Adam Cole On Being the Face of NXT For USA Network Jump, Finn Balor Returning to the Brand

– NXT champion Adam Cole spoke on the latest After the Bell podcast with Corey Graves about his position as NXT’s face in the midst of its move to USA Network, Finn Balor returning to the brand and more. You can see some highlights from the discussion and the full podcast below:

Adam Cole on being the face of NXT as it moved from WWE Network to USA: “So for me, I was just super, super excited. Me personally, and I don’t want to speak for everybody else, but I know our crew at NXT has thought for a long time now that if just more people got a chance to watch the brand, I think we’d get a bunch of people to fall in love with it. I know people who aren’t even wrestling fans who come and check out an NXT show, or watch NXT. And there’s just a certain excitement that they feel when they watch our show. So when we had this opportunity again to jump to USA, I was just thrilled, because I thought, ‘This is so cool that potentially so many new people are gonna get the chance to watch us. And then of course, with the excitement comes the stress and the pressure that we all put on ourselves to perform, because taped TV is much different than live TV as you know. So yeah, a little bit of that too, but generally very excited about it.”

Adam Cole on going from taped shows to live shows: “So yeah, there have definitely been situations [where adjustments needed to be made]. Nothing too crazy, but you know situations where you think that you’re gonna have less time and then you end up needing to fill time. Or vice versa, when there’s like a situation where, ‘Oh crap. We’ve got about five minutes till we go off the air, we’ve gotta get rolling.’ So it’s definitely different in that sense, because like you had said when we would to taped, I mean yeah. If someone went a little long, if someone went a little short, it didn’t matter. You could just fill it, no problem. And even Takeovers, there was like you said, a decent amount of leeway too. So yeah, with this it’s just really paying attention to times. Which we haven’t really had to do so much. But yeah, now there’s a major focus on it.”

On Finn Balor returning to NXT: “I mean, personally it’s really cool. Because I actually, before Finn came to the WWE I had one of his farewell matches on the independents over in Europe. So that was the first time we had met, and then we kind of stayed in contact ever since then. So it’s been so cool kind of seeing his journey. Like, before I was in NXT, the run that he had in NXT and then him going on to have his really successful career. But to have it kind of spin back around and have him back here is huge for us. I mean, he’s proven at this point how much of a main event player he is and can be. And I think there’s so many cool dream matches that our fans are just clamoring over, imagining him getting in the ring with people. So yeah, I think it’s great. It’s definitely good for the brand, and I think it’s good for Finn too. I think he’s really excited to be back.”

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.