Despite his often brash and arrogant onscreen persona, Adam Cole has admitted that he battles with self-confidence issues.
At Double or Nothing, Cole defeated Chris Jericho by referee stoppage in a brutal Unsanctioned Match after repeatedly hammering The Wizard with punches when he was on the mat.
Despite his confidence in the ring, though, Cole has spoken to Swerve Strickland about his struggles on the latest edition of his ‘Swerve City’ podcast.
“For me, certainly, I think lots of times I battle with — and Shane [Swerve Strickland], I don’t know if you agree with this or not but I definitely have some self-confidence issues, even to this day, after doing it for 15 years.
“I think part of the Adam Cole character as a heel that I enjoyed so much is I was this cocky, brash, no one can touch me, I am the best in the world character that is so not who I am as a person.”
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AEW star Adam Cole “feels invincible” when he goes through the curtain
Cole went on to explain how he thinks his confidence issues come down to a desire for perfection in every aspect of his work.
“It’s like when I walk through that curtain, it was like I felt invincible for a second and then you walk back through and again.
“I think at the end of the day, it comes down to because I care and we care so much about this job that you wanna be perfect and you’re constantly chasing that perfection of whether it’d be matches or promos or what have you, you wanna be the best.”
The star says he’s growing and learning, but in the past struggled between getting better and “tearing himself down” for not achieving that perfection.
“You really, really do so I think I’m still growing and learning as time goes on but early on, it was such an internal battle constantly of being able to balance that act between always wanna better yourself and not absolutely tearing yourself apart for feeling like you’re not perfect if that makes sense.”
H/T to WrestleTalk for the above transcription.