, so I have, again, I got my Blue Yetty microphone.

I got my Logitech webcam. I have my key light. I have my gaming museum behind me. Yeah, yeah, I got the whole setup ready to go, man. Ready to go. This is a museum. Is this a museum of like previous consoles? Yeah.

So I used to never really be a collector of anything. But I got crazy passionate about video games in 2015. I'd casually game my whole life. But in 2015 was when I became like a gamer. And just up until recently, I started to really get into the history of video games. Like I read textbooks on it. And I just love how much the gaming industry has developed over the years. So I started doing all this research about these super early consoles.

Like up until a few years ago, I thought the Atari 2,600 was the first video game console. But no, in 1972, there was a console called the Magnobox Odyssey, which was literally two dots on a screen. And you would put physical overlays on your TV to change the game. It could be like a hockey rink or a tennis court or a haunted house. And you just used your imagination and move these dots around on the screen. So that might be my pride and joy because I have a first edition, Magnavox Odyssey, in the box with all the overlays and stuff like that. But then I got really into, again, that I have an Atari, you know,

the Sega Master System, the Sega Genesis, the original Nintendo, you name it. I've been really, really into collecting all that stuff. What was the game when you were growing up that made you fall in love with gaming? So interestingly enough, the first console that we ever had was the Sega Genesis. And my first memory in my entire life, not just of video games, but my first memory ever was me waking up. It was like six in the morning and running downstairs to see.

that my dad had stayed up all night to get the best bike in Roadrash on the Sega Genesis and me being so excited that he got it. So early, early console, or early games-wise, it was like Road Rash, Streets of Rage 2, Sonic 2 on the Genesis. Then we got the Super Nintendo and we played Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario RPG. But I would say when I realized, like, games were more than just something to pass the time was that PlayStation 1 era of games.

So we're talking about games like Final Fantasy 7, Resident Evil 2, and Metal Gear Solid. And I think at that point was when I knew, man, gaming is really, really, really cool. But again, at that point, I was still so obsessed with wrestling and wrestling only. So my younger brother was really obsessed with games, and I was really obsessed with wrestling. So again, I would play these games and I loved them or play Halo on the Xbox, loved it. But I never bought my own console. You know, we either got them as gifts for Christmas presents or my brother would get the consoles and I would play on his. But in 2015, I'll never forget it.

I was thinking more and more how I needed to kind of find a hobby. Because again, it was just wrestling 24-7. And he had gotten Halo 5. It had just come out. And he was playing it. And he was going to go to bed. And I said, hey, Brent, I said, hey, do you mind if I play Halo 5 on your Xbox? just wanted something to do.

I stayed up till 7 in the morning and beat the entire campaign. And I was like, oh, my God, this is really fun. I think I'm going to buy an Xbox. And the rest was history. So I have a halo to thank for my recent obsession over the past few years with video games. Well, and now your two passions get to be combined here. You work in wrestling and then you kind of dip your tone of the gaming world with the streaming. Right.

And you're not the only one to do this, like Tyler Breeze and Austin Creed and many of your friends have done this. How much did they influence you in your Twitch stream? Oh my God. So much. So again, I had been thinking about streaming for quite some time because I'd been really into video games for years at this point. But

then I always found some excuse of like, I'm too busy. When am I going to find the time to learn how to do this? And then when the pandemic hit, all of a sudden I had all this time on my hands. And I said, okay, I have no excuse anymore. Because Britt actually a year

prior for Christmas one year got me like all the gear like the the webcam and and the microphone because you knew how bad I wanted to get into streaming. So Austin Creed spent five hours over Discord explaining to me how to bare bones do my first Twitch stream. So I have him to thank massively. And now that I've started, it was so funny is originally I used to stream just once a week. And then as time went on, I'm getting to a point now where on a good week, I can stream up to five times a week, which I love. But yeah, Creed, Breeze, and Swiss all helped so much with kind of getting me into that mindset of being so excited about streaming. Because before, you know, I would sit here and gaming to me is very relaxing, but now streaming has become

relaxing as well. So it's really fun to experience a game and play it when you're sitting there by yourself, but when you're getting to experience like a really cool story in games and you can look over at chat and talk to chat about it, they, you know, voice their own opinions. It makes it so much better. So I think that's a big reason initially why me, Creed, Breeze, and Swiss were so connected because we all have that passion for games. Now they're three of my best friends. But I feel the same way about my Twitch community. I love them to death. They know I try as best I can to talk to them every day in Discord, even if it's just a message quick saying how, busy I've been. And they are the most, not to go off on a tangent here, but they are the most

