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Adam Copeland reveals how his 2020 return almost came in AEW, not WWE

Originally posted on ClutchPoints | By Matty Breisch | Last updated 5/10/24

When Adam Copeland returned to WWE in 2020, it felt like a massive deal.

After almost a decade away from the squared circle, the “Rated-R” Superstar was back, and even if his massive comeback was almost immediately halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, he still produced very good work as a babyface hero, a member of Judgment Day, and an anti-hero-turned-babyface who got fans out of their seats for his final WWE match against Sheamus on SmackDown last summer.

But did you know that Copeland’s return almost happened in AEW, not WWE? It’s true, as the former member of The Brood detailed in a special Insight interview with Chris Van Vliet.

“Really close, we had great discussions. 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,” Adam Copeland explained to Chris Van Vliet via Fightful.

“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.”

Gosh, what would it have looked like if AEW brought in Copeland in 2020? Would he have been the Exalted One in the Dark Order? Or would he have instead filled the role eventually given to CM Punk, only with the mentality he currently has to lift up the performers around him? Either way, the man formerly known as Edge created one of the great “What Ifs” of modern-day professional wrestling, as he could have changed both promotions significantly if he chose to side with Tony Khan over Vince McMahon.

Adam Copeland was incredibly excited to land in AEW in 2023.

Elsewhere on Insight, Adam Copeland commented on his decision to sign with AEW in 2023 and why, after picking WWE the first time around, the timing felt right to try something new and wrestle scores of new opponents that simply weren’t being afforded to him by Titan Towers.

“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,” Adam Copeland acknowledged.

“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.”

Since his debut in AEW, Copeland has wrestled over two dozen new foes over his 20 matches with the promotion, from youngsters like Top Flight to AEW stalwarts like Pena El Zero Miedo and Orange Cassidy and even outsiders like Minoru Suzuki. And the best part? Copeland looks like he’s having a blast doing it.