Colt Cabana Talks Coaching Talent In AEW
Colt Cabana sat down with Robbie Fox of Barstool Sports last week before AEW Revolution. As the conversation turned to AEW Coach Jerry Lynn, Cabana revealed he himself has been working as a coach.
"What's fun for me is that I'm both a coach and a wrestler in AEW," Cabana said. "Jerry hasn't been my coach many times, but we'll sit back and give notes together as coaches. Something that was very cool; Jerry was watching me give notes to the wrestlers. And he took me back and he was like, 'Wow I didn't even think about that. That's a great note! I wouldn't have thought to do that in that situation.' To hear a guy like Jerry Lynn step back and say I'm still learning 30, 35 years in this business is pretty cool.
"I think it's great we have coaches like that that are chill. I've had wrestlers afterwards come up to me and say, 'I wasn't scared to come back and get notes from you and get critiqued.' I've been in that situation. I'm not looking to yell at anybody; I just want to make sure everyone becomes the best wrestler they can be. And Jerry Lynn is very much like that, so I love working with him."
Fox asked Cabana what he liked best about coaching. For Cabana, it's all about nurturing and helping talent — not screaming at them.
"I've had bad coaches," Cabana recalled. "I think leadership is so important. And it's, you know people don't coach how to coach. I think you have to take the experiences. It goes one of two ways. It's like, either you get drilled so hard you become that asshole because that's what you know. Or you say to yourself 'I've had really bad coaches and I don't like the way that feels. And I don't want to put that onto anyone else.'
"So I like when wrestlers are expecting to get yelled at, because that's the culture, and I like the idea that I can help nurture. I like to bring wrestlers up and say 'Yeah, maybe I didn't like that. But why don't we explore that or do something else?' Almost nurturing confidence. As a wrestler it's art; it's subjective. It's not objective; you need to be able to do everything and figure it out. And if coaches narrow it down and don't let wrestlers figure it out, wrestlers will never become the stars they become."
Fox later asked how long Cabana would like to coach for. The answer; as long as possible, and not just with coaching.
"I want to do everything," Cabana said. "People know I can commentate and podcast. It's almost like I don't want to sink myself into one thing. Because that's what happened; I sunk my whole life into one thing and then I got fired. So I've always had these buckets and baskets so if one goes down I have other stuff to do."
You can find the full video of Colt Cabana's interview below.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit My Mom's Basement with Robbie Fox and a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.