Ring of Honor star Adam Cole recently park in an interview with Marc Madison of The News Hub in which he revealed the details behind his tryout with the WWE:

"That particular tryout I went down to Afa the Wild Samoan’s training school which at the time was located in I believe may be Tampa, Florida but I may be incorrect on that but somewhere in Florida. We actually got to train for a week with Haku and Afa himself and it was awesome. It was such a good experience. I got my ring conditioning up and I learned little tricks of the trade. I learned how to be more intense in the ring because the Samoan’s are so intense. Then going into that tryout, again the harsh reality of that now looking back as to where I was in wrestling at that time, I was in just way over my head.

I was a 19 year old kid, I was 170 ibs soaking wet. I didn’t have an identity. I didn’t have a look. I didn’t have the proper gear. I was just a young guy trying to be a wrestler. So to be honest, WWE didn’t even give me a second look. I don’t even know if they looked me in the eyes based on my size, based on my experience. I literally looked like a child there. For me it was more motivating as going forward and now I kind of have an idea of what I need to do. A lot of that just comes with just time. When you’re an independent wrestler, committing a lot of time and effort into honing your craft as much as possible in as many different places as possible will catch the WWE’s interest as far as the independent level goes. It was definitely an eye opening experience for me."