AEW star Adam Cole recently appeared on the Sports Guys Talk Wrestling podcast for an interview covering all things pro wrestling. During the discussion, Cole talked about 2022 being a challenging year for him:
“In my entire 15-year career, I had never missed more than one month of time away from the ring and traveling. I really enjoy being someone that everyone can count on, so that was another thing that was really hard for me to swallow. I know this is a very serious injury, and of course, time away was necessary, but it was tough to be away from the ring for so long. But aside from that, again, getting two back to back head injuries was scary not only because anytime you mess with anything head related, it’s incredibly scary. A shoulder can heal, a knee can heal, but you only have one brain, so that’s so important to make sure it’s protected and taken care of. But on top of that, the idea at 33 years old legitimately questioning whether or not I was going to be able to get back into the ring, after seeing doctors three and four times a week for months at a time was mentally and physically incredibly draining, again, aside from the side effects that I had with my sleep being terrible and feeling nauseous and dizzy. My emotions were all over the place. It was such a bizarre experience, on top of dealing with all of that, but then also having to try to mentally prepare for the possibility of not being able to wrestle again, it was the most challenging few months of my entire life for sure.”
Not realizing at first how serious the situation was:
“I took it incredibly serious, but I didn’t realize that potentially my life could be affected going forward. I think in my mind up to that point, I thought okay, I had two back to back ones. I’m getting a little bit older. This is just one of those things. I’ve been going hard for 15 years. My body just needs a little bit of time to recoup and recover and things like that. I thought I’m going to bounce back and be right back to normal in no time. Give me a month or two and I’ll be good to go. Then two months after not being able to do anything but go for walks and scoring so poorly on this test, and then having the doctor look at me with sadness in her eyes and say, ‘You were so close to not even being able to drive out of here to go home.’ That was like such a giant wake up call where at that point you realize how serious this really, really is. I knew I had a lot of hard work ahead of me, that’s for sure. Even still as discouraging as getting that result was, I honest to God never truly accepted the idea of stepping away from the ring. I was so focused and so determined that I am going to be at rehab every single day that I can go. I’m going to do everything necessary to make sure that I’m able to get back into the ring. Of course, if doctors tell me, ‘Hey, this isn’t a good idea. No, you’re not cleared’, then that’s a hill that I have to cross when I get there, but I was so focused and determined to do whatever I had to do as long as it took to be able to get back into the ring. That doesn’t change how discouraging it was, especially to get that score on that test, but I still had the optimism and the focus going forward.”
You can check out Cole’s complete appearance below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
