Adam Cole discusses his Twitch community and any potential issues he might have faced in WWE regarding having a Twitch account.
At the height of the global pandemic in 2020, many professional wrestlers turned to Twitch as a way to continue connecting with audiences as well as blowing off steam by playing video games.
Later, it was noted in an internal memo that WWE performers had to turn over their Twitch accounts to the company, sparking a discussion regarding what WWE can and cannot control when it comes to their independently contracted Superstars.
Speaking with Sean Ross Sapp, Adam Cole explained what he said when he was confronted with the idea of Twitch maybe being a problem when he was in WWE and all of the positives he's found in the community since joining the platform.
“It was in some ways mentioned to me about Twitch maybe being a problem and then I gave them my two cents in the sense of I’m not using Adam Cole, I’m wearing video game t-shirts, I don’t curse on my streams,” Cole explained. “I was very, very careful thinking if a seven-year-old WWE fan is watching me play this game, I don’t want them to go, ‘Oh, my God, Adam Cole said what?’ I was very, very careful with that. I’ve still instituted that to this day even within AEW. But I, in a lot of ways, made it clear to this person that Twitch was something that I really did not want to give up and was not give up and fortunately for me they just kind of let that slide. They kinda just said, ‘Okay. Alright. We’re just gonna let it go.’ I got to continue to stream on Twitch. Again, aside from again, it’s going really well, it honest to God has become a second passion of mine. I love doing it.”
For Adam, it's very important to have this sense of community that his twitch Channel provides, saying that it provides light during a time when social media can be somewhat toxic.
“At a time and a place social media can in some ways and sometimes be a nasty place for some people. The Twitch community is so cool,” Adam said. “We celebrate if someone gets a job promotion, if someone has a child, someone celebrates a wedding anniversary—it’s like a big, happy family in a lot of ways. I love them to death.
“Not to sound silly or dramatic, or just be nicer to people,” he continued. "It’s unbelievable how so many people within the channel, ‘I used to have a really negative outlook on life or I used to give people such a hard time for this or that, and to see the way you and the others interact with each other has made me realize maybe I should be a little bit nicer.’ That is almost more important than anything else.”
Adam also explained the origin of his username, Chugs.
“My Twitch name is Twitch.TV/TheChugs and if you don’t mind, I’ll explain the name of Chugs because a lot of people are curious. It’s really an ironic name. It was given to me by some friends. I am horrible at chugging anything. Water, you name it, so bad at it. So it’s the same as you had a really big friend and you named them Tiny. So yeah, Twitch.TV/TheChugs. I play a bunch of different games on there. Right now playing Elden Ring to death. The new open-world Dark Souls-esque game. But we play a bunch of different stuff on there. We have a really great community where we chat about stuff and talk and hang out. It’s awesome. If you’re looking for a good group of people to hang out with, definitely check out the Twitch channel,” he concluded.
Check out Adam on Twitch here. Check out a YouTube channel featuring his Twitch highlights here. You can check out a list of other professional wrestlers that are on Twitch at this link.
