My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 137 - KYLE O'REILLY/ADAM COLE

Episode Date: July 6, 2021

Robbie is joined by both Kyle O'Reilly *and* Adam Cole ahead of their main event at NXT's Great American Bash on July 6th. They discuss the match, their professional wrestling Mount Rushmores, pet peeves, nerdy interests, and more! 3Chi: Use code MMB at checkout to receive 5% off at 3Chi.com HelloFresh: Use code 14robbie at HelloFresh.com/14robbie for 14 FREE MEALS! Subscribe to My Mom's Basement on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeZ96PqdsJYQ7DFLRx6MHw My Mom's Basement Merchandise: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/my-moms-basement Intro Music: “Basement Noise” by All Time Low Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/basement-noise/1499013757?i=1499013968 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3Aq9W9BBCjsFOQqcYyO6IA?si=d9d0f74cf54a48deYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Just stupid boys making basement noise in the basement, noise in the basement. Just stupid boys making basement noise in the basement. Yeah, yeah. Hello and welcome to My Mom's Basement presented by 3Chi and Barstool Sports. I am your host, Robbie Fox, and today I am bringing you a pro wrestling Great American Bash edition of the show with both competitors in tonight's main event. If you're listening to this on release day, July 6th, we've got a huge NXT show tonight. And I spoke to Kyle O'Reilly and Adam Cole ahead of their main event. So this is a great episode.

I want to get right into it. First, let me tell you about 3Chi, our presenting sponsor. They are the industry leader in Delta-8 THC products. Their Delta-8 THC is not only the best on the market, it was the first on the market. They invented the industry, basically. And their biochemists have formulated the perfect product. It's THC from hemp, which is federally legal, and it's loaded with CBD that takes away a lot of the anxiety and paranoia that normally comes with marijuana. They have this in many forms, in vape form, in edible form.

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Welcome back to My Mom's Basement, ladies and gentlemen. It is Robbie Fox, and I am here with one of my favorite current wrestlers on the NXT roster. One of my favorite current wrestlers in the world, I would say, Kyle. I've been following your career a very long time. I was at Final Battle 2013. I was at Final Battle 2016, where you actually took on Adam Cole, which is very timely for this interview. And your Battle of Los Angeles win is still my all-time favorite as far as PWG goes. So this is very cool to have you on the show.

Thank you for being here. Oh, wow, man. What a blast from the past. That's so cool. Thank you for saying that, man. You've been there for a lot of my biggest moments. So really cool to chat with you today. And one of those big moments, as I mentioned, was final battle 2016 against Adam Cole. You have a match coming up against Adam Cole, July 6th. It's going to be on NXT. You've wrestled him so many times now. What's the secret to keeping it fresh?

I feel like I speak for many when I say we never get tired of seeing it. So this is just about proving who the better in-ring competitor is. So, you know, our last match was on sanction. There was no rules. Throw everything out the window. Now, you know, we have to play within a certain rule set. And I don't think any of us will stray from that because if we beat each other by breaking the rules and what did we really prove? So this is just about proving who the better wrestler,

who the better technician is and looking forward to the great American bash. Do you enjoy being put in that rule set or do you enjoy the unsanctioned style, almost the final battle 2016 style where you could go balls to the walls and just throw everything at the crowd? For me, I think I'm better suited in a traditional pro wrestling sort of environment. I think my style suits that well. I've had most of my success under those rules. But that said, it's cool and fun to be able to do that unsanctioned match, to do those crazy, gritty, violent matches, because it's different. And it's a cool opportunity to show your versatility as, as a performer when you get to think outside the box and,

and do a different type of match, whether it's, you know, a ladder match, a tables match, unsanctioned match, whatever that may be. It's, it's fun and a rare opportunity just to do something different, but I think I'm better suited as a traditional wrestler. Well, speaking of your style, I would love to talk about the origins of that. You have a very martial arts influence in your style. Your striking is different than we see from a lot of wrestlers. It's just very unique. Did you have that in your mindset? Like how early did you have that in your mindset that you wanted to incorporate that into your move set as a wrestler? Well, it's interesting that, you know, I can watch if I were to go back and watch a lot of my early matches. It was a lot more traditional pro wrestling in terms of offense and defense,