incredible, generous and kind community on social media that I've ever met. They know that I love them to death. And you're following on there ramped up like so quickly. Also, because during the pandemic, the rest of us had nothing to do either. Exactly. Right. Right. We were able to engage with you guys. But how much of a sticking point did that become with WWE? Yeah, it was really, really important to me. You know, I know that I've made it pretty apparent even while I was still there about how, you know, the Twitch stream is something that I'm really passionate about and it's never going to go away and things like that. So yeah, Twitch became like a vital part of not just something that I did, but like really like a part of who I am. Like I can't imagine not

being able to go on there and talk to the community and play these. cool games or, you know, play games with buddies of mine. Like, Graham Pooh Bear is a streamer as well, who I love to death. So being able to go on there and talk to him and play with him has been cool. Just a couple of weeks ago, I got to play the Halo Infinite flight with developers of Halo Infinite, which was just so, so cool. So there's so many things about Twitch that have become so important to me. And I really want to keep it growing.

I want to see where it goes. I want to see how far I can take. it. So, yeah, keeping Twitch was very important to me. Well, the thing is you could game until you're 180 years old. You know, right. You probably, probably can't wrestle till you're 180. Exactly. Exactly. It is. Because that is a scary thing sometimes for wrestlers is deciding when you get to a certain age and you realize that your body can't go through it anymore. It's like, what am I going to do? Now, don't get me wrong. I love pro wrestling. So I think in some capacity, I'm going to be involved, whether that be behind the scenes or running a school.

I think I'm going to be involved for the rest of my life. But I do like the idea of having something else to do, you know, when wrestling is finished. Because I get excited at the idea of like I've told my chat so many times, like I want to voice act in a video game someday and not play myself, but play like another character. I think that would be awesome. Or commentating an e-sports event or something like that. So I do. I want to stick my toe into more stuff when it comes. comes to the gaming world. You look like you've been having so much fun in AEW. And I feel like it was

just a matter of time. You know, Britt was there. Some of your best friends with the elite were there. I think that people were going, it's not a matter of if he shows up in AEW. It's a matter of when. So for you, when do you think that those thoughts started entering your head? Yeah. So it kind of all happened so fast. Because again, when the discovery that my deal was going to be up really soon, that was all of a sudden when all these thoughts and ideas started coming through my head. And the thing is, too, is again, and I want to make this very clear, and I know that everyone knows this because I've been very public about it. I had a wonderful four years at WWE, you know, specifically down in NXT with Triple H and with Sean Michaels, two guys who I respect

the hell out of and have been nothing but so kind and so generous to me and so helpful. I feel like I became such a better performer because of just little things that they've said and working alongside them. So the decision actually was difficult in a lot of ways. Because again, nine-year-old me, my goal was to wrestle for WWE. And now I had this other opportunity where I see a company like AEW, which has just grown massively, over these past two years. I see a guy like Tony Khan, who is one of the, one of the nicest, most passionate people about pro wrestling I've ever met. Like you said, all my friends, the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Brit being there, who was really nice, because there was a

phase for a minute there where I was seeing Brit like half a day once a week, and that was it. So now I'm getting to see her a lot more, which is great. But I remember telling this story as well, but it is true. So I didn't make my decision to come to AEW officially until like a, few days before All Out, which is nuts to think about. But I remember laying in bed and I was weighing out the pros and cons and trying to decide, you know, what I wanted to do. And it was one in the morning. Britt was asleep. And I was thinking about showing up at AEW and I got like butterflies in my stomach. And I felt like a nine-year-old kid. So for me, I've always followed my gut. I've always done what my heart has told me to do. And there were so many pros to going to AEW. And when you say that

You can tell I'm having the time of my life. That makes me so happy because I am. I am having a freaking blast. So before making the decision to go to AEW, did you have to tell WW and NXT like, I'm not sure if I'm resigning or I'm not resigning? Did you have to make that clear to them? Yes, yes.

So I did make it very clear to them that I wanted to weigh my options. You know, I wanted to think about what I was going to do. And they could not have been more professional. They could not have been cooler about it. They never pressured me. They were awesome, you know, the whole way through. I think what really helped is, and this is public knowledge at this point, but with everything going on, there was a short extension that I ended up signing. And to me, it was such a no-brainer.

They didn't have to convince me. They didn't have to talk me into it. I was in the middle of a program with one of my best friends, Kyle O'Reilly. And it was really important to me that I got to finish that. And not just that, but just because of how very. good they were to me that entire time. So I think that was really helpful as far as the respect on both sides because hypothetically, I could have ended up walking out and debuting on Dynamite just a few days later. But there was no chance, no chance I would have ever done that. So yeah,

I made it very clear to them that I was going to think about what I wanted to do. Because again, it was tough because I really had no idea. I couldn't communicate properly with AEW until my contract was up. So at that point, I just felt like it would have been, it would have been foolish of me from my own personal standpoint to not at least wait and just see what was available and see what the options were. So, but they understood that. I think a lot of people focused on you going from NXT to A.A.W. What about before that? You spent so much time, most of your career with Ring of Honor. Yeah. You went from Ring of Honor and signed with WW. Was there a part of you that went like, I'm leaving, leaving all my friends behind here.

