Wrestling Legend Believes Leaving WWE For AEW Was A “No-Brainer”
A WWE Hall of Famer feels like he made the right move going to AEW after spending decades in WWE.
When Adam “Edge” Copeland made his AEW debut in October 2023 a few weeks before turning 50, it came after he was under contract to WWE for 25 years.
While Copeland didn’t wrestle throughout the entire 25-year run in WWE, he did make a comeback in 2020 after nine years on the injured list and put in a solid three years with WWE before becoming a free agent.
In AEW, Copeland has had bloody battles with the likes of his best friend Christian Cage, he’s been the TNT Champion, and challenged for the AEW World Title as well.
During an interview with ClutchPoints, Cope mentioned that going to AEW was easy because his best friends were there.
“My three best friends in the industry work there, and they all say they’re having an absolute blast — sign me up! It was a no-brainer.”
The likely best friends he’s referring to are Christian Cage, along with FTR’s Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler, who are on-screen rivals of Cope & Cage.
In his final WWE match on the August 18, 2023, episode of SmackDown, Adam Copeland (as Edge) beat Sheamus in an outstanding match that took place in Toronto, which is where Cope is from.
While summarizing his WWE departure, Copeland expressed satisfaction with his career.
“I’d kind of worked everyone there was to work in WWE — that I wanted to.
Obviously, there are still some [I didn’t work with], but I looked at AEW and the most glaring one I’d never wrestled [was] Samoa Joe. That’s crazy.”
Samoa Joe is a 2-time AEW World Champion who also had a long run in WWE, but as Cope said, the two men never wrestled.
Adam Copeland Doesn’t Know When AEW Contract Really Expires
While Adam Copeland knows the end of his in-ring career is coming soon, he doesn’t even know when his AEW contract expires.
“I broke my leg, so there’s injury time added, and I had to go film Beekeeper [2] and Percy Jackson, so [that’s] added. Anytime I have to take a break, that gets added on the back end. (Laughs) I’m not even sure when it’s up.”
At AEW Double or Nothing on Sunday, May 24th, Adam Copeland is in one of the biggest matches of the show as he teams up with his best friend, Christian Cage, as they challenge FTR’s Harwood & Wheeler for the AEW Tag Team Titles. It’s an I Quit Match, and if Cope & Cage lose, then they can never team up again.
The next AEW PPV is Double or Nothing on Sunday, May 24th in Queens, New York. Here’s the lineup so far:
* AEW World Championship – Title vs. Hair: Darby Allin (c) vs. Maxwell Jacob Friedman
* AEW International Championship: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Konosuke Takeshita
* AEW World Tag Team Championship I Quit Match: FTR – Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler vs. Adam Copeland & Christian Cage (If Cope and Cage lose, they must retire as a tag team)
* 14-man Stadium Stampede Match: Chris Jericho, The Hurt Syndicate (Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin), and The Elite (Kenny Omega, “Jungle” Jack Perry, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson) vs. The Demand (Ricochet, Bishop Kaun, and Toa Liona), The Dogs (David Finlay & Clark Connors) and The Don Callis Family (Mark Davis and Andrade El Idolo
* AEW Women’s World Championship: Thekla (c) vs. Hikaru Shida vs. Jamie Hayter vs. Kris Statlander
* AEW Continental Championship: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Kyle O’Reilly
* Men’s Owen Hart Foundation Tournament Quarterfinals: Samoa Joe vs. Will Ospreay
* Men’s Owen Hart Foundation Tournament Quarterfinals: Swerve Strickland vs. Bandido
* Women’s Owen Hart Foundation Tournament Quarterfinals: Athena vs. Mina Shirakawa
Also Read: Adam Copeland Celebrates Huge WWE Anniversary – “Changed My Career”