It’s been almost four months since Adam Copeland made his shock AEW debut in the closing moments of the promotion’s inaugural WrestleDream pay-per-view. In just those few months, the former Edge has already captured AEW gold (albeit, for mere minutes) and even faced off against Japanese wrestling legend Minoru Suzuki on this past week’s AEW Dynamite.
In a recent interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Copeland opened up on his surprising decision to move to AEW shortly after celebrating a quarter of a century with WWE and discussed why he finds AEW “really special.”
“Any time there is more than one place to ply your trade, that’s good for everyone who is part of that trade,” said Copeland. “A monopoly is never a good idea. That goes for me as a consumer, too.
“As a consumer, I want more choices. That doesn’t mean you have to choose one over the other. You can choose them all. I remember growing up and dying to be able to get my hands on NWA tapes. It didn’t air where I lived, where there was WWF. I found International Wrestling from Montreal. I found All Star Wrestling from Vancouver. I found all these other shows, and I loved that. I’d get little snippets of guys I’d only seen in magazines. Then the show Pro Wrestling Plus with Ed Whalen, who was the announcer for Stampede, started, and I finally got to see wrestlers from the NWA and Continental. I just thought, give it all to me.
“That’s why AEW is great. It’s so cool to see different wrestling. This is really special, and I’m having a blast being here.”
Outside the world of wrestling, Copeland is an accomplished actor – having most recently starred in the Disney+ TV series Percy Jackson and the Olympians in which he played Ares.