Adam Cole Explains Why He Wanted to Explore Free Agency, Discusses Owing Jim Cornette for Getting Him Signed to Ring of Honor

– Speaking to WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross for the The Ross Report podcast, Adam Cole discussed becoming a free agent and more. Below are some highlights (transcript via WrestlingInc.com).

Cole on how ROH was good to him: “Ring Of Honor was so great to me and so great to many young talents where they really give you the ball. It’s not that they give you a shot. They really give you the ball. And if you’re able to succeed, and you’re able to get the job done, then, I mean, the next thing you know, you’ll be traveling the world, making a good living as a pro wrestler.”

Cole on what’s intimidating on being ROH world champion: “Absolutely, I think that [having to follow many quality performances] is the most intimidating part of being Ring Of Honor Champion. It’s just knowing the amount of talent Ring Of Honor has and then knowing on top of that, especially a pay-per-view night, everybody goes out with that mentality, ‘we want to steal the show with the time we’re given.’ So when you’re following guys like Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish, or The Young Bucks, or Jay Lethal, or The Briscoe Brothers, and you’re going out and trying to really stick out and have a very memorable, talked-about main event, or the match of the night like the main event should be, it’s really challenging.”

Cole on how Jim Cornette helped him get signed to Ring of Honor: “I started there right around the time Jimmy was the booker there. I loved working with Jim Cornette. Actually, I owe him. I don’t know if a lot of people know this story, actually, J.R. I got signed to Ring Of Honor because Jim Cornette happened to be paying attention to something I was doing. Like, what had happened was, I had been working doing the pre-show matches or the dark matches for Ring Of Honor before the shows. And I had been doing this for a year and at that point I was just getting the, ‘good job – keep it up,’ but nothing was really [happening there]. I wasn’t getting what I wanted, and that was a contract offer, or permanent dates, or guaranteed dates going forward. So I decided, long story short, to send in a promo to Adam Pearce, who was booking at the time and he said, ‘yeah, come in and we’ll have you do a pre-show promo before your match.’ I started cutting the promo, Jim Cornette happened to see it, and he made everyone pay attention. And long story short, I come to the back, we all have this discussion, and I ended up getting a contract that day, so I owe him actually a lot for getting my start in ROH.”

Cole on why he didn’t re-up with ROH: “I’m in a very interesting spot right now because for the first time in seven years, I’m a free agent. I’ve been contracted to Ring Of Honor since 2010. So for now, for me, I didn’t want to re-sign anywhere because I just wanted to see what was out there, and see what was available, and see if there’s an opportunity for me just to kind of, again, test the waters and see what’s out there.

“For me, I’m still very much at a standstill. I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing. I’m not exactly sure the direction I want to go. For me, like I said, just entertaining the idea of knowing what would work best for me at this point and time for my life and my career is kind of where I’m at. And until then, again, I’m enjoying the idea of looking at all these different companies and looking at all these different possibilities. And then, weighing those options to make the best decision. And obviously, too, this decision is a big one, so you don’t want to jump into anything too quick. You want to make sure that you’ve really thought about all the options and things like that. So, for me, J.R., again, I’m still very much at a standstill just deciding what I’m going to do, and where I’m going to go, and what’s going to work best for me.”