Adam Cole: AJ Styles in My Favorite Opponent

– Adam Cole recently appeared on the Steve Austin Show (transcript via wrestlinginc.com), here are the highlights…

On Undertaker vs. HBK at WM 25 Being His Favorite Match: “All-time favorite match, man. I’ve got favorites that kind of stick out in my head, but if I were to say my favorite match other than those two for the reason of wanting to break in, I remember watching WrestleMania 25 with The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels and at the time, never seeing anything [like it]. The entire process of it being years in the making, it being these two guys going out and putting on a pro wrestling match, at this point, pro wrestling fans have seen everything – they’ve seen it all. And for them to hook them and have them on so many of the false finishes on the go-home stretch, and the facial expression of The Undertaker when Shawn kicked out of The Tombstone, and looking with those eyes like he just could not comprehend that Shawn Michaels kicked out of this.” Cole added, “I had been in the business at this point, but still watching that and thinking, ‘if I could ever have something half as special as this, it would be the coolest thing in the world.’ So to me, that really sticks out as a special, really awesome match to me. Again, the emotion they were able to get out of the crowd that night, so special.”

On Winning His First ROH Title: “I will say, probably my favorite, again, because of the moment was the first time that I won the Ring Of Honor World Championship. This was a really cool moment in Philadelphia [Pennsylvania] in the National Guard Armory.” Cole continued, “that was such a cool full-circle moment for me and I was like, ‘wow, life is crazy sometimes.'”

On Wanting to Face NJPW’s Hiroshi Tanahashi: “For me, my number one guy would be Tanahashi from New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Like, watching him, like, this guy is a bonafide rockstar over in Japan. He can’t even walk down the street without getting stopped, the way that he carries himself. There was a Wrestle Kingdom show where [Shinsuke] Nakamura wrestled [Kota] Ibushi in the semi-main event. And then, the main event was [Kazuchika] Okada and Tanahashi. And a lot of wrestling fans thought that Nakamura and Ibushi was the better match. It was tremendous match. It was amazing. But again for emotional reasons, the way that Tanahashi sells, and fires up, and his facial expressions. I loved Tanahashi and Okada even more just because of the way Tanahashi carries himself. He’s a guy I feel like I’d learn a ton from, a guy I think is the best in New Japan. He, for me, is the number one guy I’d like to work with. He’s awesome.”

On AJ Styles Being His favorite Opponent: “My favorite opponent from my entire career, I talked about this the other week, is AJ Styles for the reason of, again, everybody knows how good, how talented he is, but when I went out with my shoulder surgery, I had not been inside a wrestling ring, I hadn’t stepped inside of wrestling ring for four months before that day. I know I’m wrestling AJ Styles in the semi-main event and I’m a nervous wreck, obviously, wondering if I lost a step, wondering about my wind, wondering about all that stuff. And AJ looked at me. He said, ‘don’t worry, man. I’ll take care of you. We’ll have a great match.’ And we did. We had a great match and AJ deserves so much of the credit for that because, again, this is a guy who hadn’t been a wrestling ring for four months and was a nervous wreck. But, again, it’s just a testament to AJ’s timing, his execution of things, him knowing where to place things, and me just going along and listening to AJ at that time, so he, for me, he made it feel effortless. He made it feel totally effortless.”