Adam Cole talks about his thoughts on Cody Rhodes’ AEW departure and the availability of veteran AEW wrestlers including a “wrestling genius” to younger talent.
Cole has hit the ground running in AEW after leaving WWE in late August of last year. Adam Cole has joined up with The Elite and reformed his old faction from WWE, The Undisputed Era, now known as The Undisputed Elite.
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Adam Cole is also competing in the Owen Hart Tournament and this week advanced to the semi-finals after defeating Dax Harwood. He will face Jeff Hardy in his next round of the tournament.
Cole was recently a guest of SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio where he discussed how available the veteran wrestlers of AEW are to younger wrestlers:
“First of all, everyone mentioned, whether it be Jericho, Punk, Bryan, Christian [Cage], they are all incredibly accessible to the younger talent and to people who want to learn,” Cole said. “Which I think is really cool. Again, to have that knowledge that they do and not let it go to waste in a sense of, aside from them themselves being incredible, being able to pass it on to another generation has been really, really cool.”
H/T To Wrestling Inc. For Transcription
AEW’s Secret Weapon Is Experienced Veterans
The war between WWE and AEW has been a very intense one and AEW is working hard to catch up to and overtake WWE in meaningful ways. AEW is getting there slowly but surely and continues to innovate. However, WWE has such a huge head start and so many resources available to them which AEW may not have like brand recognition to non-wrestling fans.
However, there is one thing WWE doesn’t have which AEW does and it is veteran wrestlers with some having well over 20 years of experience. Guys like Jericho and Cage have wrestled at a high level during a time when WWE was known as WWF. Jericho even wrestled in WCW and had a lot of success there. Wrestlers having that kind of experience and are willing to share it with younger wrestlers is invaluable and will help AEW become a better promotion.
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Cole also went on to say how good he believes Cage is and went as far as to call him a genius.
“I got to work pretty extensively with Christian [Cage], which was really cool,” Cole said. “Like, I had a singles match against him. It was on my fourteen-year wrestling anniversary, which I thought was really cool. Just again, it’s not even something necessarily where he just sits down and is like, ‘yeah, OK. This is why we’re doing this.’ It’s almost like learning just from working with him and where he places things and why he puts it here versus here.
Everything they say about Christian being a wrestling genius is true. He’s so, so smart and a joy to work with, as a lot of these guys are.”
Captain Charisma Aka Christian aka Wrestling Genius
Cage has always been very good and been able to perform at a very high level. I have always believed he is very underrated. Edge has always overshadowed him since they used to be a tag team. Personally I always thought Cage was a little better than Edge in all areas which is very controversial.
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Cole also talked about the departure of Cody Rhodes from AEW which still feels like a fever dream to many fans.
“Cody [Rhodes] being one of the originators, or founders in a lot of ways of AEW, it definitely surprised a lot of people,” Cole said. “But generally speaking and this is just the way pro wrestling is, is stuff like this happens all the time. I understand that it was the first big one from AEW to WWE, so I get that thought process.
But at the same time, it’s almost that, ‘the show must go on’ mentality. So, on top of that, we have a roster filled with incredibly talented guys and at the end of the day, I think most people feel this way, is Cody should do what’s best for Cody and makes Cody happy. I would like to think people would say the same thing about me, or we would say the same thing about anybody else.
Of course, it was shocking and surprising, but I think everyone is happy for him, as long as he is happy.”
One of the big reasons most people were surprised Rhodes left was because he was so heavily involved in the creation of AEW and went “all in” into its creation. It would be just as shocking as if Triple H joined AEW, with a founder joining the rival promotion. However, looking at it purely as a business decision I agree with Cole in that it makes a lot of sense.
Do you think Cage is a wrestling genius? What do you think of Cole’s time in AEW so far? Do you think Cole will win the Owen Hart Tournament? Drop the name of which AEW veteran you would want to mentor you if you had to pick one over on Twitter.
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Sources: SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio, Wrestling Inc.