Absolutely. Yeah, that was a really sad day. I remember crying just because so much of my career. I started with R.O.H. In 2009, maybe early 2010. So I had spent seven years practically in Ring of Honor. And again, like you said, all my friends were there. My family was there.

I actually ended up having my farewell match in R.O.H. in the same building that I trained and had my very first match. So it just felt like this awesome full circle moment. And those fans and that crew was vital in me being put in a position where I could sign with WWE at that point. So it was. It was very emotional. But they also, again, same thing.

They were happy for me. They were stoked for me. They knew this was really important to me. And yeah, they had my back 100%. If there's someone who maybe didn't become aware, of you until you sign with WWE and they want to go back now into the archives. Which ring of honor match of yours did they need to watch immediately? Oh, great question.

So I think the one that always sticks out to me, it's one of my most memorable matches that I think actually kind of changed my career was me and Kyle O'Reilly wrestled each other at ROH Best in the World 2012. It was in the Hammerstein ballroom. Me and Kyle had been in ROH for a couple years, but we were still really green, still learning the ropes. And we had we had the respect of the fans, but we weren't, we weren't like over yet. Like the fans weren't completely invested in us. So I remember we were in this hybrid fighting rules match. And the fans, again, they wanted to like it, but they didn't really like the rules.

We were the third match on the card. And they weren't totally buying what we were selling until this freak thing happens where Kyle punches me in the mouth. And my lip split to where I could have just done this with it, like completely you could see through. And it also must have hit a vein or something because there was so much blood coming down and onto my chest. And there was a point where Kyle hit me and I flicked my hair up and I screamed. And the blood squirted out of my mouth onto Kyle's chest. It was the craziest visual in New York City. And the crowd went from being like, we don't know about this to, oh my God, everyone's standing and pounded on the guardrails and stuff. And that totally changed me and Kyle's trajectory in ROH.

I think the week later I won the ROH television title. And the rest was history. We were off for the races at that point. So that one sticks out to me is like a really, really special night for me, not just in ROH, but in my entire career. Yeah, I feel like there's a lot of like little steps in everyone's career, no matter what you do for a living. It kind of takes you from one level up to another one to another one.

When you first got going, when you first started your wrestling career, What was that first thing that made you go, okay, this isn't a crazy idea. Like, this actually might work. Funny enough, and I can't believe, like, with these questions, it's crazy how much me and Kyle are so attached to each other because this involves Kyle as well. So April 6, 2008, I had my very first match. I started with Combat Zone wrestling and then I would do independent shows kind of all through the Northeast.

And I remember I got booked for a Dragon Gate USA pre-show. Gabe Sopolsky was running it at the time. And it was one of the hotter independence in North America. And I remember I got booked on this pre-show match. And it was against a guy named Kyle O'Reilly, who I had never met before. He never met me before. I think Kyle had been wrestling three years. I had been wrestling one year.

And we had this match. It was like six minutes once again in the famous ECW arena. And it was the first time that I ever got the crowd to like, oh, oh, one, two, oh. And it was such a cool feeling. And I remember it was the first time me or Kyle got any sort of internet buzz before where people were like, who were these two dudes? And it actually helped us get a job in ROH shortly after. So that one to me was where I was like, okay, I have a shot here. All right.

I feel like I can maybe finally start making some waves. I say finally I've been wrestling for a year. But I was really excited. So again, it's so crazy with everything. thing that's happened, how much Kyle has played such a huge part in my career. You say it's only, you know, it was only a year at that point. But like when you're in it and you're doing it, week in, week out, a year can feel like a really long time. Yeah, for sure. And then again, I had such like a broad ambition for what I wanted to accomplish.

Like anybody who's really passionate about pro wrestling and you finally start doing it, you have these goals that you set for yourself and you just demand, not perfection, but excellence from yourself. And it can be really hard in the beginning, because I haven't really talked about this, but it can really be hard in the beginning for young wrestlers when you're first starting out and you're obsessing on advancing and getting to the next level or working for a really cool promotion or traveling overseas. And it can drive you a little bit crazy. So because I learned really early on how important it was to, of course, set huge goals for yourself, but also recognize there's a lot that's out of your control. So if you just focus

match to match, promo to promo, town to town, on doing the best job that you can. Then also mentally, you're able to enjoy the journey even more. So for any young wrestlers out there who are really, really wanting to advance in your career, just stick with it, man. I promise that stuff will always work out. It always turns around, but don't drive yourself nuts on trying to get to the next level too soon.