but I would try to do things that were martial arts influence, whether that's an arm bar or roundhouse kick. But at that point, I didn't actually train. So watching it, it looks a little off, like it didn't have the snap or the actual correct footwork or the actual correct mechanics and leverage to perform the technique properly. So once I started training, I noticed these things were translating a lot better into my pro wrestling and, and my timing got better. My footwork got better. My in-ring cardio increased through this. And then I noticed, okay, there's some real changes happening in my pro wrestling through, through training jujitsu and through training Muay Thai and kickboxing. So, okay. I was like, this is working for me. So I think that's important to remember that,

you know, if you're going to do something like that, you need to put in the reps in the gym, you need to put in the time to do these things correctly. And I think that's why it does work for me because I was pro a pro wrestler, and then I did martial arts. And I think that only increased my pro wrestling. I didn't necessarily come did martial arts. And I think that only increased my pro wrestling. I didn't necessarily come from martial arts and then try to do pro wrestling and then have these kind of bad habits built in where I was already had the pro wrestling mindset. So I think that was beneficial for just for me personally, as an individual, I think that's, that's why I've had success with it. Are you still training jujitsu? You are right?

I am. Yeah. It's one of my favorite things to do. One of my favorite hobbies. I train pretty regularly, which is difficult in this line of work. But yeah, it's my favorite way to supplement my training. And I think it translates well in terms of preparing me for the ring, because I know if I'm deep in a jujitsu round and I'm getting smashed by a big dude and I'm so tired. I know nothing is going to suck as much as that. So when I'm in a pro wrestling match and I'm getting beat up and I'm tired, I know like I've been here before I can get through this. I trained very, very briefly. And just the feeling of having someone that's like a hundred pounds heavier than

you lay on top of you with the keys on where you're just like, there's nothing I could do to move out of this position right now. So I'm just stuck here for as long as he wants me to be stuck here. I'm stuck here. That's the worst. It's a labor of love, but, um, that's where, you know, technique conquers all man. You should get back into it and stick with it because eventually once you figure things out, you'll be able to sweep that big guy and then you'll be smashing him. You'll feel like you're 200 pounds heavier than him. So it's the time, but yeah, it definitely sucks in those beginning stages. We've all been there and I still get smashed a lot. It's just the nature of the beast and it's just going to make me better. Keep you humble, right? Yeah, totally. Do you have a favorite match from your past that you've had with Adam Cole? I'm sure that's a

cliche question that you've been asked before, but because you have this match coming up with him, I was just curious. That's a really good question. Man, we've had so many over the years that have been special for their, their own unique ways. Does it have to be a singles match against each other? No, I mean, you could pick a tag match.

One of the ones where you guys were together yeah there was a special one um early on uh a tag match it was our first uh match in new york city at the manhattan center famous venue it was our first match on ipay per view for ring of honor and we were the opening match in a tag team match against the all-night express and uh it was a big moment for us. It was like a, kind of a coming out party for future shock, the tag team. And that match,

you know, gave us a lot of confidence moving forward. And we've had so many big moments together, you know, it's hard to pinpoint one, but that's one off the top of my head. I could say as far as singles matches against each other, man, they've all just been different and brutal and you know, for their own unique ways, just,

so I feel like they've evolved a lot from when we first started, but there was one, I think one, one of the final battles we wrestled, not, not 2016, maybe the one before that, I think we wrestled in 2015. And that, that was a a i remember that being a good one at the ecw arena there was that there was the one where i think it was in new york as well where i think adam cole always talks about you know the blood like spewing out of his mouth like that's a classic as well yeah i'm gonna say when i punched his mouth loose and where is my favorite memory now i just looked up before we started the interview the main events of former great american bashes the first ever great american bash main event was toli blanchard versus dusty

roads in a steel cage match that was also july 6th 1985 and then the first ever wwe great american bash match i just had to read this to you because it made me laugh when I read it. It was The Undertaker versus The Dudley Boys in a handicap concrete crypt match. What difference is there? Wow. Handicap match. That's so crazy. Yeah.

