Adam Cole details his 'wonderful' experience working in NXT

As Adam Cole prepares for his return to the AEW ring, the former NXT star was particularly complimentary of Triple H and Shawn Michaels.

While Adam Cole is currently a member of AEW, working his way back from a combination shoulder/head injury that left him unable to remember matches or drive in a car for more than 15 minutes, to many fans of professional wrestling, the Lancaster, Pennsylvania native will forever be associated with NXT, where he was the leader of Undisputed Era. Speaking with Dave Meltzer and Garrett Gonzales of The Wrestling Observer about his recovery, Cole briefly discussed his relationship with NXT and his admiration for Triple H and Shawn Michaels.

“I had a wonderful experience working in NXT with Triple H and Shawn Micheals,” Cole said via F4W. “I learned so much from them and it was an absolute joy to be there. All the coaches, everyone. I learned a lot being there and grew as a performer. And then looking at AEW, once again, Britt being there was a huge factor, my friends being there was a huge factor, the audience being so rabid and so wild. Every single week looked so exciting and [it was] something I wanted to be involved in.”

Will Cole be able to establish a legacy in AEW that exceeds his efforts in NXT? Only time will tell, but after six months away, it's clear fans are excited to see what he has in store, especially since he's clearly going to be working as a babyface.

Adam Cole is getting back in wrestling shake for AEW return.

Elsewhere in his interview with Meltzer and Gonzales, Cole discussed how he's feeling now that he has six months of recovery time behind him and just how close he is to returning to the ring full-time.

“I feel great. Again, the idea of just being able to be back on the road in some capacity, and kind of just be around AEW has been great for me mentally,” Cole said via Fightful. “But as far as physically, it’s the best I’ve ever felt. I still have a little ways to go until I get to a point where I think I’m ready to rock and roll as far as going in the ring and having a 30-or-45-minute match. But as far as far as how I’m feeling, again, compared to even two-and-a-half, three months ago, I feel fantastic. I feel really, really good. Then like I said, just mentally, to be able to be back at AEW, around the fans, around the crew, has been huge for me. So I feel good. I feel really good.”

While Cole obviously wishes he could get back into the ring and work a 60-minute ironman match against someone like Kyle O'Reilly, who is reportedly in good spirits after his own in-ring absence, the former leader of the Undisputed Era tried to focus on the positives, like how, after over 15 years, he finally had a few months off to get his body right and recover ahead of the next phase of his professional wrestling career.

“I was thinking about that a lot because I did have a fair amount of time, and it’s been like six months since I had a match,” Cole said. “I was going back and thinking about my career, and over the 15-year career that I’ve had, I think the longest amount of time I was ever away from the road in may capacity was like a month, a month-and-a-half. There was a point where I injured my shoulder very early on, and I had to get surgery. But I was still, like a month later, back on the road and still doing stuff and being around wrestling. So being actually away for that amount of time, I kept trying to focus on all the positives, and one of the things I kept telling myself was, okay, this has gotta be great for my body, to give myself a second to kind of reboot and heal. I did. I noticed certain things like I was sleeping better, I felt like as I was training at the gym and stuff, when I got called cleared to get back into the gym, I felt better. So yeah, I think it was definitely a plus in that sense, of getting the chance to fully recover and make sure that I have years and years of my pro wrestling career left.”

Though Cole's first in-ring opponent has been announced just yet, it's clear fans have his back and are ready to see what the future holds for the former leader of the Undisputed Elite, especially since Kenny Omega is officially back in AEW and the Young Bucks are cleared to compete too.