Adam Cole Reflects On Main Eventing Smackdown and Raw, Facing Seth Rollins and Daniel Bryan For First Time

– On the latest episode of WWE’s After the Bell with Corey Graves, Adam Cole weighed in on his crazy week that began with last week’s Smackdown and carried through to Raw. Cole was the face of the NXT invasion of the two brands as WWE builds to Survivor Series and main evented both main roster shows, defeating Daniel Bryan and having a DQ finish against Seth Rollins. Cole discussed how both appearances were such short notice for him and how both Bryan and Rollins were people on high on his list of guys he wanted to get in the ring with.

Highlights from the discussion, and the full podcast, are below:

On his main eventing last week’s Smackdown and then Raw: “Oh, holy cow. Yeah, yeah. And so much of that, not only for [it being] a huge step for me getting to main event Smackdown and main event Raw, and my debuts on these shows. But the time I had found out — both of these were incredibly last minute. Obviously you were talking about the situation where so many of you were stuck [in Saudi Arabia]. So Smackdown had to be kind of ad-libbed last minute. And then the situation with Raw too, this was very last-minute. So [it was] the most exciting days of my career, I think. But also some of the most stressful. But it’s been really fun.”

On facing Daniel Bryan for the first time on Smackdown: “Yeah, again that was so cool for so many reasons. Because when I was younger, all I watched was WWE, that was it. And then I remember when I had access to the internet, this opened up all these different types of wrestling that you could find. And one of the first guys that popped up was Daniel Bryan, or Bryan Danielson at the time. And I remember seeing him in Ring of Honor and being blown away by this guy. I just couldn’t stop watching his matches, I was such a big fan of his. Right around the time I started working for Ring of Honor, Bryan was on his way out. So I met him a few times, got to watch him live a few times. Always learned stuff and am still a giant fan of his.

“So then to see him go on and do his thing, and then me kind of go through the ranks like you had said on the independents, Bryan was a guy I had never wrestled. Like, in my 12 years of wrestling, I had never got the chance to step in the ring with him. So it was crazy and awesome that the first time had to be absolute last-minute live on Friday Night Smackdown. But yeah, that was awesome, and he was everything I had hoped he would be. The guy’s just one of the absolute best I’ve ever stepped into the ring with, he’s as good as everybody says he is, and it was a major pleasure for me.”

On moving on to face Seth Rollins on Raw: “Again, another situation incredibly similar without the — it wasn’t quite as last minute as Smackdown. But still fairly last-minute, about 24 hours notice. But yeah, that again was another thing. Seth was a guy, very similar to Bryan. It was like, when I had first started working for Ring of Honor without any sort of contract, that was when Bryan had left. And then I remembered the day that I signed my first-ever wrestling contract for Ring of Honor was the day that Seth had his farewell match. And he was actually wrestling Roderick Strong, ironically enough. He’s another guy that I’d never gotten the chance to wrestle before, and one of those guys that was very high on my list of guys I wanted to step into the ring with. So between Bryan on Friday and then Seth on Monday, two of in my opinion, and many people’s opinions, the absolute best at what we do. To be able to tangle with them for the first time was really cool. I’d like to think it won’t be the last time.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE’s After the Bell with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.