What a testament to how this sport is always evolving and changing and going through different cycles and eras. You go from that match in 2004 to 2021, it's Adam Cole versus Kyle O'Reilly in a straight up match. It's pretty cool and humbling to be part of such a historic event. And it's cool seeing NXT bring back all these classic themed pay-per-views. It's really cool to be a part of, you know, a Great American Bash or an In Your House. In Your house is awesome yeah well i love it on your mount i know you're canadian so i shouldn't say mount rushmore but on your mount rushmore of wrestlers who would you put

on that list your favorites not like you know the greatest of all time per se but just your specific favorites oh man that's really really tough uh so i need four right yeah four yes like from historical standpoint of who i think should be on the man rush or my not at all okay well it's no i'm called steve austin of course um he's you know a guy that made me a super fan and was like this is something i have to do. Just during the Attitude Era was the coolest thing ever. I'll say Hulk Hogan just because he's iconic and he's probably my first memory associated with wrestling. I remember going to like a video store when I was like a toddler probably

and there was this poster of Hulk Hogan ripping the shirt and I was like what is that that is what and then seeing him wrestle for the first time that memory is ingrained in my head do you remember what Wrestlemania it was or what match it was oh I don't I just remember seeing him and being like who is this this guy is so cool and you say you know I'm Canadian but he was like the all-american guy with the flag and I was like yeah I love it it didn't matter to a little kid like that um i'm gonna say kenta kobashi because he's one of my favorite japanese wrestlers and a guy whose matches i've studied countless times because he's he's one of the i'm not sure if you're familiar but he's i

am yeah he's one of the greats um kenta and joe and ring of honor such a classic you can't be an independent wrestling fan without like hailing that as you know an Honor Such a classic You can't be an independent wrestling fan Without hailing that as an all-time great You can't beat that And then from a standpoint of A guy who Really captured my imagination And just made me in awe of

The theatrics and the presentation Of what we do Would be The Undertaker Just because as a kid growing up And seeing the fire and the lightning and just the character it was just so hypnotizing and um he's a guy that also really captured my imagination as a kid and made me think man this wrestling thing is just the coolest so yeah i'll go stone cold hulk hogan kenta kobashi that's a survivor series team I would love to see.

It's pretty cool that you named The Undertaker. And I just said The Undertaker was the first ever WWE Great American Bash main eventer. And here you are main eventing NXT Great American Bash. That's, I mean, full circle for you right there. You also have, obviously, in NXT, Triple H and Shawn Michaels as two mentors, two coaches. What is that like dissecting wrestling with those two brains? Are they very different? Are they very similar in how they think about wrestling? What's that? Just what's the experience like? I'll have to say if Mount Rushmore had six guys up there, I'd probably

Shawn Michaels and Triple H because they are so instrumental in what we do and so hands-on with everything that we do like they have a real stock in this thing obviously but they really do genuinely care and have our best interest at heart i can't tell you how many times where just even in the background just kind of observing the production process and how the thought that goes into certain ideas and, you know, whether that's a finish or an entrance for somebody, just their mindset is so different and unique that it's really the true geniuses and have, like, you know, you hear, oh, this guy's got a mind for the business. You hear that all the time, but like these guys really, really do. And it's, i'm in awe sometimes when i when i see how their mind works and um

to be surrounded by by them and to go for that to them for advice or suggestions i mean it's just unreal that i'm in this position to where i can go to sean michaels and ask him what he thinks about a match. Like, come on. That's so thrilled and so lucky to be around these guys. And their passion is unbridled. And they care so much about making NXT what it is. This special, unique place where people are passionate about it.

And it works because I care about NXT. And it's through their passion this is a show called my mom's basement we do talk about a lot of nerdy geeky things your opponent adam cole is very into video games he streams on twitch and stuff what would you consider yourself nerdy or geeky about man i've always really loved been into like the paranormal you know yeah ask watch uh ufos or uaps whatever you want oh yeah that's stuff that i've always been really interested in and like cryptids cryptids all that stuff i just we have one from new jersey where i'm from did you know about the jersey devil no of course yeah oh yeah, you're real into it. Okay. Okay.

You're with it. Yeah. That's, that was fun. Do you watch like the ghost hunter shows and stuff? No, I'm watching the skin Walker ranch. One that's out now is pretty fun. Is that a show or documentary? What's that? A history sort of documentary. And they're researching the Skinwalker Ranch where all these UFOs show up

and weird cryptid sightings. I don't know. Now I'm just really showing my hand. I'm currently reading Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series and it is phenomenal. The storytelling is so heavy and so deep and thought out. It's really blowing my mind.

