Adam Copeland says he was close to signing with AEW in 2019.
At the 2020 WWE Royal Rumble, Adam Copeland made his explosive return to the ring at the event after having to retire from the sport due to neck injuries. He would later go on to leave WWE and make the jump to AEW in late 2023, but this was not the first time he considered making his jump.
While speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Copeland addressed how close he was to signing with the promotion prior to his pro wrestling return.
“Really close, we had great discussions. [Was this late 2019?] Yeah. [Were you cleared?] "So when I first started talking to AEW, I wasn't yet cleared. I had made it, we talked about it like the bosses of each video game level. But I still wasn't cleared by company doctors, right? So once all of those clearances started to come, I was like, Oh, this is real now. Okay. So before I did anything, I had to go kind of get the final clearance needed for either company. But I had negotiated with everybody. I was like, Okay, here's where I'm at, here's what I've been told I can do and started the process. And then in going to WWE, and sitting down with Vince, he goes well, it's got to happen here. At that stage, I looked at the equity built and it felt like having to start over, especially having to start over after having been gone for nine years felt really daunting, if that makes sense. It felt like at least with WWE that's one thing off the table that I don't have to worry about. I can come back and walk into the history of this character. I do feel like it needed to have happened there initially. I really do, if only for that Royal Rumble moment right before the pandemic hit and just feeling and experiencing that I'm happy the way it turned out."
Copeland would then be asked about signing with AEW in 2023, and what made him decide to join the promotion.
"It felt like I'd done everything that I was going to do with WWE. I’d worked the people I'd wanted to work, 95% anyway. And it really just felt like they were in a direction and I was in a direction and they were kind of going separate ways. I wanted to be with this limited window that I have, I wanted to be involved. I wanted to be there kind of on a weekly basis in order to tell proper stories, and it's tough to do that popping in and out every three months or so. And I also get the idea of, well, that keeps it special and I understand that. But again, I'm working with such a limited timeframe here that I got to go while I can go. And I looked at the roster and I just thought man, so many people that I've never laid hands on and been in the ring with. The one that seems to blow people's minds is Samoa Joe. In all the years that him and I have both been wrestling we've never touched. Then I see Moxley and I see Claudio and Bryan and I have never had a proper singles. Swerve and Hangman. And then if you look at the tag teams, FTR, Young Bucks, Penta and Fenix, man, that's just the tip of the iceberg, let alone all the young guys that have already wrestled since I've been there. It's just really exciting and almost feels, I don't want to say I feel like a kid again because I think that sailed. But I'm just having fun. With each match I'm going to try something I've never tried before. I was against Brody King the other night, I've never done a blockbuster, I'm going to try a blockbuster. Never done a Davey Boy Powerslam, let me try that. It's fun to get out there and just try new things, especially at this stage of the career. But I think in working new people, and a whole roster of new people that I don't know, it's just opened up my brain to all the different possibilities."
Copeland is the current AEW TNT Champion, and is in the midst of a rivalry with The House Of Black.
Copeland is set to defend the title once again this Saturday on AEW Collision, when he faces off with Kyle O'Reilly. You can read more about that here.
Thank you to Chris Van Vliet for providing the quotes used in this article.
