Adam Copeland on He Would Be Retired Now If AEW Wasn’t Around and Had Stayed with WWE, His Belief Tony Khan Would Have Allowed Him To Wrestle John Cena During Cena’s Retirement Tour, His End Time Experience with WWE Being Overproduced, & More

A recent episode of The Ariel Helwani Show featured Adam Copeland as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Copeland’s thoughts about his decision to join AEW in 2023.

“I had kind of run the gamut with WWE. There was much left to do with either; for the company or for me. To me, that writing was pretty clearly on the wall. It was more along the lines of, ‘Am I going to go to AEW or am I going to retire?’ During the match with [Sheamus], I still didn’t even really know because I was having so much fun out there with him and loving that experience. I truly wasn’t sure. In looking at the roster in AEW and talking to Tony after the Toronto show and looking at the landscape, it became a no brainer the more I looked at it.”

Copeland also gave his thoughts about if he would be retired from wrestling if AEW wasn’t around.

“Yeah, I would’ve been done by now. I probably would’ve come back for a year with WWE and then retired how everyone wanted it to happen, and that would be that. This has breathed new life in terms of the creative avenue I can take. I feel like we had driven down most of those avenues with WWE.”

Copeland also gave his thoughts about John Cena’s retirement tour in 2025 and if he could have been part of it.

“Here’s what I realized, [those stories] could run into each other, but one place doesn’t want it to. Okay.”

Copeland also gave his thoughts about if AEW CEO Tony Khan would have been okay with him wrestling Cena one last time in WWE for Cena’s retirement tour.

“Absolutely. I truly believe that. He knows what it meant to a very large segment of wrestling fans.”

Copeland also gave his thoughts about if WWE would say no to him potentially wrestling Cena one last time.

“Yeah, I do. I can see it from all sides, I really can. John knew I was there in spirit. Him and I kind of made our bones on each other, and we’re both aware of that fact. Both of our careers would’ve been great, but I think that angle, that story, those two opponents propelled to a different place.”

Copeland also gave his thoughts about if he explored the idea of making an appearance in WWE for Cena’s retirement tour.

“No. I assumed, and a lot of these are assumptions, but having been there long enough and knowing how the mindset is there, I realized it ain’t going to happen. If it were up to me and John, sure.”

Copeland also gave his thoughts about the speech he gave on an AEW Dynamite show in April of 2024 to rally the locker room and in response to negative comments about the company that CM Punk made during an interview with Helwani earlier that week.

“I knew, in being hired, that at some point one of my jobs would be to try and dial in a locker room. I’ve been put in a position to lead before and have success. I assumed that was one of the reasons to bring me over as well. Right now, this last year has turned the corner in terms of everybody pulling in the same direction. Once you can do that and get a few creative elements of the show that start to hit, everything gets dialed in. I feel that’s where we are right now, and that’s always fun. What’s amazing about AEW now is the freedom to explore and try things. It’s much more like the Attitude Era in that regard. A lot of times in the Attitude Era, there might be a plan, but there might not be. My experience by the end of WWE was over-produced, over-rehearsed, over-everything. It kept handcuffs on you to where you couldn’t really explore too much. That’s not the case with AEW. It’s fun,” he said.

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1, 2, & 3