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Views from the Hawke’s Nest: The Panama City Playboy – The Adam Cole Story

June 27, 2015 | Posted by TJ Hawke
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Views from the Hawke’s Nest: The Panama City Playboy – The Adam Cole Story  

 

The Interview

After listening to Adam Cole speak for three hours, it is clear that he is a well-adjusted human being. He has his head on straight and is self-aware about his abilities in and out of the ring. He is clearly a kind person who goes to great lengths to not offend anyone, and any company should be eager to have someone like him out in the public eye, representing them. Unfortunately, the qualities on display in this interview (and others) that make him out to be such a great person make for one hell of a boring interview.

Adam Cole literally put over every single person and promotion that came up in this interview and only offered substantive insight on a handful of subjects that were brought up. Since he is a professional wrestler, he does obviously have a few anecdotes that were amusing to hear about. That is not enough though to make this interview worth a listen.

Shoot interviews do not have to be negative, full of burials, or things of that nature to be interesting. Kevin Steen proved with the Kevin Steen Show (including the one with Adam Cole) that if you turn the shoot interview into a conversation that it does not matter how much the interviewee is unwilling to talk negatively of someone. There is nothing of value of this interview, and it really drags down the set as a whole.

 

The Matches

CZW
Vineland, New Jersey
September 11, 2008

Adam Cole vs. Tyler Veritas

This was very much worked like a match between two younger indie guys trying to make an impression on a crowd. That is not a bad thing necessarily. The match was high on speed and athleticism, but it was severely lacking in soul and intensity. You have to find a balance. This failed to do so, which made it distinctly average. Cole hit the middle rope destroyer to end this watchable match that ended in fewer than six minutes. (**1/4)

 

CZW Down with the Sickness
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
September 12, 2009

Adam Cole & Tyler Veritas vs. The Best Around(c) (Bruce Maxwell & T.J. Cannon w/ Robbie Mireno) [CZW World Tag Team Championship]

Much like the first match on this set, this match was worked at a million miles an hour. It’s not that working fast is necessarily bad; it’s about the execution of that style. This was worked in a way where everything felt meaningless. It was just four guys running around at the same speed the whole time and doing anything particularly impressive in that time. None of it made an impact on me. TBA managed to win clean. (**)

 

CZW Walking on Pins and Needles
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
March 13, 2010

Adam Cole vs. Sabian(c) [CZW Junior Heavyweight Championship]

This was the first match on the set to have a bit more going on beyond fast-paced action that has little-to-no meaning. Sabian was playing the veteran role with Cole playing the part of the spunky young boy. While Cole does a fine job in that role, Sabian is not much of a performer. I have never really understood the appeal of Sabian unless he’s just an undercard tag wrestler. He was not terrible here by any means; he just did not do anything to make Cole look good which should have been the goal of the match. Just as Cole was setting up for his finisher, the time limit expired. A fine effort, but it did not do much for me. I’m sensing a theme for this DVD. (**1/4)

 

CZW Dragon Night
Lafayette, Indiana
March 27, 2010

Adam Cole & Tyler Veritas vs. Notorious Inc. (Drew Blood & Devon Moore)

You could see Cole and Veritas had improved just enough so that their matches did not feel completely meaningless. Unfortunately, that finally happened but in front of a crowd that could not have possibly cared less about the match. The wrestlers seemed to have them briefly when the match started as a brawl, but the crowd quickly went to sleep as soon as they started following the rules of a tag match. Cole and Veritas ended up winning this one clean by the way. (**1/4)

 

CZW Home Sweet Home
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
July 10, 2010

Adam Cole(c) vs. Sonjay Dutt [CZW Junior Heavyweight Championship]

You could see here that Cole had improved a lot since his CZW debut. He wasn’t working a million miles an hour just for the sake of working a million miles an hour. (Again, there’s a way of doing that well. Cole wasn’t doing it.) There was still clearly a ways to go at this point though, as he was doing next to nothing in terms of integrating his character into his work and/or telling a compelling in-ring story. The fact that Sonjay controlled the majority of this match certainly did not help of course though. (**1/2)

 

Chikara Young Lions Cup
Reading, Pennsylvania
August 28, 2010

Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly

This match was tonally all over the place. Cole started the match by playing an incredibly over-the-top heel that could not possibly be taken seriously. That does not strike me as a bad idea given that this match took place in Chikara. However, he ended up getting away from his Chuck Taylor impression and tried to match Kyle’s un-ironic, faux-MMA tone for the second half of the match before winning the match with a Fruit Roll-Up. Kyle was solid in this match. Cole was all over the place, and I did not particularly enjoy watching him here. (**1/2)

 

