Adam Copeland Reveals He Was ‘Really Close’ to Signing With AEW Prior to 2020 WWE Return

Adam Copeland has been a fixture on AEW television since his debut at WrestleDream, maintaining a babyface role and consistently delivering top-notch matches each week. Recently, he disclosed that he nearly signed with AEW before his WWE return in 2020.

Copeland has had an impressive resurgence in his career since returning to professional wrestling. After a nine-year hiatus due to a neck injury, Copeland made a surprise return at the 2020 Royal Rumble in WWE, marking a major comeback.

In an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Adam Copeland discussed how close he came to joining AEW in late 2019. Copeland revealed that he had “great discussions” with AEW, but hadn’t yet received medical clearance to wrestle when he first started talking with them.

”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.

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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.”

Adam Copeland also doesn’t think he can be heel anymore. Nonetheless, we will have to wait and see how he will continue to be booked as the TNT Champion, as fans want him to wrestle as much as possible till his retirement.

Are you happy to see that Adam Copeland is still an active in-ring competitor? Let us know in the comments section below!