Adam Cole Recalls Facing Bryan Danielson On WWE SmackDown

Adam Cole has recalled his impromptu match with Bryan Danielson on the November 1, 2019 edition of SmackDown.

Following the 2019 Crown Jewel event, travel issues prevented most of the WWE roster from being able to enter the US in time for the Friday show. The episode notably featured an NXT invasion, with NXT Champion Adam Cole defeating Danielson (Daniel Bryan) in singles action.

Speaking on Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette, Cole explained that he only found out that he needed to be at SmackDown the afternoon of the show. Noting that the match was so much fun, Cole said:

“I got in there and Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar were in the ring cutting a promo. The whole day was nuts. I remember it was 1:30 in the afternoon and I’m walking around just having a normal afternoon. Just very relaxed. And I get a call and they go ‘you need to get on this airplane by 3 o’clock and you need to go to this airport.’ And the airport was an hour away. I had 30 minutes to pack everything, get ready to go. I got there, we wait forever, the plane took forever to take off.

“We’re up in the air and we still don’t know what we’re doing. I don’t know if I’m wrestling Bryan, I don’t know what’s going on. None of us know anything. Some of us kind of find out that we’re wrestling, but we’re not sure what we’re doing. So I’m sitting besides Shawn Michaels, whose trying to figure out what I’m doing while I’m putting my boots on 30,000 feet up in the air. We got a police escort to the venue. We’re speeding through everything and there’s cop cars with lights on. It was so nuts. Such a nuts day.

“I had been a fan of Bryan. I’ve been pretty open about the fact that CM Punk and Bryan Danielson were two of the guys that got me into, not only independent wrestling, not only Ring of Honor, but the fact that wrestling existed outside of WWE, WCW and ECW. I was like ‘oh my god, there’s wrestling in Japan. There’s independents all over the country.’ And those two were responsible.

“So right as I came into Ring of Honor, he was leaving to go to WWE. And when that all went down and that all happened, my god. The fan in me was so excited to get the chance to get in there with him, which was really cool. And the funny thing is too, I wouldn’t have changed the circumstance at all. It was perfect. It was this crazy, chaotic ‘oh my god, what are we going to do? Okay let’s just let Adam Cole and Daniel Bryan go nuts.’ It was so much fun, so much fun.”

WWE returns to Saudi Arabia for Crown Jewel 2021 on October 21. Brock Lesnar will do battle with Universal Champion Roman Reigns at the event.

Transcription via Wrestling Inc.

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• adam cole
• Bryan Danielson
• Smackdown
• AEW

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