Booker T believes that Adam Cole will be a “great soldier” for All Elite Wrestling now that he has officially jumped ship.
In an excerpt from a recent episode of his podcast, “The Hall of Fame” the WWE Hall of Famer shared his thoughts on Cole’s arrival in AEW by saying that, even with other stars like CM Punk and Bryan Danielson recently becoming “All Elite”, Cole still has the potential to change the game.
“[If] Adam Cole wins the AEW World Heavyweight Championship, he’ll change the whole name of the game,” said Booker T. “Just because he’s that guy that a lot of people don’t think should be playing that role in that position. It would show…what AEW is all about.
Booker T then explained that he stood by his previous belief that Cole might have been better off working in Japan and leveraging that for a bigger contract, but he noted that Cole’s move to AEW might be the “right decision” for him because it allows him to remain stateside and make good money. He then argued that Cole will be just fine in AEW, even among multiple major acquistions, because the company reminds him of the WWF in the Attitude Era through its attempt to make everyone a star.
“Did Adam Cole make the right decision going to AEW, for him?,” said Booker T. “Perhaps yes. You know what I mean? So I’m definitely not knocking anything that this young man has done. As well as there again, I said, guy like Adam Cole, he’ll be a great teammate, he’ll be a great soldier on anybody’s team. So I think Adam Cole, I don’t think he’s gonna get washed out. I think the way AEW work their talent, I think they’re trying to make everybody on the roster a star. And I think that’s what the business has always been in the past.
“Every wrestler in the 90s in WWF, in WWE, came out out of the curtain, they were a star. They brought somebody’s ass in a seat in that arena. So that’s what I think AEW is trying to do is have all their stars create as far as reaching to their fanbase only. We get them under one roof, at one time, and we all have a big party. That’s the way I saw AEW. I could be wrong.”
Booker T then took a more general approach and contrasted this wrestling war to the infamous battle between WWF and WW by stating that, this time around, the wrestlers on both sides are still in their prime, and they’re still stars that people want to see. With that in mind, Booker T explained that Cole is as fresh as he can be because fans never got to see him full-time on the main roster.
“What I see different in this war compared to the war that went on back with WCW in the 90s is, a bunch of these guys now, they’re nowhere near past their prime or anything like that,” said Booker T. “All these guys are really young guys. It’s not like a old guys coming over, taking a spot from one of the younger guys or anything like that. When it happened back in the day, it was Hogan, Savage, Warrior, all those guys were well into their 40s. Now, guys are leaving in their 20s, like an Adam Cole. That’s what’s different about this war, as well as AEW building their roster with guys that people still want to still want to see today. I think that’s the difference.
“We’ve seen nothing from Adam Cole [yet]. Just think about it. Adam Cole right now, it’s almost like he’s just coming from the indies. I’m not saying that he wasn’t a big star or anything like that. What I’m saying is, he’s still like fresh as fresh can be. It’s like when I went from tag team wrestling to singles wrestling. It seemed like I started a whole new career.”
The full clip is available here.
