Adam Copeland wants to help young talent, and that was why he worked with Griff Garrison.
On the January 6 episode of AEW Collision, Adam Copeland issued an open challenge, and Griff Garrison answered. The bout went over five minutes, and Copeland scored the win. The match drew some criticism, as some fans questioned why Garrison got so much offense in.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Copeland discussed how he has been having fun in AEW, and he highlighted his match against Griff Garrison.
“I’ve had a blast, I’ve had so much fun. Even this past weekend, getting in there with a guy like Griff Garrison. Just to get in there so that he can feel what it’s like, the difference that comes with that experience, because I look at it, and I look when I broke in and I had Rick Martel and Bad News Brown and all of these guys mentor me along the way. There’s not a lot of that anymore. All of these guys were doing the indies, and if you were lucky enough to get in there with them, man, I learned. I just soaked it all up. Now, it almost feels like these guys are gonna have to soak it up on national television, and that’s a different challenge until itself, along with social media. So that to me is really fun, though, to get these guys in there, get hands on them and feel what they’re all about so they can also feel what 30 years of experience feels like," Copeland said.
Later in the interview, Copeland noted that he has enjoyed working with young talent, and he likes seeing the lightbulb go off for them. He emphasized that he wants to work with young competitors, both to help them and to try new things our himself.
“That to me, is really fun, to see lightbulbs go off for talent. That’s part of the reason why, with the Copeland open, whatever you want to call it, I want to work a bunch of young talent and a bunch of young guys, not only for them, but for me too because that’s invigorating, and I want to work a bunch of different styles and try and incorporate new things to see if they work for my character. That’s a really fun place to be navigating from especially at this stage in my career," he said.
Copeland was then asked about the "chatter" surrounding his match with Garrison, as fans questioned why he would do a five-minute match with him. Copeland emphasized that he did it because Garrison will be active long after he was gone. He noted that a five-minute match would help Garrison more than 200 bouts against other young wrestlers.
“Because long after I’m gone, Griff Garrison will be there, and just like Bad News Brown showed me, or just like Rick Martel showed me, you just like Tom Prichard showed me or Pat Patterson showed me or Michael Hayes showed me or Bret Hart showed me, I’m in that stage of my career. So if I can get in there with Griff Garrison, what is a 30-second match gonna do for Griff Garrison? But suddenly now, you get a couple like, ‘Woah, he almost took that thing.’ Well now you add in the element of the story, like, Copeland took this kid maybe a little lightly, and there’s something to him. It’s also an opportunity for him to get on a microphone. It’s an opportunity for reps in front of an audience that will have eyes actually watching because there’s a character in there that they know. That to me is all that needs to be said. If he can get in there and we have five minutes of time in there, I feel like he can learn more in the five minutes than he would in probably 200 matches with people of the same experience. I know that sounds kind of cocky and egotistical, but that’s the way it was for me when I was his age. That’s what this is. That’s why. That’s why I wanna work a guy like Griff Garrison. That’s why, put me in there with Dante Martin or Lee Moriarty or Zak Zodiac. This is a part within the story that Christian and I are telling, where we can do this and add another layer in the final book that is this story. That’s so fun to me. I think nowadays, people are so, ‘Well, why isn’t it this? Why isn’t it right now?’ Then if you give them right now, ‘Well, they did it too quick.’ This is another chapter. While they continue to write more chapters on their end, I’m gonna write over here on this end, and there’s always a plan. Sometimes, like my favorite stories when I was growing up, and I know it’s a different time, but Steamboat/Savage, let ‘em wrestle for a year," Copeland said.
Check out Copeland's comments about acknowledging his history with Matt Hardy in AEW here.
Click here to see what Copeland had to say about early pitches for The Judgment Day.
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