And the only thing that you have control over is how you want to react to what's happening. You have no control over the decisions that other people make, but you can decide how you want to react to what's actually happening to you. Exactly. Exactly. I think, oh, go ahead. Sorry. No, I was just going to say, I think with what you're saying, it's so important to celebrate those little wins along the way, too. So important.

Because, again, there was a phase in my career. And it was right around the time. So I was lucky enough to be R.O.H, world champion and PWG world champion at the same time. And I was, it was like the first time I was really making myself like a mainstay name on the independence. And I was doing all this cool stuff. But I was so obsessive about wanting to be perfect and do everything perfect. So one little thing got messed up or I wished I did one thing a little bit different, like took three steps here instead of two. I would beat myself up so much. And I finally sat down one day and I'm like, I am living my dream. Like I am, when I was

nine, I said I want to be a pro wrestler, and I'm making a living and traveling all across the world as a pro wrestler. I got to enjoy this more. So again, I still have that demand of myself, but like you said, it's so important to enjoy this because someday you're going to wake up and go, oh, yeah, I did that. And you wouldn't, you won't be able to enjoy the ride that yet. What jobs were you doing before you were wrestling full time? So I had one job that I had, before, I think I signed my first contract with Ring of Honor, and I finally was making enough to be able to just wrestle. That was such a cool day. But the one job that I had was I actually worked in a retirement home. So there was a fitness center where people would come down and

exercise, and if people asked for help on a machine or how to use a machine, I would direct them. I kept an eye on the gym to make sure everyone was okay. And then in between that, I also, in the same building. It was literally a room right beside it. I taught kids swim lessons. So that was the job that I had. And why it was so great is they were so lenient with my schedule. Like if I said, hey, guys, I have to go to Europe for a week. I'm not going to be able to come to work. They'd go, okay. Like, it was the dream scenario of finding a job that was so understanding of my, of my schedule. So, but that's what I did. That's what I did before I became a full time independent wrestler. Wow. What was this job have a great job title too? Yeah. No, it was just, my God,

what was it? So I was swim instructor for the for the kid's swim lessons. And then I just worked, I was like the front desk at the, at the fitness center. So it was just like right when you walked in, I just sat there at a desk. And it wasn't like I did a ton of stuff. Like I cleaned the equipment and all that stuff. And again, kind of observed everybody and kept an eye on everyone. But yeah, I can't think of the exact title, but I'm going to call myself the front desk man at the fit of the center. Sounds good. So if you're the kid at nine who's telling everyone I want to be a pro wrestler, that's probably

carrying with you through your teenage years and into high school where someone can't look at you, Austin, without associating you with wrestling. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I was so deep into pro wrestling that it was all I wanted to do. Like I never went through and I totally understand why some kids. went through this, but I've heard stories before about people being into wrestling, and then they acted like they weren't because they wanted to fit in in high school or middle school.

That was not me. I was the wrestling nerd at the high school and middle school. So I used to wear wrestling t-shirts every single day. I do have kind of a funny story as I wore, again, wrestling t-shirts every single day, even to the point where for picture day, I wore a WWE polo shirt with the little WWE logo on it. Like that was my dress wrestling shirt. I had to. I had to. And one time this girl said to me, she goes, you don't even own any other shirts. I said, yeah, I do.

I just want to wear a wrestling shirt. She goes, I'll give you $20 if you don't wear a wrestling shirt tomorrow. I said, okay, deal. So I wore a different shirt that was not wrestling related. And she, to her word, gave me $20. And with that $20, I bought the rock. American flag, just bring it T-shirt.

So just added another wrestling shirt to the collection, man. I was so into it. She just fed the addiction. That's what she did. She did. She did. Because when it came to collecting stuff, I was definitely a T-shirt and then VHS DVD guy. So I had figures and stuff like that,

but I was really into, again, the T-shirts and books. And then also, again, VHS and then DVD, because I was so obsessed with collecting all this footage. Like still at my mom's house, we have mountains of VHS tapes where I used to tape Raw and then tape Smackdown, tape Sunday Night Heat. And I remember it started with one tape.

I said, because I used to have to go to bed. So like Raw would be 9 to 11. And on a school night, I was only allowed to watch from 9 to 9.30. So like what a tease, right? Like watch the first half hour of the show building to the main event and stuff. And then I had to go to bed. So I would tape it and then watch it. I used to get up super early the morning before school, like 5.30 or whatever.

And I would watch the rest of the show before I went to school. And originally I told myself, I'm like, yeah, I'll do that. And then I'll just tape over it. You know, I'll just put, I was like, oh, this raw was so good. I can't tape over this. I got to go get another VHS tape. So then I just started collecting every single Raw on Smackdown because I refuse to tape over anything. But yeah.

