Cope Defends Controversial Moment In Recent AEW Match

Cope believes that suplexing a man onto a bat of nails is perfectly acceptable in the wild world of pro wrestling.

There was a wild Street Fight on AEW Dynamite in Omaha as Jon Moxley defended the coveted AEW World Title against Adam Copeland aka Cope.

For Cope, it was a second shot at becoming the AEW World Champion since his former best friend Christian Cage got involved when Cope challenged Moxley at AEW Revolution and Moxley beat Cage to retain his title.

During the Street Fight, Cope and Moxley used a lot of weapons and had a bloody battle with the AEW World Title on the line. The spot that led to a lot of controversy among wrestling fans was when Cope suplexed Moxley so that Moxley’s back landed on a bat with sharp nails on it. Cope calls the bat Spike.

After the nail spot, the nails were sticking in Moxley’s back. Wheeler Yuta and the referee had to free Moxley from the nails in his back. To Moxley’s credit, he was able to finish the match and retain the World Title thanks to the help from his friends in the Death Riders group.

Adam Copeland Considers Pro Wrestling To Be Like A Variety Show

Throughout his pro wrestling career in AEW and for over two decades as WWE’s Edge, Cope is a guy who has done a lot of crazy things in matches. That includes a lot of table breaking, ladder leaping, and even giving Mick Foley a Spear through a flaming table to win a match at WrestleMania.

While speaking to TV Insider, Adam Copeland responded to the criticism of the Spike nail spot by talking about pro wrestling as a variety show that has different things for different people.

“I look at wrestling as a variety show. That means you bring a lot of different things to the table with that. There can be some comedy, straight up wrestling, hardcore matches. That has always been the case. It’s also not really out of the ballpark of what Moxley and I do every once in a while. Think about me and [Mick] Foley. I’m sure there are a lot of people that were disturbed by that too. There are also a lot of people who enjoy horror movies. There are people who enjoy romcoms.

I think wrestling can bring that all to the table. I think that is what AEW does. I also feel like AEW is not afraid to take some risks. For a lack of a better analogy, we’re kind of a bit punk rock. It’s not always going to be pretty. It’s an alternative. It’s something different. I think if you look throughout the history of the company, it’s not something new. Darby Allin was falling off ladders and glass and thumbtacks.

It has always been there to an extent. Let’s also face it. If you have two wrestlers coming out to wrestle a technical match every match, that can get pretty boring.”

Booker T is a WWE Hall of Famer like Adam Copeland, and he was very critical of the spot by wondering what crazy things people will continue to do in matches.