Adam Copeland Explains Why He Likes Wrestling Younger Talent In AEW
Adam Copeland has discussed why he feels he should be in the ring with the younger talent in AEW.
As a veteran pro wrestling with 30 years of experience in pro wrestling, Adam Copeland has seen it all and done it all. Copeland is a WWE Hall of Famer also known as Edge who held over 30 championships while working there, faced off against the biggest names in the history of the business, and headlined all the big shows.
After choosing to sign with AEW in October 2023, the 50-year-old Copeland is in an environment that is new to him but also presents a lot of fresh matchups and storylines that he couldn’t have in WWE.
On the first episode of AEW Collision of 2024, Adam Copeland beat a younger wrestler named Griff Garrison in a match where the outcome likely wasn’t a surprise to the audience.
During an appearance on Busted Open Radio with Dave LaGreca and Bully Ray, Copeland opened up about why he wants to wrestle younger talent like Garrison even though some fans might criticize him for doing that.
“Because long after I’m gone, Griff Garrison will be there (at AEW) and just like Bad News Brown showed me or just like Rick Martel showed me or just like Tom Prichard showed me or Pat Patterson showed me or Michael Hayes showed me or Bret Hart showed me. I’m in that stage of my career. So if I can get in there with Griff Garrison, what is a 30-second match gonna do for Griff Garrison? But suddenly now, you get a couple, ‘Woah! He almost took that thing.’ Alright, well now you add in the element of story of like, ‘Okay, Copeland took this kid maybe a little lightly and there’s something to him.”
“It’s also an opportunity for him to get on a microphone. It’s an opportunity for reps in front of an audience that will have eyes actually watching because there’s a character in there that they know. That to me is all that needs to be said. If he can get in there and we have five minutes of time in there, I feel like he can learn more in that five minutes than he would in probably 200 matches with people of the same experience and I know that sounds kind of cocky and egotistical, but that’s the way it was for me when I was his age and that’s what this is.
“I believe it to be but that’s why. That’s why I wanna work a guy like Griff Garrison, that’s why put me in with Dante Martin or Lee Moriarty or Zak Zodiac.”
Adam Copeland Believes It’s Another Chapter In His Story
Since joining AEW, Copeland has won and lost the TNT Title from his best friend Christian Cage (at AEW Worlds End) in a story that will likely continue even further. According to Copeland, it’s all part of the story.
“This is a part within the story that Christian (Cage) and I are telling where we can do this and add another layer in the final book that is this story. That’s so fun to me.”
“I think nowadays, people are just so, ‘Well why isn’t it this? Why isn’t it this? Why isn’t it right now? Right now, right now, right now, right now,’ and if you give them right now, ‘Well they did it too quick.’ This is another chapter.”
“While they continue to write more chapters on their end, I’m gonna write it over here on this end and there’s always a plan and sometimes, like my favorite stories when I was growing up and I know it’s a different time, but Steamboat-Savage, let ‘em wrestle for a year!”