AEW’s Adam Cole Talks Sentimental TNT Championship Win (Interview)

Adam Cole is two weeks removed from winning the TNT Championship at AEW Dynasty. Since his return in October of 2024, he’s made a huge splash in the men’s division. Not only is he making up for lost time as a singles star—halted due to injuries—he leads Paragon, made up of Kyle O’Reilly, himself, and Roderick Strong.

VICE had the chance to catch up with Cole about his sentimental first AEW title, rehabilitating his injury, gaming, mental health, and more.

Injury struggles

Firstly, I wanna touch on your injury a little bit. You’re going on your third match since winning the title. How are you holding up? How’s the ankle?

Adam Cole: I, honest to God, and I know this sounds cliche, but I really do feel the best I’ve felt in years. I was very nervous, very hesitant in a lot of ways about how I was gonna feel when I came back, especially considering going back even further when I had my pretty serious head injuries. I was out for almost a year, then came back and felt really good for like six months, and then when this freak accident happened, I’m like, ‘what is going on? What is happening to me?’

So I was very, very concerned about how I was gonna feel. But then, over time, as I’ve been in the ring, I felt more and more confident. I feel great mentally and emotionally. It is such a relief to get back to a point where I feel like my old self again, especially now as TNT Champion.

Yeah, I remember watching the injury happen. I was like, ‘man, this has to suck. He just came back.’ You’re just getting back in the flow with storylines and your character. I imagine that has to feel so demoralizing. But when people talk about injury recovery, we hear a lot about the physical aspects. People don’t talk about the mental aspects of it as well, ’cause that’s a huge part of it. What were some things you did to heal your mental?

Adam Cole: No, absolutely. Like you said, I mean, physically it was definitely one of the most challenging injuries I’ve gone through, but by a mile the mental part was way worse; way worse. So I’m glad that you brought that up as well. The two biggest things for sure were number one, the support of my family and friends, and the company. Being able to openly express how I’m feeling, talk to people about my concerns, and get so much love and support from the people I’m closest to helped me keep my head on straight and stay focused on the goal and not get too discouraged. Love and support [are] so important.

The other thing that helped was outside of wrestling. I do Twitch streaming, pro wrestling, and video games are my two passions. So being able to do that and connect with a community of people while I’m away from the ring or away from going to work and interacting with other people, helped me so much. The community on Twitch is like the most kind, sweet, understanding, supportive group of people I’ve ever met. We get to share our passion for games, but at the same time, enjoy being around each other. It really is a special thing. So I don’t know what I would’ve done if I didn’t have the support from those closest to me. I don’t know what I would’ve done without the Twitch streaming.

His First AEW Title Win

 I was so excited to see you finally win this title. To have it be in Philly, not far away from where you grew up, how was that feeling for you? You won your first Ring of Honor World Championship in Philly as well, what a full circle moment.”

Adam Cole: Oh, absolutely a full circle moment for so many different reasons. First of all, the city of Philadelphia is so important to me for a multitude of reasons. Number one, the first wrestling event I ever went to was in Philadelphia. I used to go to Philadelphia wrestling events all the time, I trained to be a wrestler in Philadelphia, my very first match [was] in Philadelphia. Like you had mentioned, I won the Ring of Honor World Championship for the first time in Philadelphia. Philly is such an important city for me and my history, and I love Philadelphia dearly.

On top of that, on the same day, it was my 17th wrestling anniversary, which was absolutely wild. So being able to do that on that day felt really special. My family was there, Some of my friends were there. It felt like this awesome moment looking back on the challenging few years I’ve had, getting to that point and being like, ‘darn right it was worth it.’ And I’m so glad I persevered. So yeah, an unbelievable night. Easily one of my favorite nights of my career by a mile.

The TNT Championship has been held by so many incredible people. Cody [Rhodes], Brodie Lee, Sammy Guevara, Christian [Cage], Cope, Daniel Garcia. What are you hoping to add to the title’s legacy?

Adam Cole: Yeah, like you said, the TNT Championship is a prestigious title when it comes to the people who have held the championship. Really all I wanna do is extend the legacy further. Looking back at the history of the TNT Championship and the matches that have happened, again, some of the best matches in AEW have been for that championship.

I want to do more of the same with the TNT title because it is an incredibly prestigious title within AEW. And in turn, me having the opportunity to do that and have these matches and defend that championship, is gonna get me back into this groove of showing the world that I am Adam Cole, and I’m not going anywhere. I still have a lot to prove, I still have a lot to offer. So it’s a really exciting time for me. I love this pressure on me right now.

Wrestlers Are Nerds Too (And That’s Okay)

 I want to switch gears to your gear for a second. You just did a Witcher cosplay which was sick. I love it when you whip out the gaming cosplays and let the “nerdy” side come out. How do you conceptualize your gears?

Adam Cole: I have very little input as far as the designs. All that will happen is, for example, I love The Witcher. I had not done Witcher gear yet. All I did was send to the guy who makes my gear a picture of Geralt and said, ‘Hey, I think I wanna do something related to The Witcher 3.’ He came up with all of that. So he is just absolutely brilliant. He’s a genius.

So far, I’ve just picked some of my favorite games for these big matches that I’ve had and used those. You know, the first one is the Master Chief from Halo, the second being Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2, and now this last one is Geralt from The Witcher 3. So I definitely have a lot more ideas up my sleeve. I’m excited for the future and to wear some more video game-inspired gear.

Every time you do it, the internet always has something to say about it. I’ve talked to Zelina Vega about this because she does anime and gaming cosplays too. There’s such an overlap between wrestling and other “nerdy” things. It’s cool to see you guys tap into that because wrestling is inherently nerdy.

Adam Cole: Yeah, absolutely. It’s amazing the correlation between people who like video games and people who like wrestling. You see, like you said, that overlap all the time. So it’s always really cool to see fans of wrestling and of video games go, ‘Oh my God, look at this! Look what he’s wearing, that’s so cool.” Because you’re right, a lot of people like wrestling and video games, and other nerdy stuff. And I am absolutely one of those people.

Adam Cole’s Got Something for You…

  I’m a big fan of the Elite. A few years ago, you had a storyline where you turned on the Young Bucks. I was so excited to see where that story was going to go. When it went nowhere, I was so upset. Do you think that there is a possibility of revisiting?

Adam Cole: “I think there absolutely is a strong possibility that it gets returned to at some point. All of us are very aware that we were not able to capitalize on that. All of us are very aware that it’s something we’d like to return to at some point. So all I’m gonna say is there’s a very strong possibility that we will get back to that.”

So I can hang onto a little bit of hope!

Adam Cole: Yes! [laughs]

Your ROH theme song is one of my favorite songs. I listen to it all the time. The Kingdom did a little bit with it in AEW, but is there a chance we’ll ever see it come back even for a one-off in AEW or ROH?

Adam Cole: I get asked about that a lot. A lot of people love that song. I love that song, actually, as well. It’s been requested and talked about so much that there is a possibility that at some point, maybe for a one-off or something like that, I end up using that song. I have such an attachment to it, especially considering that song in a lot of ways was chosen by Kevin Owens.

When I won the Ring of Honor Championship, I had a list of three different songs I was thinking of coming out to. Kevin really liked “Something For You,” he actually made me walk out to it before the show had started and be like, ‘look, look how cool that sounds!’ So Kevin Owens deserves the credit for me coming out to “Something For You.” That song was an important asset in my Ring of Honor run as ROH World Champion — three-time ROH World Champion — so yeah, at some point it’s certainly possible that we’ll end up hearing that song again. I might have something for you all; I might have something for you.