Adam Cole: Eyes on the Horizon By Molly Belle

This is difficult. I’ve typed things. I’ve deleted things. I actually had this all written out and ready to send off a couple of hours ago. Then, I deleted it all and started over. There is just nothing I can write that can convey the absolute ache I feel in my heart for Adam Cole after his words in-ring at All In. Nothing I type will make anyone feel better or do his career the justice it so rightly deserves.

 

One of the things I struggle with most in life is bad things happening to good people. It doesn’t compute with me. And it’s been a source of frustration and unresolved reflection for years and years.

 

Adam Cole has always been a wrestler who wears his emotions on his sleeve. He shares his passion openly and honestly with just a glance into the crowd and/or camera. It’s my favorite thing about him. His love for the wrestling business is so overwhelming that he cannot bear to hold it inside. Every match. Every promo. Every smile on screen. Since the beginning.

 

He shares that with us. It’s the greatest gift any wrestler can give.

 

One look at Adam’s face as he walked to the ring that afternoon, and my heart sank to the darkest depths of my stomach and sat there like an anchor. I couldn’t believe I was seeing what I was seeing. Roddy and Kyle ringside. His voice cracking as he spoke to the tens of thousands of fans at Globe Life Field in the midst of AEW’s biggest event of the year – one he helped build as such.

 

Hearts broke live in unison along with mine as tears flowed slowly down the contours of his face. But this wasn’t about us.

 

No one ever wants to say goodbye. Certainly not before you’ve done all you’ve wanted to do. In wrestling, I’m not sure there exists that perfect time. But there he stood anyway. Not for the business. Not for All Elite Wrestling. Not even for himself. He stood there – emotions spilling all over for the world to see – for us. The fans.

 

Amidst everything. The hurt, the loss, and the confusion. He wanted to power through and make sure we all knew how much we meant to him and his career. You cannot fake that kind of selflessness and gratitude.

 

I cannot imagine how difficult that moment must have been for him. I don’t even want to think about what it must feel like to consider the future under such painful uncertainty. But moments like this offer more than just a chance to say goodbye, if that’s even what this is. I’m not sure even he knows the answer to that yet. Moments like this offer us a chance to show our thanks and be grateful that we were present to witness one of the greatest talents of the last twenty years. No matter what the future holds.

 

I’m not sure how many people this next reference will touch. Baseball fans? Maybe. Yankees fans? Certainly. Just bear with me.

 

I’m a huge New York Yankees fan, ever since I was little. Ride or die. World Series or bust. Win or lose. I’ve seen so many incredible players over the years, but only one truly embodies why I so attach myself to those who very literally exude an almost childlike passion when they do what they are meant to do. His name is Nick Swisher.

 

He wasn’t the best player I’d ever seen. Not even close, in fact. But he played every day like it could be his last. He attacked every pitch with his team on his back. He played with such pure unfiltered joy. I don’t know that I ever saw him without a smile on his face in all the years he wore pinstripes – or since, to be fair. He’s a human being who lives every day with love and tries his best to leave each day lighter than the one before. That’s the kind of person I’m drawn to. And that’s the kind of person Adam Cole is.

 

He attacked every match with his company on his back. Be it CZW, Ring of Honor, New Japan, NXT, AEW, and more…before he was ever in the main event, Adam was the main event. We just didn’t know it yet. Every opportunity that he had, he treated as the biggest one yet. In fact, he seems like someone who when asked what his biggest moment was in wrestling, he might offer his answer as being “the next one.”

 

Above all of that though, Adam played with joy. From the very first day.

 

He was meant to be a wrestler. He was meant to be a purveyor of passion. I can’t think of a better example to follow in a business that can so often be unfair and indiscriminately taxing – mentally, emotionally, and physically.

 

I wish with all I can muster that Adam hasn’t wrestled his last match, because I can tell how much it means to him. My hope is that he heals appropriately and has options. I hope he has the choice to do what makes his heart full. It’s what I’d wish for anyone in this situation.

 

There is something I ask people to do oftentimes when I’m writing a feature on a talent who performs with passion like Adam has. I always ask those reading to pay extra special attention to a performer’s eyes the next time they’re on screen. It might seem silly, but you can see everything in the eyes of the ones who love this thing of ours with their whole hearts.

 

They may be playing a character on screen, but the eyes don’t lie. Adam is a wonderful example of this. Turn on a match of his. Watch his AEW debut. Replay the match when he won the NXT title. Turn on the main event from All In: 2023 against Max in front of 80,000 screaming fans. Go a little more old school and watch his fight without honor with Jay Briscoe in ROH. The options are endless.

 

Enjoy the matches and moments, sure, but watch Adam’s eyes closely. If you do, you’ll see the child still very much alive inside having the absolute time of his life. You’ll see the man living the impossible dream he worked so hard to make a reality. You’ll see a human being simply having fun. And what is better than that?

 

The memories Adam gave us all are infinite. And we have them at our disposal to enjoy whenever we want them. Hopefully there are more coming someday, but if there aren’t, how lucky are we to have what we have?

 

I think I’ll be able to picture him in the ring with the arms of his best friends wrapped around him forever. The emotion was obvious, and the moment felt extraordinarily meaningful. Roddy any Kyle comforted Adam. Adam comforted them. Their presence in the ring after the news Adam had just shared comforted us, and in turn, our cheers returned the favor.

 

I cannot speak for any other promotion, as I haven’t been a regular viewer of another in some years now, but I can speak from the perspective of an AEW fan. There is this palpable feeling that we are all in it together, no matter the moment or obstacle. In this day and age, people can be quite fickle, so I think that’s just a really special environment that’s been created in and around the company. I’m grateful that feeling exists.

 

Thank you, Adam, for always leaving it all. Thank you for helping to make sure so many of us felt like they belonged. If you ever doubt the difference you’ve made, please don’t.

 

The skies over Panama may be dark for now, and maybe they stay that way for a while, but I’ll be keeping my eyes on the horizon for that magical sunrise you made so famous all those years ago. That beautiful fire-colored blaze coming from the belly of the morning sky…

 

“Like a torch in a tank full of propane…”

 

Hush. One more time. Loud as you can. How does it go?

 

ADAM COLE…