I'm really into comic books and not necessarily superheroes. I love superheroes, but just the medium so deep and thought out and it's really blowing my mind i'm really into comic books and and you know not necessarily superhero i love superheroes but just like the medium of comic books used to tell a story is so cool graphic novels and this that and the other and novels in general um i really love fictional narratives things like that we're all geeky in our own ways right dude you are gonna get so much respect for that sandman poll from the listeners they're gonna love that they're gonna absolutely i mean that's a classic that's the game it is you know a nerd god basically at this point and the way that he used storytelling in that like you said it's it's so different than what you would expect when you open up a comic book or

a graphic novel it's so serious and it's so like dense of storytelling and complex it's a fantastic it's fantastic and they're doing it as a show soon i heard i can't uh it's going to be amazing um another one similar to the whole you know paranormal thing is i don't know if you're familiar with grant morrison's the invisibles so i'm familiar with Grant Morrison's The Invisibles. So I'm familiar with Grant Morrison. I'm not familiar with The Invisibles. The Invisibles is really cool. You should check that out. It's kind of like, you know, these sort of underground sort of superheroes,

but like they're, you know, they're going against like these archons and like the underground bases of aliens, stuff like that. Like it's just, it's kind of all the cool fun things that we were just talking about but in you know a storytelling comic book so the invisibles is pretty sweet too you should check it out i'm definitely going to give that a look because i love grant morrison's batman run he has such good batman stuff so like i basically if he slaps his

name on something it's a seal of approval for me and all he wrote it all so you should check it out i will kyle thank you so much this has been awesome everyone make sure you check out nxt great american bash this tuesday july 6th at 8 p.m on usa network this is going to be on usa so really you have no excuse not to watch it this is not watch tv you have to watch that kyle thank you very much jobby, dude. All right. Thank you to Kyle for coming on the show. That was great. I had never spoken to Kyle before, never interviewed him.

This next guest is someone I have interviewed before, but it was another great interview. First, let me tell you about HelloFresh, another one of our sponsors. If you were following me on Instagram, you saw that I got way into HelloFresh this week. HelloFresh cuts out stressful meal planning and grocery store trips so you can enjoy cooking and get dinner on the table in 30 minutes or less. And I can attest to that. It really is 30 minutes or less. It's 28% cheaper than shopping at your local grocery store and 72% cheaper than a restaurant meal without sacrificing the quality. I actually went to HelloFresh this week. I used my own promo code, the actual promo code I'm about to give out in this very ad read. And I got two meals. I got this shrimp fajita meal and I got like this cheesy chicken over noodles. It was like an Italian chicken. Both of them were tremendous. Truly. I was posting pictures

on Instagram. It was fun to make very easy to make the instructions. Couldn't have been easier to follow. And we, we just had a blast eating it, making it all of it. If you go to hello, fresh.com slash 14 Robbie, and then use the promo code 14 Robbie, you can get up to 14 free meals plus free shipping. That's the promo code that I used. I really just went to hello,resh.com slash 14 Robbie used my own promo code. No special treatment for me except the 14 free meals. I mean, I guess everyone that uses that promo code gets special treatment, but I'm telling you it's worth it. Go to, go to that link. Use the promo code 14 Robbie, get your 14 free meals. If you like shrimp fajitas, I highly recommend those. I also highly recommend the Italian mozzarella chicken. I don't even know what it was. It was fucking delicious, though, I swear. Again, HelloFresh.com slash 14 Robbie. Use the promo code 14 Robbie. It's America's number one meal kit for a reason. Let's get into this interview with Adam Cole. Hello and welcome back to my mom's basement, ladies and gentlemen. I am here with Adam Cole, a return guest.

He is taking on Kyle O'Reilly in a straight up wrestling match on July 6th at the Great American Bash. This is going to be on USA Network. So I said to Kyle O'Reilly, there's really no excuse for anyone not to watch this. Being that it's on USA, it's like must watch TV in my opinion.

