Adam Copeland Reveals How Judgment Day Plans Changed

Adam Copeland has explained why the original plans for The Judgment Day’s first year were thrown out.

In the build to his match with AJ Styles at WrestleMania 38, Copeland – then known as Edge – reached into his past to find a darker character more reminiscent of his days in The Brood than the Rated-R Superstar fans had come to know and love.

On the Grandest Stage Of Them All, Damian Priest allied himself with Copeland, causing a distraction that allowed him to defeat Styles. The following month at WrestleMania Backlash, Copeland beat Styles again, this time with the added aid of Rhea Ripley.

The trio, dubbing themselves The Judgment Day, continued their feud with Styles, leading to a 6-Man Tag Team Match at Hell In A Cell that saw them defeat the team of Styles, Finn Balor, and Live Morgan. The next night on Raw, Copeland introduced Balor as the newest member of his group.

However, things quickly unraveled as Balor attacked Copeland with aid from Priest and Ripley, kicking him out of the faction he had created. Copeland feuded with the faction for some time after his betrayal, eventually defeating Balor in a brutal Hell In A Cell match at WrestleMania 39.

As it turns out, the storyline was originally meant to go on for a lot longer than ended up happening.

Adam Copeland explains why the Judgment Day turned on him earlier than planned

During a new interview on Talk Is Jericho, Copeland revealed that the endgame was always going to see The Judgment Day turn on him, but it was supposed to happen over the course of a full year.

“It was odd, you know? Because that’s all I knew. And even just in terms of me coming in and out, I missed a lot of things. So I’d come back and go, Oh, this is happening now. Got it. And I’m just trying to wrap my mind around that. Because when we were doing Judgment Day, the plan was Balor joins and about a year later, they all turn on me.

He went on to explain that he decided at Hell In A Cell that everything had to be changed as he felt the group wouldn’t achieve its potential with him as the leader.

“Well, then, we get to Hell in the Cell. And I was like, No, we’re changing everything. And we’re speeding up that year long process. And he’s joining tomorrow and turning tomorrow, it wasn’t long, and it was just starting to find some legs. But it was gonna be swimming upstream with me. And it really was. And I started to have that realisation. It’s like, I don’t think they’re gonna get where they need to get to with me in this thing.”

Copeland admitted that he had been all in for the full storyline before that, even going as far as buying 30 custom suits for the role.

Again, people know the real story. Right? And that was an instance where I did try and flip everything. Change it all overnight. cut my hair off. Change the music. Yeah. Start coming out in suits Like, like, I got 30 custom suits.”

Adam Copeland recently left WWE behind after 25 years in the company, choosing instead to join AEW. He recently won his in-ring debut for the company, defeating Luchasaurus, an ally of his longtime friend and tag partner, Christian Cage.

H/T to Inside The Ropes for the above transcription.