Adam "Edge" Copeland celebrated 25 years as a WWE superstar last August, more than three years after he made a shocking return at The Royal Rumble in 2020 nearly a decade after he was forced to retire from a serious neck injury. Clearly, Copeland, who was one of the top stars of his generation, wanted a better conclusion to his professional wrestling career, and put in the work to accomplish that when he made a comeback in the best shape of his career. The return was cut short just a few months into his run during the pandemic era when he suffered a torn triceps, putting him on the sidelines for eight months.
After he healed from that, Edge returned back on the scene and spent a mostly productive two years on WWE programming, specifically for a memorable Wrestlemania match against Finn Balor last year. While The Judgment Day stable became very successful, particularly because of how it allowed Rhea Ripley to shine in a featured spot on the card, it's important to remember that the original concept was virtually dead in the water, which is why Edge reportedly requested to leave the faction.
Edge was smart enough to see the writing on the wall, the office saw him in a secondary role as the veteran presence alongside the younger talent. There's not anything wrong with that, but if Edge thought he still had enough in the tank to contribute on a main event level, it's possible that he thought he had more to offer than what WWE brass scripted for him. Plus, Edge is a smart businessman and he knew that there was potentially more money to be made from Tony Khan since the WWE is already stocked up on star power. Again, there's nothing wrong with that either, because using the cache of a career to cash in before retirement can still be useful for a company. Obviously, Copeland is in the latter stages of his career so he made the decision to take the best money possible while he still had a few years left for his in-ring career.
After a nice celebration in his hometown on Toronto, Edge left the WWE last August, and there was a brief time frame when there was speculation about if he would re-sign with WWE, make the jump to AEW, or simply retire from the sport. Less than two months later, he debuted for All Elite Wrestling at the conclusion of the Wrestle Dream pay-per-view.
As mentioned, Tony Khan probably offered Copeland more cash than what the WWE offered him, which makes sense. Besides the fact that money is no object to Khan, theoretically, Copeland could play a bigger role in All Elite Wrestling since he would naturally be a bigger fish in a smaller pond, specifically because All Elite had only been existence for just over four years at the time. Again, the WWE has main stream star power on its roster, and quite frankly, the majority of the television time is focused on building for the future, which is the right move. Furthermore, AEW just added Collision to its line-up a few months prior to Copeland's debut, and that doubled not only the amount of booking required for the organization, it also doubled the amount of tickets the group had to sell. As we know, the Khan-owned organization has struggled with ticket sales more recently, but at least on the surface, the addition of the former WWE champion could help move tickets for the Saturday night show.
Unfortunately, the majority of his eight-month tenure more or less reduced him to just another guy on the roster. Considering the rocky period the company had after the CM Punk/Jack Perry debacle, I'm not sure if there was enough of a focus on the on-screen presentation for Copeland to be put in a position to truly be a difference maker anyway. Outside some of the negative press for the company, Copeland didn't exactly break new ground in All Elite either. He was initially booked for a feud with Christian, which makes sense on the surface because of their extensive history, but the former Edge was almost 50 when he inked a contract so there's a limited time frame for him to get a chance to work with new talent to provide unique matches for the company to promote to try to draw for the shows. The Copeland/Christian feud in AEW was basically a retread of what the audience would've seen years earlier in the WWE. Again, it would be fine if Copeland still had some of his prime years left, but at the latter stages of his in-ring career, the time for the return on the investment of the contract is now. The matches against Kenny Omega, Will Ospreay, Kazuchika Okada, and others would be the best use of Copeland's stint in the company.
In somewhat of an example of that, Copeland was booked for a feud with The House of Black. It was somewhat rushed, mostly because there was a pay-per-view on the calendar so a gimmick match was scheduled, but the point is, the barbed wire steel cage match between Copeland and Malakai Black was an entertaining spectacle at Double or Nothing last weekend. The angle progressed and had a purpose so it was a useful way to book Copeland.
However, after an awkward landing during an elbow drop from the top of the cage through a table, Copeland looked very hobbled during the post-match victory celebration. Just a few days ago, Copeland revealed on social media that he fractured his tibia and will require surgery. Copeland explained that there wasn't a time frame yet for his return to the ring, but acknowledged that the move was too risky at the pay-per-view.
So, what's next for Adam Copeland?
Similar to when the neck injury cut his career short in WWE, it's very doubtful that Copeland will retire from the broken leg in AEW, but it undoubtedly trims more time off of what's left of his in-ring career. Assuming that it will take several months to heal from the injury, he will be 51 by the time he makes another comeback. As unfortunate as it might be to consider, Copeland might be too injury prone at his age to wrestle a full-time schedule. Between the torn triceps from 2020, the current leg injury, and his extensive history of neck injuries, he might realistically have a few select matches left. The problem is, Copeland has only been under contract for eight months and he just suffered a broken leg that will probably sideline him for several months, and none of the potential dream matches that were discussed when he inked a deal had the chance to get booked.
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