Adam Cole On Who He Studied To Develop His Promo Skills

As previously noted, former NXT North American Champion Adam Cole was a guest on E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness. Among many other things, Cole talked about how his next level promo skills landed him jobs with Ring Of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, who he studied to develop his talking abilities, whether cutting promos is easier as a heel or babyface, and whether he was always a natural talker.

According to Cole, he got his ROH and PWG gigs from his strong promo skills.

"I got my job at Ring Of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla because of a promo or because of two promos." Cole continued, "so when I had first come into Ring Of Honor and I was doing preshow dark matches, they told me I was doing a good job, but nothing was ever materializing. I remember saying, 'okay, this isn't working – I'm going to send,' at the time, Adam Pearce was booking Ring Of Honor, 'I'm going to send him a promo.' I did and he really liked it. He booked me for a preshow promo in the ring, even opposed to a match. And Jim Cornette happened to be walking by. Jim Cornette really liked the promo and that was how I ended up getting hired. Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, it was the same kind of situation. I had been wrestling there for a little bit. Then, they had this big Battle Of Los Angeles tournament. We all had to film promos. I filmed my promo. The booking team there liked the promo so much they put me over in the tournament. So promos have always been something that I've taken very, very seriously."

Cole, who admitted that he developed promo skills more quickly than in-ring skills, shared that he studied Mick Foley, CM Punk, and Eddie Kingston to improve on the talking dimension of his craft.

"Actually, I think I have a knack or an understanding of promos quicker than I picked up the in-ring stuff." Cole stated, "like, I always felt somewhat comfortable talking. I grew up watching guys like I loved Mick Foley's ECW promos; I loved CM Punk's promos; there's this guy, Eddie Kingston, he was just a fantastic talker, so I used to study and watch him. I mean, gosh, there's just such a big list of guys who I used to study. I used to watch promos as much as I did matches."

During the podcast, Cole shared that he finds cutting promos as a heel easier than doing it as a babyface.

"For me, too, it was always easier for me, and I'm sure [Edge and Christian] can agree, maybe not, but I always felt that it was easier to talk as a heel as opposed to a babyface. It's just way, way easier to tell whatever story you want to tell and creatively come up with different ways to speak." Cole added, "so yeah, so important." 

Despite having such command of the mic and poise during promos, Cole acknowledged that he is naturally a shy and introverted person.

"When I was in school, if I was talking as myself, and I was presenting something as myself, or having to answer a question, I was so nervous." Cole shared, "I would get red in the face; I would feel sweaty; I hated it. But anytime I was performing, like if it was a talent show or if it's through wrestling, I'm portraying or being someone else, I'm so comfortable. So I've always been comfortable as Adam Cole. That hasn't been an issue. But me as the individual, I still get a little nervous sometimes. So it's weird. Like I said, I'm very, very comfortable when I'm performing, but me, that's a different question. I'm a very shy, introverted person." 

Bay Bay! If you use any of the quotations from this article, please credit E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Source: E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness