First things first. Hi, I’m Molly. I cannot explain to you just how excited and honored I am to have been asked to join such an incredible team of genuinely wonderful individuals. I’ve been wondering for a few days how to introduce myself and my writing style to y’all, and it hit me a few moments ago. It’s pretty epic. Are you ready for it?
I love wrestling.
With my whole heart and then some, it’s everything to me. That being said, is there any better place to contribute creatively when professional wrestling fuels your very soul? I think not.
So, who does someone write about in their very first article for a website literally overflowing with love for the squared circle? A wrestler that embodies that very love, of course! A wrestler that has given everything he has to a business that he has loved since childhood and who holds the roar of the crowd and the art of storytelling in the highest regard.
Any guesses?
Fresh off of a return to All Elite Wrestling that for all rights and purposes was never near guaranteed, Adam Cole’s happiness inducing smile is back. He steps back into the ring in a couple of weeks for the first time in nine months or so against an opponent that still hasn’t been named. In doing so, he reinvigorates his lifelong dream. It’s a dream that was nearly lost in June of last year.
How close was it? Only he, his circle, and family know, but I fear it was too close. Anyone who has ever lost something they loved or been close knows the weight that dark uncertainty carries. When it concerns one’s own health on top of the future of a dream, well I’m not sure even Adam would want to go to that mental space again.
The determination it must have taken to look and push forward with no end in sight for months must have been astronomical. He appears to have quite the head on his shoulders and a support system for the ages, but when we lay down our heads on our pillows at night and close our eyes, we have only ourselves and our thoughts to entertain. It can’t have been easy.
He’s been very open since coming back, something he didn’t have to be. Head injuries are all too common in sports and wrestling isn’t immune to their dire consequences. Adam is only the latest example of how serious and life threatening these awful injuries can be. It wasn’t just his career on the line either. His ability to live his life day to day suffered while home, and the outlook was for a long time unknown.
What a way to exist, huh? Life altering symptoms with no end in sight. Constant wonder about when things may return to normal, if they ever would. Wrestling one day in a dream match for the ages and being thrown into purgatory – in more ways than one – the very next. All of this at once.
How much of this is covered in All Elite Wrestling’s new reality show is unknown currently, but with the premier only a couple of weeks away, one has to wonder. How the cameras decide to cover such a journey could be captivating. I’m expecting emotions to be running high. I’ll have my box of Kleenex ready. How about y’all?
Before he was injured, Adam was a focal point of AEW. It seems as though he’s been with them all along. That’s how perfectly he fits in. The truth is, he wasn’t even in the ring for a full year before he was injured. The untapped feuds and storylines that are waiting for him when he’s ready are numerous. The sky is the limit, just as it has been his whole career.
I hope he takes it slow. I hope AEW takes it slow. I’m certain that they all will. One thing all fans have learned in our lifetimes is how very fleeting our time with our favorites is. Even those who have full careers that span decades, we’re never ready to watch them walk back up the ramp for the last time. Those who have their careers cut short? Heck, I’m still crying over many of those.
We’ve been blessed in recent years having seen medical miracles allow the returns of countless wrestlers we thought lost to injury forever. I can only speak for myself. I appreciate even more today, the time we have with everyone living a dream inside the ring. You never know when it’s going to end. For Adam, it was dangerously close.
It’s a line all professional wrestlers have to step up to every time they lace up their boots. I can’t imagine it’s thought about all that often in detail, but it’s there. Every single time, it’s there. So why then do they continue to do what they do? Why do they sacrifice everything for those moments in the ring?
For exactly that. For those moments, for the roar of the crowd, for the feel of the mat under their boots, and for the breeze on their faces as they run the ropes. They dedicate their lives to what I maintain is perhaps the most beautiful of all artistic displays in the entire world. They go out in front of us every week and dance like no one is watching, only everyone is watching.
These superstars pour their love into this thing of ours and we love it right back. Adam Cole is the epitome of that love. One look in his eyes as he works and one can feel the passion through the television screen. His smile before a match, not the one he gives the audience, but the one he saves for himself almost completely off screen – that smile – that smile tells the whole story. Within those hallowed ropes, Adam Cole is home. And we can tell. That’s why we love him so much.
Whatever he does upon his in ring return, I have no doubt it will be magical. It is what he does. He told us that the entire AEW locker room should be on notice, and they better be. The standard rises the day he walks through that tunnel in full gear once more. Champions will have to look over their shoulders and take note. His simple presence will increase the quality of wrestling company wide. That’s the impact that wrestlers like Adam Cole have.
As for us, we get to watch it all unfold. How lucky are we?