CZW LIVE in Germany
Oberhausen, Nordrhein-Westfalen
November 6, 2011

Adam Cole vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

This was easily the best match of the set so far, as Cole wisely decided to adapt to Sabre’s game instead of forcing him to work an Adam Cole match. Cole isn’t great at working the physical/technical style that Sabre works, but he did well enough for himself. Cole, the CZW junior champ at the time, ended up putting Sabre away with his Not-So Sick Kick.(***1/4)

 

CZW Twelve
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
February 2, 2011

Adam Cole vs. Pinkie Sanchez

This was a very Adam Cole match from this time period. He was very over the top with his character, and Mia Yim was a huge part of his act and kayfabe success in the ring. This was a side of Adam Cole that I missed out on at the time because I only really knew him from ROH where he was working as a white-bread babyface. The comparison between those two characters exhibits the problem with Adam Cole. He is a natural heel in terms of character, but his work is so much better when he’s working babyface. In fact, I would say his inability to combine the quality of his ring work as a babyface with his heel personality is what caused me to lose interest in him during main event pushes in ROH and PWG. Cole eventually won after Pinkie distracted himself by going after Mia only for Mia to give him a low blow. This was fine, but Pinkie was so much more entertaining here that it made Cole look bad in comparison. (**3/4)

 

wXw 16 Carat Gold
Oberhausen, Nordrhein-Westfalen
March 13, 2011

Future Shock (Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly) vs. LDRS (Zack Sabre Jr. & Marty Scurll)

While it is absolutely a treat to get a chance to watch the Future Shock team (ROH breaking that team up remains one of the worst things to happen during the Cornette era), this match was excessive to the point where I started to enjoy myself less and less the longer it went. They started off with crisp action that was absolutely compelling, but the back-and-forth sequence after the heat went for an absurdly long time that it rendered everything before it moot. I did not expect to like this one much due to remembering how long it went, but I was surprised by how little it entertained me during the final ten minutes. This was akin to a Dragon Gate tag title match on PPV that just goes on and on and on. The effort is absolutely there, but it’s so misguided. (**)

 

CZW Best of the Best
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
April 9, 2011

Adam Cole vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Kyle O’Reilly

The action never stopped here, and it was executed better than I remembered. Gargano seemed really out of place in the CZW environment, as he doesn’t check any of the boxes that the company is theoretically trying to target. Kyle fit in better because his hard-hitting style could easily blend in if needed. Cole ended up getting the win in this relatively forgettable match and then went on to win the whole tourney. (**3/4)
You can watch this match here.

 

CZW International Incident
Union City, New Jersey
April 10, 2011

Adam Cole vs. Rich Swann

This was a rock-solid match with Cole not allowing his heel character overwhelm the match, and Swann performing quite well in the underdog babyface role. Mia Yim playing a role in the finish is unfortunate, but it didn’t ruin the match. (***)

 

CZW Prelude to Violence
June 11, 2011

Adam Cole(c) vs. Jonathan Gresham [CZW Junior Heavyweight Championship]

Much like the Swann match, this was pleasantly straight-forward without any of the shenanigans that I’ve come to loathe from Adam Cole heel matches. The match was sadly missing some emotion, as Gresham has always struggled mightily with connecting to the CZW fans. That took a little steam out of this one, but it was still fun to watch for the most part. Cole won obviously. (**3/4)

 

CZW Night of Infamy
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
November 12, 2011

Adam Cole(c) vs. Sami Callihan [CZW Junior Heavyweight Championship]

This was an interesting match that actually benefited from the ridiculous overbooking employed towards the end. The advantage to having chickenshit heel champ that has countless title matches tainted during his or her reign with terrible booking is that the inevitable title change greatly benefits from it. Is that worth all the bullshit required to get there? I don’t think so (at least not in modern times), but the payoff is fun to watch all the same. All of Cole’s heel tactics were used again here, and Sami eventually overcoming them added a ton of heat to the match. This worked out great, and it ended up being my favorite match of the set by far. Sami tapping Cole out felt like an important moment, which is something CZW struggles to do. Kudos. (***3/4)

 

Watch Adam Cole matches for free!

Adam Cole vs. Roderick Strong [REAL good]

Adam Cole vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Kyle O’Reilly

Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly

Adam Cole vs. Roderick Strong vs. Jay Lethal vs. Michael Elgin vs. Davey Richards vs. Mike Mondo

Adam Cole vs. Michael Elgin

Adam Cole vs. Roderick Strong vs. Jay Lethal vs. Mike Bennett

Adam Cole vs. Bandido Jr.

Adam Cole vs. Grizzly Redwood

5.0
The final score: review Not So Good
The 411
This set is not good overall. There are a handful of matches that are worth watching, but Smart Mark Video just did not have access to the majority of the best Adam Cole matches from 2008 through 2011. The shoot does not contribute anything of value at all, which drags the weak match listing down even more. Adam Cole *may* one day become a national star in WWE. This set only gives you a tiny hint of his potential and is nothing that will need to be revisited if/when he "makes it" one day.
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