At this point, it’s pretty widely understood and accepted that when his contract with Ring of Honor is up (which is very soon), Adam Cole (BAYBAY) will shortly thereafter be headed to WWE. WWE has had their sights on him for a good long while now, and it’s evident that the interest is mutual.
But of course, everyone needs to keep playing the game and dancing around the fact that Cole is one billion percent going to WWE soon. Of course, some questions still remain. While there’s discussion that rumored signees Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis might head straight to the main roster and bypass NXT, Cole explained in an interview with ESPN that that’s not the route he’d like to take.
“I would want to [start in NXT] because, first of all, I’m a fan of NXT,” Cole said. “I think the brand is cool. I think the Takeover shows are awesome. I think the fans are great. I love the roster of guys. I think it’s something that’s going to be looked at as a very special time in pro wrestling, so I want to be a part of it. Secondly, of course in a perfect world if I went to NXT, I wouldn’t want to be there forever; but I like the idea of going there and performing there and getting accustomed to the WWE audience and them getting accustomed to me and then eventually making the move to Raw or Smackdown. I think it’d be a lot of fun, and I think I would really enjoy working in front of that audience.”
It’s probably pretty likely that Cole would go to NXT to start with anyway, but it’s nice to know that he’d prefer it that way.
Cole, who is also a member of New Japan’s Bullet Club, is the first man ever to become a three-time ROH World Champion. He most recently captured the title at this year’s Wrestle Kingdom, and held it until March, when he lost it to current champ Christopher Daniels. He also held the ROH Television Championship once, and is a former PWG World Champion and Battle of Los Angeles winner.
