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Adam Copeland’s Edgy Tribute To John Cena

By John Canton • Published Dec 13, 2025 14:19 EST
John Cena WWE Adam Copeland AEW

The “Rated R Superstar” Adam Copeland has joined in on the John Cena tributes.

Adam Copeland is no longer a WWE superstar, but he was known as Edge for about 25 years from 1998 until his contract expired in late 2023. After that, he went to AEW and has used his real name, Adam Copeland, or Cope, there.

Many fans hoped Copeland could return to WWE this year for one more match with John Cena, but that obviously didn’t happen.

The reason why fans wanted one more Cena-Edge match is that the WWE Hall of Famer and future Hall of Famer had a legendary rivalry that some might say was the best of either man’s career.

They battled over the WWE Title numerous times while Edge was famously the first person to cash in Money in the Bank, and he did so on Cena to win his first WWE Title. As the years progressed, the rivalry continued with Cena as the babyface and Edge as one of WWE’s greatest heels.

Since many people in the pro wrestling world is paying tribute to Cena for his December 13th retirement, Adam Copeland joined in with two clever photos on Instagram.

One of the images is from South Park, and the other is when they were puppets.

Adam Copeland Enjoyed Working With John Cena

When John Cena faced Logan Paul at WWE Clash in Paris, he did some Adam Copeland-like moves, including the classic Spear setup. Adam Copeland reacted to that tribute after the match and spoke about how their rivalry helped both men.

“I saw a clip a couple of days ago where he did the whole [spear] setup and everything… It’s super fun. Yeah, it’s just fun. I think for John and I, we’re two guys that met each other at the right time. He needed a bad guy, and I needed a good guy. It just clicked. You never know when something is going to click.”

“I remember with Eddie and I, the first time we wrestled, and it was like, ‘huh.’ It was okay, right? But it should’ve been more than that. And then the next one was a little bit more, and then finally by our third match we were like, okay. There it is.”

“With John and I from day one, it just clicked. And I think it was, our characters were polar opposites. I knew what the assignment was, and so did he. I think you had two guys that were very willing to do what we had to do to get us both over.”

And John was already well on his way, but I feel like our angle is what really put the stamp on him being the top guy, and it put the stamp on me being a main event guy. I’ll always look back at that one fondly and and what we were able to do and and the fun we had.”

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