I asked him the same thing, but you guys have wrestled a million times. You always keep it fresh. What's the secret to that? Um, this is going to sound very broad, but I'll kind of go into explaining it. Um, it's the chemistry. Um, ever since 2009, when we met, uh, again, I, I had been wrestling for like a year. Uh, Kyle had been wrestling a little bit longer than me, but we had this instant connection where we just gelled on every level. And I think the other thing that really keeps it fresh is I kind of have my own ideas and Kyle has his own ideas.

And we're very good at being able to combine those two things to make something feel fresh and different and original. Because I like to kind of shake things up and change things up. And Kyle's the exact same way. So somehow we've managed to keep stuff different and exciting. And I do think at the end of the day, because the chemistry is so strong, you know, between the ropes. I think on top of that, too, that also makes people intrigued and interested in kind of what we what we bring to the table. So both of us have the mentality of constantly growing and developing as performers.

So there are things about me that change year to year, even if they're really, really subtle and small things. So I'm'm really really looking forward to the great american bash yeah i was actually at final battle 2016 where you guys had that main event so i was there for that and i could see how much you guys have evolved and i could you know speak to that you guys are completely different performers at this point completely different characters um do you enjoy the art of like crafting a match or is that sort of like the boring part before you

actually get to go out there like in front of a crowd especially now that people are back is that part of the job that you enjoy or is that like just something that you do so it depends um sometimes it can be incredibly stressful and that all depends on circumstances you know if stuff is thrown together last minute uh or again, there's just so many different factors. But generally speaking, the process of putting it together is actually really exciting. Especially to, it's kind of the full circle thing where you enjoy it even more after you've done it, where you'll kind of have this idea of like, hey, maybe if we do this, this will get the audience to respond this way. And then if you talk about it and then you do it and that's what happens, it's such a cool feeling. Uh, it's really, really fun. So

creatively I do really enjoy it, you know, especially if I'm at, uh, you know, in there with another super creative, um, inspired guy as well. So yeah, the process can be really, really fun. Are there any wrestling tropes or like pet peeves that you have personally that you try to avoid in your matches? Ooh, um, that's a great question. Um, well, okay. Uh, this is a, this is a very standard, uh, thing, but I remember, and the only reason it's a pet peeve is because I used to do it, which is why. But when I was a baby face, oftentimes early in my career, before matches, I would always start with the trying to get everyone to clap thing. And going back and looking at myself doing that, I'm like, oh, that's so cringe. I would always start with like the trying to get everyone to clap thing. And going back and looking at myself doing that, I'm like, oh, that's so cringe.

Look at me just pandering so much. So if I see a baby face doing that or if I see a guy that I'm in there with doing that, I always make sure to say I'm not like angry at them or anything. I'm like, man, trust me. You're so cool. Just give it two minutes. They're going to do that organically on their own. You don't have to tell them to do it. So that, that kind of is a pet peeve of mine. Yeah. The, the, the whole like, come on, here we go. We're about to wrestle. Yep. We're about to wrestle applaud for us already. Sort of in that same realm. When do you feel like Adam Cole became the Adam Cole that we know today? Yeah, yeah.

So I've been pretending to be really confident for a really long time. And I've been, I think, fairly decent at that. But there was definitely a phase where, again, I was very much playing this character, and inside, I was freaking out. To some extent, I mean, I was very much playing this character and inside I was freaking out. To some extent, I mean, I'm definitely nervous before every single match still.

That will never go away. And if it does, then I should probably step out of it. So I definitely feel that. But I think oddly enough, it was, so I had a run with the Ring of Honor World Championship and the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla World Championship. And even in that point, So I had a run with the Ring of Honor World Championship and the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla World Championship. And even in that point, I still felt like I was kind of developing who I was.

