Adam Cole Details the Mental Challenge of His Injury Layoff

– During a recent interview with Q101, AEW star Adam Cole discussed dealing with his recent injury and dealing with the layoff mentally. Below are some highlights (via WrestlingInc.com):

Adam Cole on the toughest part of his recent injury layoff: “Without question the mental part [was the toughest during his time away due to injury]. Don’t get me wrong, there were certainly physical challenges, both with the concussion and then definitely with the ankle injury. Not being able to walk or get around, obviously, is soul-crushing. Obviously, it’s painful going through rehab and therapy and stuff like that. But, mentally, it was the hardest part. The past two years have been an uphill battle. To come back from that concussion injury, be back for six months, rocking and rolling and ready to go, and then for this freak accident to happen, mentally it was definitely really, really tough.”

On not being the young blue chipper in the locker room anymore: “I’m meeting people or talking to very talented wrestlers who were like, ‘I was there in the Hammerstein Ballroom when you wrestled Kyle O’Reilly in 2012, I was there as a fan,’ and that’s so, so wild to me. I try not to think about it too much because I do think, hopefully, I have a long career ahead of me, at least that is the plan. But it is cool now to have been around for a while and being able to help the young guys or talk to the young guys, while at the same time, knowing I have a lot of my career left. But it is weird to think, ‘Oh, I’m not the young blue chipper anymore.'”