Former NXT star Bull James recently spoke with Jim Varsallone for the Miami Herald while promoting Ring Of Honor’s live event tomorrow night in Fort Lauderdale.
James, who made his ROH debut last month, talks about facing Adam Cole this weekend, returning to Florida to compete and more; you can read a few excerpts below:
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Bull James comments on why his match against Adam Cole is the most important of his career:
“Well, because Adam Cole is at the top of his game right now; he is the top of the Ring of Honor food chain,” Bull noted. “Ring of Honor for years has been looked at as the hidden gem of pro wrestling. So having the opportunity to not only come into Ring of Honor like the way I did as a surprise in the Honor Rumble and then have my first [ROH] match against somebody like Adam Cole, it really is special. He’s at the top of his game, and right now I’m at the top of mine.”
James comments on catching up with old friends before his first match in Florida since his NXT release:
“I flew down [New York to Florida] a week early. I’ve been training with my old strength coach at the Performance Center Matt Wichlinski at his Strength Shop Gym in Orlando. I’ve done some in-ring stuff with Billy Gunn, and I’ve also been catching up with some old buddies of mine — like former head coach at the Performance Center Bill DeMott — just trying to kind of get myself back into that mentality that I was in, when I was grinding every single day at the Performance Center and putting forth my best effort everyday at the live events and on TV and on the overseas tours and the out of state shows and the Florida shows.”
“I want to mention something about Fort Pierce. The fans there always went above and beyond to support me. They would come out full force, and they even dubbed Fort Pierce ‘Bull Country,’ which I was really proud of. Even the locker room, when we were going to Fort Pierce, they would say, ‘Oh, we’re going to Bull Town.’
I know Fort Lauderdale isn’t too far from there, and there’s a bunch of people who go to those Fort Pierce shows who are going to come out and support me, and that means the world to me that I can reach those people on another level, where they may take their NXT loyalty and put it aside for a night to come and support me. To me, that’s bigger than anything.”