And in a weird way, I had taken four months off. It was the only time I'd ever been out with any sort of injury, knock on wood. And where I had shoulder, tricep, and elbow surgery. And I remember when I came back being really nervous and thinking, God, are they going to care? Because I was just kind of gaining this proper main event independent wrestler steam right before I had gotten that injury. And I remember when I came back in Philadelphia, and the crowd was completely invested. That gave me so much confidence in like, okay, they want me to succeed, they want me to do well. And I have to be doing something right. You know, so it was not as much

second guessing of myself at that point. And more like, okay, this is the way that I'm going. Uh, I'm going to, you know, full throttle, go this direction and, and really believing in my vision of what this, what this character was. And then it was kind of off to the races at that point. So that was, that was a big moment for me. That's awesome. I remember that vividly you were wearing the sleeve. I remember your elbow was like all puffy for a bit. Yeah yeah that was something yeah um yeah were you one of the people that over the past year the last year enjoyed like learning how to wrestle in front of a crowd learning the different aspects of it or were you a john moxley type i saw he did an interview and he was like i hated it and i never want to wrestle in front of nobody ever again like i want the crowds back always oh yeah so yeah wrestling in front of no one versus

wrestling in front of people um 100 of the time i would rather wrestle in front of people like when fans say that they're excited uh to come back and watch uh wrestling events i promise you the wrestlers are more excited than you are seriously Seriously. Like, it is, we can't wait. It was a very interesting adjustment, though. Like, it's very weird to go out there and, again, do your match or do your interview in front of nobody. The nerves were still there for two reasons. One, because you care.

You want to do well. You know it's going to be broadcast on on television and then secondly you got Triple H and Shawn Michaels you know back there watching you as well so of course two guys that I respect more than anybody are watching me do my thing so I want to impress them and I want to impress them even if the the fans are there too so I I did have that in the back of my mind but again every every bump every slam every hit hurts so much more when there is no adrenaline yeah my god even like again at nxt having the few people that we do have there what a difference it feels like there's 10 000 people there it really does some energy right after like the vacuum of the last year did you feel like there's 10,000 people there. It really does. Just some energy, right?

After like the vacuum of the last year. Did you feel like there were lessons to be learned in wrestling in front of nobody or like lessons that you can apply to now wrestling in front of a crowd? Yeah, I think so. So I think when we wrestled in front of nobody, there's a lot less overthinking.

It was almost like, okay, this is kind of where we think it should go. So let's just do it. It's not like we're going to know if it's good or if it's bad, because there's nobody there to tell us if it's good or bad. And then in some ways that has kind of bled over into the audience being back. And there's a big difference between not overthinking and not caring. You know, it's not that we, it's not that, oh yeah, whatever. We'll just do whatever we want. Who cares? Who cares what they think? But it's more not second guessing yourself so much. And that has paid off in a lot of ways, because again, sometimes you can spend so much time thinking,

okay, where are we tonight? We're in New York city. Okay. The crowd's probably going to be more like this. So maybe we should do that. And that is still great to have, but having more confidence in what you're going to do and what you're going to bring to the table really did kind of help bleed over into when we did have fans back because now again, the fans are just so excited to be able to to come and watch a wrestling show again and like i said i promise we as the wrestlers are just as excited did you have a favorite match that you had

over the pandemic over the no crowd era god yeah favorite one um one that really i so i guess this doesn't even really count um because there were some people there but there weren't like fans fans back back in the you know in the building at that point and i hate to say this but the the pat mcafee one was pretty memorable. Just because that was such an interesting time in the sense of people fully expected it to fail, it to just absolutely be terrible. It was wild. And again, I know there were some people from, you know, the performance center that were there, but it wasn't like an actual audience. And that one really sticks out to me as one that I thought, man, if there was 15,000 people here, this would have been crazy. You know, it would have been insane. Yeah. Yeah. It would have been, would have been absolutely

wild. So that, that one sticks out as being really memorable just because of how, how wild that entire process was. love that answer obviously as you know pat's friend i'm like yeah of course um of course screw pat mcafee but yeah yeah fuck him um so we're talking about the great american bash i read these matches off to kyle yesterday i just wanted to read them off to you as well the first first ever Great American Bash main event was July 6th, 1985, and it was Tully Blanchard versus Dusty Rhodes in a steel cage match. That just sounds like an all-time classic, right? You can't script a better match.