Back when we're taping them on VHS tape. The HHS. That's insane. Yeah. And the classic, so we were never allowed to get the pay-per-views. So I used to put it on like the fuzzy screen and just listen to it, get real close to the TV and listen to it. I remember one time I got so excited because this was before there was a ton of like internet usage and stuff like that. But I remember Stone Cold was gone and I was listening to a pay-per-view and I heard his music. And I was jumping up and down so excited.

but it was just a commercial for like a video. So I was so bummed. I thought Stone Cold was back. Was Sean Michael always your guy growing up? So first, my first guy was Stone Cold Steve Austin, actually. He was the one who got me into pro wrestling. We had the same name. He had the coolest entrance music.

I used to love how crazy the crowd went when he would come out. So because when I first got into wrestling, Sean was the commissioner at this point. So I actually didn't see a ton of his wrestling. So early on, it was definitely stone cold. But then as I got older and I got the access to the internet and I was able to go back and watch all of these WrestleMania's and summer slams and stuff like that, that's when Sean became my favorite.

And when I started like not to pretend that at 16 years old, I had a great understanding of the business or anything like that. But you do. You get a little bit smarter to like what you like and what you don't like and when a match is good and when it's not so good. So I just remember every time watching Sean, I thought he had the most exciting matches every single time. He was a big reason. Him and C.M. Punk actually were a big reason I grew my hair out. Before that, I was bald because of Stone Cold Steve Austin.

So, yeah, yeah, pretty early on, Sean became my favorite in-ring performer of all time. And then, you know, fast forward a bunch of years, then you're working with him under his tutelage. Like, how incredible is that? It's, to this day, it's one of the ultimate highlights of my entire life. Like, I idolized him. I still do. Like, I still look at him as just the best pro wrestler of all time, whether it was as a good guy or a bad guy. The fact that lots of times people would say, oh, so.

and so-and-so's best match was the one with Sean Michaels. Like being that guy, to be able to say, yeah, I give people the best match of their career is so cool. So getting the chance to work with him and have him as a mentor is something that I will cherish forever. We still have a great relationship, which is really, really important to me because he has become someone that not only someone who I really look up to, but I consider him a friend. If it's up to me, I'm hoping that we stay involved in each other's lives for the rest of our lives.

He's just the best. And for him to take so much time to help me as much as he could, he was always the first one when I would come to the back to be right there to give me a big hug or give me some advice or whatever it was. He's just, aside from the fact that he's an incredible performer, he's an incredible human being too. I'm so lucky, so so lucky. What would you say is the biggest thing that you learn from him? It doesn't even need to be wrestling related. What's the biggest thing that you learned from him? So I actually think, and this is wrestling related, which is cool.

But he was the first person to really make me understand the cadence of taking the audience for a ride. So before when you would have your match, you would do your stuff. And sometimes they went well, sometimes they didn't. But he has such a good ear for when to speed up or when to slow down to make sure that the audience goes on the most roller coaster ride as possible. Sean just understands that better than anybody else. And he made me so in tune with that. I mean, I'm still learning it. But he has such a good grasp on that.

And that was something I never really thought of, at least to the detail that he kind of made me think about it. So it's incredible how important that is. And it's something that not a lot of people talk about, you know. But Sean has such a gift in that sense. And I feel like, again, my time working with him in those four years, without question, I've become a better pro wrestler, like without question. And a lot of that is thanks to him. So if so much of it is relying on the crowd and like figuring out the cadence based on that,

what do you do when there's no crowd? Oh, my God, right? What an adjustment. What an adjustment. That whole situation was so strange because, again, especially now performing again in front of crowds at AEW to the size that we've been doing. It is so insane how literally vital they are to what we do. So it changed a lot of it. First of all, the bumps hurt a lot more without a crowd, without that adrenaline.

Of course, though, I still cared so much because in my mind, I'm having this match and I'm thinking, okay, everyone's watching this at home. And also, Sean Michaels and Triple H are back there watching as well. So, you know, I want to make sure I do good for them and for the people watching at home. But it just changed so much of how we approached, you know, matches and the way that we wanted to do things. Like, in so many ways, it became more of a television show because so much of it, was to the camera and so much of it was hoping that the people were feeling what we were trying to portray. You know, when you have an audience, you know, it's like it's so much easier because you get this instant gratification of that worked or that didn't work. During the pandemic,

it was a total shot in the dark. It was a guess. So it was definitely strange. And I am so happy fans are back. And I think fans are so happy that fans are back, whether you're there in the arena watching from home. It was Hurricane Helms had pointed this out. He said, watching wrestling with no crowd is like watching a comedy show with no audience. Oh, my God, it's so true. It's so, so true. It's like, I keep thinking, too, about people who maybe have discovered pro wrestling

for the first time during the pandemic. Yeah. And flipping through and seeing a wrestling match without an audience, it just doesn't feel complete. But then when you see this awesome wrestling. match with crowds just one, two, oh, or booing or cheering or laughing. It's, that's where the real magic is. That's where it feels like nothing else in the entire world.

