Adam Cole says concussion battle “the hardest battle I’ve ever faced”

Adam Cole says the multiple concussions he suffered last summer were the hardest battles he’s ever faced.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Cole spoke in detail about suffering the concussions during matches last year and what went into recovering from them.

“I wasn’t ready to have this taken from me,” Cole said of his wrestling career. “I want to wrestle for another 15 to 20 years, so the idea that my livelihood was taken away from me was the hardest battle I’ve ever faced. I was leaning up against a wall. Britt was there, the doctor was there, a lot of my friends were there —and I felt so discouraged. This was my second concussion in a fairly short period of time. I couldn’t understand why it was happening. It was so frustrating.

“Two months after my concussion at Forbidden Door, I was seeing a brain doctor three times a week. After two months of not being cleared for anything but going for walks, I took this brain test. I had to move my head back and forth, and there was a letter E moving up, down, left or right. I had to say which direction it was facing. Pro athletes are supposed to score a 120. I scored a 38.

“At that point, after two months of doing absolutely nothing, that’s when I got slapped in the face with reality. It went even deeper than wrestling. I was worried about my quality of life.”

Cole said in the interview that he later scored a 160 on the same test ahead of making his return to television. Cole wrestled Daniel Garcia at the end of March and won. He’ll address Chris Jericho on this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite.

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