And then I thought this was just a funny parallel to it. The first ever WWE Great American Bash main event was the Undertaker versus the Dudley Boys in a handicapped concrete crypt match in 2004 going off that i know you were a such a massive wwe fan your whole life do you have a favorite great american bash memory oh it's it's interesting that you say that um because i do remember clear as day the so i i was a big fan of the magazine um uh back in the day me too um and this it doesn't it doesn't necessarily answer your question but you saying the undertaker versus the dudley boys in the handicap match i remember because i wasn't allowed to order the the pay-per-views

when i was younger so so much of my experience with the pay-per-views when I was younger. So, so much of my experience with the pay-per-views, uh, you know, with WWE was the magazines. And I remember the photos for the undertaker and the Dudley boys handicap, you know, the concrete, uh,

crypt match or whatever. I remember them looking so insane and going to my dad and being like, dad, you are, you have to let me start ordering the pay-per-views. Look at this. Look how crazy this is. And honestly, to this day, I don't even know if I've ever seen the match start to finish. I remember as a kid being like, this looks so insane.

And that's just, within WWE, obviously, we talk about Tully and Dusty as well. There have been so many awesome, moments uh with with the Great American Bash but um and then I myself look at the Great American Bash you know last year or with you know me and me and Keith Lee so Great American Bash whether it be as a fan or whether it be me as a performer have always been pretty important it's awesome I'm looking forward to it a ton and I want your Mount Rushmore of wrestlers, not talking historic, not talking greatest Adam Cole's personal favorite. Yeah.

Yeah. You got it. So the, the four that stick out to me as far as what they mean to me, Shawn Michaels is obviously on that list. Stone cold. Steve Austin is on that list stone cold steve austin is on that list um kurt angle is is my other one um and then cm punk is number four that is by that for all personal different reasons sean being the the relationship that we have now um and again i

really do think he's the greatest pro wrestler of all time. Stone Cold Steve Austin is the reason I am a wrestling fan in the first place. Kurt Angle, I think at one point, made me really appreciate the skill and technical ability of what we do. And again, in 2004, nobody could touch Kurt Angle he was gonna ask like what's your favorite era of Kurt Angle yeah 2004 Kurt Angle is like when he was like just a killer like it was my god he was he was so amazing and also interesting side note but Kurt Angle was the first wrestler that I ever met and And I remember he was so nice to me

that I could not stop thinking about it or talking about it for like six months as a kid. And that to this day has made me realize anytime I meet fans to always be nice and thoughtful and kind because of my interaction with Kurt Angle. And then CM Punk was the guy who got me into the independence

ring of honor, started watching stuff overseas. His promo ability is second to none. I've made it very obvious before that he's a guy that I have studied quite a bit as far as, you know, promos go. So those four, as far as my personal Mount Rushmore are the ones that stick out to me. As such a big CM Punk fan myself, it's so nice to see over the past couple years, the bridge kind of be mended a little bit and not turn in terms of like, I'm not, you know, CM Punk's not coming back, I don't think. But in terms of just like seeing him tweet about wrestling, talk about wrestling and seeing a lot of wrestlers feel more comfortable about talking about CM Punk again, it's just nice because he obviously left such a huge historical footprint

on this era of the business and it's nice to see that recognized he did he did uh as a matter of fact um i do think guys like him and guys like daniel bryan are somewhat responsible for me having a job here. I, I, I really, really do like, yeah, they kicked the door open for the independence, right? They really, really did. They, they, they made everybody open their eyes and say, Hey, you know, there, there are guys out there who, who can bring a lot to the table again,

being independent wrestlers. So I don't know if he feels that way about it, but, but i certainly do uh but i i just remember god i know it's the it's a famous one uh with his with his pipe bomb promo but he has been cutting pipe bomb promos his entire career there was a promo he did you know against raven and ring of honor that was so good leading up to the dog collar match leading up to the dog collar match because i remember i actually bought a best of literally and i won't go off on a super long tangent but i was i went to this website called obsessedwithwrestling.com that was like the really popular one and uh there were all these articles talking about cm punk and i'm like who is this guy

so but everyone was talking about he was the best in the world or whatever so I was like I'm gonna order this best of CM Punk Ring of Honor DVD and I did and this is honestly the truth I remember watching it and uh like I really liked his matches but I wasn't like this is the greatest wrestler I've ever seen and it's again it is zero knock it was just like oh cool this guy's cool. Then he cut a promo. And I'm like, this guy's my favorite wrestler. Yeah, automatically in it, in that one promo. And then all of his matches were my favorite. All of his promos were my favorite. Because he kept he grabbed me that much, just from from that interview. And that's, that's his skill. He can, whether it's bell to bell, whether it's, you know, cutting promos, he's awesome. He's amazing. He's inspired a lot of people.