That is such a good quote. It's like a comedy show with no, with no audience. So true. So if that's the biggest thing you learn from Sean, what's the biggest thing you learned from Triple H? God, I learned a lot from him too. He is incredibly, incredibly passionate about, Not just WWE, but pro wrestling.

You know, Triple H through and through loves the industry, loves the business, loves learning every little aspect there is to what we do. But the biggest thing I learned actually, and this works because it's kind of a behind-the-scenes thing. Triple H, no matter how busy he was, no matter how slammed he was, he always was there. And what I mean by there, I mean he was in the moment. I've seen him all day talking to every single talent about ideas. He always has a great idea all the time off the top of his head. And he was so invested in making NXT the best that it possibly could have

and making the matches as exciting as they could. But he always knowing like, God, this guy probably has gotten two hours of sleep. He's been on the phone all day. He's doing interviews all day. He's helping run rehearsals. And he's doing it with a smile on his face. You can see he just, he loves it. And seeing how motivated and inspired he is, God, you think it didn't motivate the talent.

We already are really fired up. But then when our boss is, you know, this passionate and this motivated too, we're like, hell yeah, let's go. Let's go. So he constantly reminded me, one, this is the coolest job in the world. And two, when you're here, you know, be invested, be dedicated, be passionate. Because my God, he's been that way for years and years. years and years. He really is inspiring. He really is. You talked about it a little bit on Talk

as Jericho, but now you've been on both sides of the Wednesday Night War. When you were in NXT, how much pressure did you guys feel to win that ratings were? I'll put it in quotations because I don't know if there really was one or not. Right, right. So for me personally, and this is just true, this is kind of always how I've been, being in NXT and then also being in AEW, I've never been someone who is super focused on the ratings more, or like you said, in quotations. Like I was always so focused on if I'm wrestling, I want to have the best match possible. If I'm cutting a promo, I want to have the best promo possible. Of course, it's really exciting to hear like, hey, you know, 1.3 million. Oh, that's awesome. Or, hey, this segment that you were in, it was the highest rated

segment on the show. That's great. But if my match isn't good or if my promo isn't good, I don't care how many people watched it. I'm going to be upset that it dropped the ball or whatever. But it is. It was a really exciting time. It was really cool because especially in the beginning, it was like NXT's first time on TV, which was really awesome. And now being over on the other side in AEW and seeing the momentum just continuing to grow. It's cool.

I think across the board it's good for wrestling. I think it's cool that people can watch both shows and stuff like that. Sometimes I do think that the fans are a little bit too hard on either side. Like I just think about me as a fan and how excited I would be. Like, for example, I was a WWE guy, but I still love WCW. Like it wasn't like I, you know, hated one and loved the other. Of course, it's fun to have to pick aside and challenge each other that way. And again, you're not saying you have to be forced to like anything.

But I've always been someone like, man, there are a lot of people who are getting a ton of TV time, guys who haven't been on television before, getting the chance to showcase themselves to a bunch of new people. It's awesome. I think it's just been great across the board for the industry of pro wrestling. Yeah, absolutely. And you mentioned your promos. And your promos are so good. And even just talking to you right now, you're just, there's a great talker. So where did this come from?

So I was always fascinated as a kid by James Bond villains. I remember my dad really loved James Bond, and I used to love watching those movies. And I remember me more so than him or even my brother. I was so into the villains, the guy sitting in there in a suit with a cigar and a glass of scotch, talking about what he's going to do, this long monologue of how evil and vile this guy is.

And I was always so attracted to that. And I remember even more so with, you know, watching wrestling and seeing these guys say these things and getting these massive reactions just from talking was, was really, really cool. But when I decided, like, I need to be someone who is good interviews was the first time I saw CM Punk. So I had only watched WWE, a little bit of WCW and a little bit of ECW. And again, when I first got access to the internet, there was this website called Obsessed with Wrestling.com. That was my homepage. I was, I always would go on that website. And people would write about this CM Punk guy over and over and over again. And I'm like, what's Ring of Honor? Who's CM Punk? And I remember just based on what the internet said, I'm like, I'm going to go for

it. And I went and bought a Best of CM Punk and R.O.H. DVD. And I plugged it in and watched it and I saw his matches. I'm like, oh, this guy's really good. He's really cool. But when he became one of my favorites was watching him cut this promo on Raven. He was bleeding and his hair. It was like right after a match. And he was screaming into the camera. And I remember thinking, I've never seen a wrestling promo like this. Like it felt so real and raw and genuine. And I said, I need to be good at promos because it made me feel that way. It was like the first match that gave me goosebumps ever was the rock and Stone Cold at WrestleMania 17. I'll never forget that feeling with the, you know, hair on my arm standing up. And the first time a promo gave me goosebumps was the CM Punk

