Adam Cole was sidelined for most of 2022 due to a serious concussion he suffered in his last match, which happened in June at AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door while working the four way for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title against Hangman Page, Kazuchika Okada, and Jay White.
At the time, it was reported that Cole suffered a concussion and was sidelined. This was after he suffered a previous concussion. A few weeks ago, Cole made his return to AEW TV to declare that he was back.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Cole stated that he still has “little ways” to go before he can compete at 100% in the ring again. He said that compared to a few months ago, he feels good.
Cole confirmed that he suffered a torn labrum and strained his rotator cuff while warming up for a match against then-AEW World Champion Hangman Page.
He suffered a concussion during his Owen Hart Foundation Tournament Finals match with Samoa Joe at Double Or Nothing in May 2022 before suffering the second concussion.
Cole said it’s always scary to have a head injury, but it got scary as time went on and he wasn’t better.
“The crazy thing was that after even a month, it was like that’s when real serious side effects started happening. Everything I said in my return in-ring promo that I did all of that was true, and more. There was a lot of stuff that was happening very late into the healing process, or what I thought was late, like a month-and-a-half, two months. I was genuinely very nervous, and really afraid that I might be told I’m not allowed to wrestle again,” Cole stated.
Cole said he couldn’t be in a car for more than 15 minutes and two months had passed by since he suffered the concussion. He praised AEW’s medical team for their help.
“I did have a genuine fear of, I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to do this. I’m 33 years old, and I’m not even close to wanting to be done with wrestling yet. It was scary,” Cole stated.
Cole noted that he talked with Bryan Danielson about the concussion. Cole recalled feeling off after his Double Or Nothing match so he got tested and was diagnosed with a concussion.
“I thought everything was going to be okay. I had taken a few weeks off, getting ready for Forbidden Door. I had passed every single test I had to take. I thought, ‘Oh, I’m good to go.’ At the Forbidden Door matchup, the strangest thing about it is that I remember feeling really good. I had taken a bump where I felt a little bit weird, but it wasn’t anybody’s fault. It was a normal bump. I remember thinking, ‘Oh, okay. That felt a little strange’ and about 30 seconds go by, and then it’s like I have no recollection or memory of what I’m supposed to do, what happened in the match. The memory stuff is the really scary part to me when you’re in the middle of a ring and there are thousands of people around you, and I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing. That was really scary, I knew pretty early on after my memory started going that something was wrong,” Cole stated.
This led to him getting checked out again and finding out he had another concussion. This is when he started to worry whether he would be able to wrestle again.
“It felt like this domino effect. First, it was the shoulder, then it was the head, then it was okay, ‘Let’s rest three or four weeks,’ and then it was the head again. It was definitely the scariest part of my career, I think, in the 15 years, I’ve been doing this,” Cole stated.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit F4Wonline.com with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