Absolutely. So I do want to talk about the background. If you're listening to the podcast version of this, you can't see it. Go on over to YouTube. Adam Cole has what looks like the dream basement set up over here. Is this in a basement? It is not in a basement. It's in its own room. So I still call it the game cave. So you would think it's like a basement it is not in a basement it's in its own room so i still call it the game cave so you think it's like a basement but it's but it is it's its own uh individual room here what have you been playing lately uh so i've been playing a little bit of everything um uh right now i'm going through i just recently finished uh doom eternal which has been really fun. I'm playing through the Bloodborne DLC, which has been a blast. I'm slowly

working away at Cyberpunk 2077. I've heard so much about that. People are saying, is it playable now? Can you get through it? I've never had an issue, but fortunately, I was one of those very, very, very, very lucky people

that managed to grab an Xbox Series X and a PlayStation 5. So I am not playing it on last-gen hardware, but I have never had an issue with that. So that was the issue people were having with it. It was all the last-gen systems. Right, right. People playing on Xbox One and base PS4s were having a lot of problems. But for me, I didn't have an issue whatsoever. So let me ask you this as I'm a

moderate video game guy. I'm not anywhere near your level. I've been an Xbox guy most of my life. I haven't gotten either of the new systems. Which one would you recommend? Yeah, that's an awesome question. So there are pros and cons to both. So the Xbox Series X on paper is technically more powerful than the PlayStation 5. But when you, and I like the UI of the Xbox. The controller, right? It's like a better feel. Yeah, I'm with you.

The backwards compatibility. But the PlayStation, again, the new PS5 controller with the haptic feedback is insane. The list of first-party exclusives are amazing. I do think the PS5 is a little bit faster in some ways. However, I will always be a general video game guy. I love Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, PC, VR, you name it. I love it.

But if I had to suggest one, I will say, I do think Xbox Series X is the way to go. Just depending on what you want. Again, if there are certain PlayStation first party exclusives like God of War and Last of Us. Spider-Man is a big one for me. I'm like, that's why I bought a PS4. When they came out with the Spider-Man game, I was like, all right, now I need this. And here's what I will say. It, no matter which one you get, it's a good investment.

They're both excellent consoles. Excellent. I'm excited for you to say that you would recommend the Xbox though, because that is the one that I want to lean towards. So as long as you weren't like, no, it sucks. That's probably the one I'm going with.

I wanted to ask this. This is like more of a specific question to this show, but I'm such a big star wars fan do you have a favorite star wars video game oh yes um the it's a very recent one it's star wars jedi fallen order have you played this one i have i loved it oh what a likable character cal was huh good so likable the story is amazing the combat was incredible the puzzles were true i love it yes yeah and the exploration too of like i love in games where you have a mission but then there's a bunch of stuff kind of on the side and you're like i'm gonna go explore and then all of a sudden cal is fighting

this mini boss yeah he's like super hard take your time with it that's one of my favorite things in a video game where you're not like on a time thing all right get through this get through that like you could go on the side missions like you said changing the ponchos changing the the little droids paint scheme like i'm glad you said that because that was one of my favorites and they're coming out with a sequel as well yes yes i i cannot wait for it i mean god and the way they left us on the end of uh the first one was incredible so i'm very excited for part two there's even some speculation because the actor that played Cal, you know, he did the motion capture, is a pretty legit actor.

He was in Shameless. He was in Gotham. There's some speculation that they're going to bring him into the live action stuff, possibly even the Bad Batch cartoon. So fingers crossed. That's nice. We're getting real nerdy on this podcast now. Let me remind everybody, Kyle O'Reilly versus Adam Cole on July 6th.

This one is a straight up wrestling match. It's going to be the great American bash and we're going to create a new great American bash highlight here. It's going to be Tully Blanchard, dusty roads, undertaker and the Dudley's Adam Cole versus Keith Lee. And then Adam Cole versus Kyle O'Reilly. Adam,

thank you so much for the time. I appreciate it as always. Thank you, Robbie. I appreciate it, man.