cutting that promo to Raven. So at that point, I just said, I always wanted to be someone who was as good at everything at the job as possible. So because again, I'm not six foot four. I'm not 265 pounds. So I said, if I'm going to make it, I got to be good in the ring and I got to be good on the microphone. So I put just as much dedication and time into practicing promos and practicing interviews as I did training to be a wrestler as well. And then you talk about cadence. That is so important in a promo as well. And whenever you see someone come into wrestling, whether it's WWEA, AW, wherever, and they're not really familiar, maybe a celebrity coming in. And they try to cut a promo, it always sounds so weird because there's a certain way that you're supposed to speak when you're in a promo.

Right, right, absolutely. Like the volume changes of when to yell, when to talk quietly, how you want to go about telling the story that you want to tell. But I've told people all the time, anytime I've done seminars, I think the number one rule of at least the beginnings of a good promo is you just have to 100% believe what you're saying. Like I've done camps and stuff like that before where I've seen people have to cut a 30 second promo. And I've seen people cut promos on cheesecake. But like their eyes told me that they meant every word they were saying. And I think that's a big reason that people have kind of liked some of the stuff that I've said because I've heard before that they go, yeah, it seems like he really really believes what he's saying. And you have to like find that switch within your head that no matter what you're talking about, you mean every single word.

Like I think of a guy like Eddie Kingston. My God, he just, you can tell he feels everything he's saying. He's not saying something he doesn't believe. He's bought in and that makes everybody else bought it. So I think that one is really important too. So I had Britt on here about a year ago. And she told me the whole story of how you guys met on Bumble, which I think gives a lot great hope to people who are on some sort of dating app right now.

That it works. You guys can do it. They can maybe do it. Were you aware of who she was before you saw her on the app? So I had known, we had become, I think she added me as a friend on Facebook, like a year before. So I had known of her, like known of her in the sense of I saw her profile picture. And so I'm like, oh, she's cute. But we never talked.

And I remember I was on Bumble and she was also on Bumble, but was kind of close to where I was living. And she had sent me a screencap of my. my picture on Bumble and then sent me a message on Facebook and said, hey, this guy looks familiar. So then we had kind of talked a little bit back and forth. And then it actually, in the beginning, we would talk for a little bit. And then again, she slammed with school. I'm traveling all over the world. So then we kind of wouldn't talk.

And then we would talk again. And I remember one time we had started talking, I'm like, she seems really cool. I want to go on a date with this girl. So I'd asked her about going on a date. And she wasn't having. She didn't want a date a wrestler. She was doing her own thing. So I'm like, okay, okay.

But we kept talking as friends. And then she claims that what did it for her was I was over in Japan for WrestleMania. And it was when I won the Ring of Honor title for a third time. And I was messaging her the entire time. And I remember her saying like, okay, he is really interested. You know, he's not just pretending that he's interested. So she finally agreed to going on a date with me.

We met it a TGI Fridays, two and a half hours for me, two hours for her, close the place down. And this part too is we were supposed to hang out like three and a half weeks later. And I said, hey, I know we're supposed to hang out in three and a half weeks, but can you hang out tomorrow? And she goes, yeah, sure. And then the rest was history. The rest was history. But so I didn't really know her. That was me just telling my own version of the story.

but I didn't really know her before, but as I got to know her, I knew that she was someone that that I wanted to get to know more. And this was a long-distance relationship for a lot of it, right? You're in Orlando. She's in Pittsburgh. Yeah, a very long time. Well, the nice thing, too, what made it a little bit easier, actually, was it was long distance from the gate.

Because even when I lived in Pennsylvania, she was four hours from me. So it wasn't like we could hang out every day. So we were able to adjust to the, you know, aspect of a long-distance relationship pretty early on. So now getting to spend so much time together and live together, it just feels like a treat. So that was the other thing, too, was even when I was in NXT and she was in AEW, and there'd be times where I would see her for a half a day. Of course, it sucked and it was a bummer. But we've done way worse.

There were times where we didn't see each other for three or four weeks sometimes. So we've always been used to that. So now any time I get to spend with her is a plus in my book. But she was telling the story about like how intentional you guys were. Like you would sit down and watch a movie at the same time. Like you'd hit play at the same time. And it's like you were there even though you couldn't physically be there with each other. Exactly.

Yeah, we found ways to make sure that we still spent, you know, quality time together. And it was. Some of my best memories of our relationship were, you know, three hour face times where, you know, I'm down in Orlando and she's up in Pittsburgh. And like you said, watching a show together, we found ways to make it work. And when you have two people that are invested in the relationship, there's always a way to make it work. And we did. What do you think about maybe having her join the super elite or something where you guys are on screen together?

