Adam Copeland spent more than two decades in WWE, but by the end, he felt like the company was putting handcuffs on its wrestlers. Three years into his AEW run, Copeland says the creative freedom there feels much closer to wrestling during the Attitude Era.
Speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show, Copeland talked about what has made working for AEW so different from his final years in WWE. Right now, he believes AEW itself may have turned an important corner.
“This last week, we have turned the corner in terms of it feels like everyone’s pulling in the same direction in AEW. Once you can do that and get a few creative elements to the show and they start to hit, I feel like then everything gets dialed in.”
For Copeland, a big part of the appeal is being allowed to experiment. He compared that freedom directly to the Attitude Era, when wrestlers could sometimes head through the curtain without every detail being completely mapped out beforehand.
“That’s always fun. That’s the thing about AEW, the freedom to explore and to try things. And it’s much more like the Attitude Era in that regard.”
“Because a lot of times when we were out there during the Attitude Era, it’s like there might be a plan, but there might not be too. Or you might be figuring that out as you go.”
Then Copeland turned directly toward his final WWE run. By that point, he felt things had swung too far in the opposite direction. Instead of having room to figure things out and explore creatively, Copeland described WWE as being controlled down to the point where performers could feel restricted.
“My experience by the end with WWE was overproduced, overrehearsed, over-everything, and they kept handcuffs on you to where you couldn’t really explore too much.”
AEW, according to Copeland, doesn’t operate that way.
“That’s not the case with AEW, and that, again, is fun.”
Copeland has already made it clear that he plans to retire in AEW rather than return to WWE for one final run. His latest comments give a pretty good idea why he’s comfortable with that decision. After finishing his WWE run feeling “overproduced” and creatively handcuffed, he’s found a place where he can still try things without everything being rehearsed into the ground.
What do you think of Adam Copeland comparing AEW’s creative freedom to WWE’s Attitude Era? Let us know in the comments below.
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