Kevin Owens Sends Love To Injured Friend Adam Cole During SmackDown Interview

Highlights

• Roman Reigns returned to SmackDown, facing off against John Cena, LA Knight, and Cody Rhodes in an intense season premiere.
• Triple H appointed Adam Pearce as the GM of Raw and introduced Nick Aldis as the GM of SmackDown.
• Kevin Owens gave Dominik Mysterio a stunner and expressed sadness about leaving Sami Zayn behind on Raw, also sending well wishes to Adam Cole, who had surgery for an ankle injury.

The season premiere of SmackDown was a big one for WWE. Roman Reigns was back for the first time in months, having stare downs with John Cena, LA Knight, and Cody Rhodes. Triple H came out and named Adam Pearce as the GM of Raw, and introduced the debuting Nick Aldis as the GM of SmackDown. Then, after weeks of speculation, finally came the second part of the trade that sent Jey Uso from Fridays to Mondays, as Kevin Owens' music hit, and he came out to give Dominik Mysterio a stunner.

After the show, in a SmackDown Digital Exclusive interview for YouTube with Cathy Kelley, Kevin Owens spoke about flying back to Canada for his mom's birthday, silencing Dom Mysterio, and how hard it was leaving Sami Zayn behind on Raw. Before the interview came to an end, Owens also gave a shoutout to Adam Cole, who recently broke his ankle on AEW Dynamite Grand Slam a few weeks ago. “And before I go, I just want to say I have a friend named Adam who had a very serious surgery today. He’s at the hospital now recovering. I just want to say Adam, we love you, we’re with you, and take care of yourself, buddy. And that’s about it.”

Last week, PWInsider reported that Adam Cole revealed during a Twitch stream that his ankle injury is going to need multiple surgeries. His first surgery, which Owens was referencing, required Cole to have a plate and eight screws inserted.

RELATED: Britt Baker Shares Brutal Photos Of Adam Cole's "Exploded" Ankle

Kevin Owens' History With Adam Cole

It was great to see Kevin Owens being able to mention Adam Cole, though the latter now works with AEW. Even if he didn't say his last name, we knew who he was talking about. Before joining AEW in September 2021, Cole had spent four years in WWE, almost entirely in NXT. He was the face of the brand alongside his Undisputed Era faction. Though Kevin Owens was on the main roster during this time, and they weren't working together, the two have a long history.

Back during their indie days in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), Kevin Owens (then going by his real name of Kevin Steen), Adam Cole, and The Young Bucks were part of a heel group called Mount Rushmore. It was there that the foursome became great friends. Later in their careers, they were both on top, with Adam Cole as the Ring of Honor World Champion and Kevin Owens as the WWE Universal Champion. They did get to have one great moment together in WWE during NXT's WarGames show in November 2019, when Owens showed up as the surprise member of Team Ciampa against Team Undisputed Era.

With Kevin Owens now separated from Sami Zayn, it will allow him to shine as a singles competitor, as arguably his tag team run with Zayn on Raw had cooled down after beating The Usos at WrestleMania 39. Unfortunately, it looks like Adam Cole will be out of action for a long while in AEW. Hopefully he is back sooner rather than later, as his work with MJF was the best stuff he'd done since joining the promotion.