Adam Cole thinks he’s ready to be a babyface

With his TakeOver: XXX match against Pat McAfee ten days away, Adam Cole is doing the kind of press you expect to see when WWE brings in an outside celebrity to face a wrestler.

Cole hits several topics in an interview with The New York Post, including his character’s alignment. The worked-shoot set-up for his match with McAfee has made it pretty clear the football player-turned-sports talk show host is a heel. Does that make the former NXT champ, who’s been playing a bad guy for all of his WWE and most of his pro wrestling career, a babyface? And is it just for this feud, or are we about to see a face role for the Panama City Playboy?

“I don’t see how anyone can see me as the bad guy in this situation. He’s the guy that doesn’t belong. He’s the guy who shouldn’t be here. He’s the guy who disrespected me. So I’ve been looked at as a bad guy for the majority of my career, but again this one — it’s a very hard argument to make.

“When I first started in my wrestling career, I was a babyface like a lot of people start, and I remember feeling so uncomfortable in that role. I just didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to act. Then I became comfortable when I got to play the part and the role of being the heel. When I really developed the Adam Cole character, that really helped me.

“Now I do. I think back on that time when I had no idea what I was doing. It was like a year or two into wrestling and still figuring everything out. I’m still figuring stuff out now, but I just have a much better grasp of who I am at least. Yeah, I think I would. I think I would love the chance to be in that babyface role. By no means would that babyface role mean the Adam Cole that you see now would change very much, but I do think it would be a cool challenge and something interesting for me to do to kind of be put in that role. I think it would be really fun.”

One thing the program with McAfee has drawn attention to is Cole’s size. He dismisses those insults as lazy, calling the “childish” and “the only thing he can say.” But his generously listed at 6’ height is an oft-discussed concern about Cole’s WWE future. Playing an underdog would be one way to handle the issue.

Question is... does Undisputed ERA turn with him?

If I had the book, I’d use the McAfee feud to re-do the Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly program that was a staple of their Ring of Honor runs. We’ll see how WWE plays it, starting on tonight’s NXT.

Let us know what you think below. And check out Cole’s entire chat with The Post - where he also talks about the exposure his bosses hope his TakeOver: XXX match brings to the brand, and his girlfriend Britt Baker’s success in AEW - here.