Oh, so I do love the idea of eventually doing something on screen with Britt. I know I've been asked that before. And some people are like, oh, maybe you want to keep it separate. it. Maybe you want to work together. And I love the idea of that because we did. There was a small phase when I was done with Ring of Honor where for like three months I was doing independent shows before I ended up leaving for WWE. And I remember I was doing shows that she was also booked on. And a couple of those matches, we got to do some mixed tags or she had run in or I had run in. And it was really fun to work with her. So eventually doing something like that on the big

stage that is AEW, I'm all about it, all for it. I have to say, the positivity that you have just comes right through the camera here. Like, it just oozes out of you. Oh, thanks, man. Thank you. I try. I try. I think it's been really important to me. So for anyone who knows me, like, we know each other. It's a very real thing in the sense of kind of who I am as a person. You know, my friends give me a hard time for being overly optimistic a lot of times. Of course, I have bad days like anybody else. But generally speaking, life is good. I'm very thankful for everything that I've gotten to do and everything I've gotten to experience.

But it's been even more important to me to be positive and be optimistic just because of the state of the way the internet can be sometimes. I know that lots of times when people get onto Twitter or Instagram or YouTube or social media or what have you, that again, it can feel like such like a negative place sometimes, you know, with certain people. So I feel like it's really important. That's why my Twitch is the exact same way. But I think it's really important that people have something to smile about or something to look forward to or just something to be happy about. Because every day I wake up, I think about the things that I'm thankful for, which I think is really, really important because it kind of puts you mentally in check of things to be happy about instead of being down in the dumps. But I appreciate you saying that, man. Thank you.

Well, and I start my day the exact same way. I say out loud three things that I'm grateful for. And it's also how I end every interview. It seems like a perfect segue. What are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now? Oh, man. So I am incredibly thankful for my family. I love them to death.

I'm incredibly thankful for my girlfriend, Britt Baker, who also loves me to death. And I'm very thankful for our health. I'm thankful that I'm healthy and happy. I'm thankful that Britt is healthy. I'm thankful that my family is healthy. Overall health and well-being, whether that be physically or mentally, is really important. So I'm very thankful that I'm in a place where I'm healthy and healthy. happy. So my family, my girlfriend, and my health. Man, I've loved this. Thank you for finally making

this happen. Of course, man. Guys, it's been my fault, too. We've been playing ping pong back and forth to try to get this interview to happen. So I'm so, so, so happy that we finally got to. No, this has been great. And the one thing I actually, I meant to bring it up really, but I want to ask you about the program you did with Pat McAfee. Yes. And like, I think that he impressed a lot of people. I referenced earlier how when a celebrity comes into the wrestling world, sometimes they don't quite get it. And Pat, like, definitely got it. Yeah. Yeah. So I hate to admit it because he's, he's a, he's a freaking idiot. But I will give him credit. He took to it like a fish to water. I mean, he is, obviously he's an athlete. And obviously he loves pro wrestling. He's got the gift of

Gab and again for a first match he did incredible. Just a total natural. It was really cool to see someone like Pat come in and make the impression that he did. And also the respect that he has for wrestling, not for me, but the respect that he has for wrestling was really impressive. But yeah, Pat, Pat, I hate to say it. I'll say it though. I'll say it.

Pat McAfee, you suck, you're the worst, and I hate you, but you did awesome. Oh, my God. I got chills when I said that. Oh, geez. The whole positive vibe of this interview, just about the window. Yeah, down the toilet, dude. I love the segment you did on his radio show because I just, I know, I love that when, when Kay Faye bleeds into real life and like, do they really hate each other or what's going on here?

love that. That's the great thing about the era of wrestling that we're in right now. Sure, sure. Absolutely. Yeah. When there are, I think of different moments like that within pro wrestling where, again, like you said, when you can bleed it into reality to where it seems like, oh, man, okay, these guys really do hate each other. The nice thing is, is me and Pat can't stand each other. So, well, there it is. Well, I'm the exact opposite. I love you and I appreciate you. and I love this time. So, man, thank you so much. Of course.

Absolutely, man. It was a pleasure. Hopefully we can do it again sometime soon, man. Yeah, let's do it in person next time. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds great. All right, man. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. Well, there we go. Adam Cole, baby. His positivity is just so infectious. I love it. And I hope this has you juiced up for the day or the week ahead. And please share this with someone who needs to hear this message. Take a screenshot, tag us on social media.

Let us know what stood out for you the most from this conversation. You can tag Adam. He's at Adam Cole Pro. Tag me. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And if it's your first time here, well, first of all, welcome. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Please take a moment right now to subscribe so you don't miss out on any future episodes that we have for you.

And we'll end with some wise words from the great Nelson Mandela, who said, It always seems impossible until it's done. Be great. Be grateful. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do.

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