The last time Adam Copeland wrestled a match in Toronto, quite literally everything was different in his professional wrestling career.
For one thing, Copeland was wrestling under the name that made him into an international Superstar, Edge, and with his contract in WWE rapidly set to expire, fans genuinely wondered if they would ever get to see the “Rated-R Superstar” work another match after securing a decisive win over Sheamus at the Scotiabank Arena.
Fast forward eight months into the future, and Copeland is set to headline a wrestling show in his home city once more, only this time, he'll be doing so under his berth name, across the ring from his childhood best friend, and be doing so in an “I Quit” match for AEW featured a very spiky 2×4 inspired by Mick Foley's Barbie.
Sitting down with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated ahead of the match, Copeland revealed that he genuinely didn't know if he would wrestle again when he had his hand raised on that fateful episode of SmackDown, which makes his return now all the more special.
“I genuinely didn't know if the match against Sheamus in Toronto was going to be my last match,” Adam Copeland told Sports Illustrated. “Getting home, letting the emotion wash away, and talking with the girls about my next decision led me to where we are now. I'm wrestling Christian in our hometown, and it feels like this is where our 40 years have led us.”
Fortunately for Copeland, his match with Christian Cage should be as important as advertised, as after going back and forth as friends and foes for the past 40 years, their current feud should take a definitive turn one way or another at the end of the match.
“With an ‘I Quit' match, there is a finality to it,” said Copeland. “We're going to go out and feel the audience, react, and take chances. When you watch Christian, he's such an a**hole, I can't wait to feel the energy from the crowd,” Copeland noted. “It's a real story, and that adds a different twist. This is our third match in AEW, and there is a lot of special meaning in this one. When I made the decision to continue wrestling, I came back for a match like this.”
Should AEW have saved this match for a Pay-Per-View, maybe Dynasty next month in St. Louis? Potentially so, but hey, considering this match wouldn't headline pretty much any AEW Pay-per-View moving forward, giving the nod to Toronto, where the duo could go for 20, 30, or even 40 minutes in a major TV main event, is a pretty good way to punctuate this chapter of Cage and Copeland's 40-year story.
12 year old Adam Copeland would be excited for his I Quit match.
Elsewhere in his one-man pursuit of selling tickets for his hometown AEW show – which worked, considering the event sold out – Adam Copeland stopped by TSN to discuss his match with a non-wrestling audience, and revealed just how much it would have meant to the 12-year-old version of himself to have such a huge match against his childhood best friend.
“Any time I get to come home, right? The last time I performed in Toronto, I didn't know if I would continue wrestling, I really didn't,” Adam Copeland told TSN via Fightful. “Fast forward six or seven months later, here I am, and it's kind of my perfect storm. I'm wrestling a guy that I've known since the sixth grade. We're doing it in our hometown. It's an I Quit match. There are all of these stakes. It's so much fun. If you had told 12-year-old Adam in Orangeville that one day, 40 years down the road, we'd be stepping into the ring against each other, I'd say you're nuts, but here we are.”
After genuinely questioning whether or not he would continue with his professional wrestling journey, Copeland will now be wrestling in front of a sold-out event in front of 6,000 of his closest friends and family in one of the most personal matches of his career. Not too shabby for a kid from Orangeville, huh?
Adam Copeland is excited to see Mercedes Mone shine in AEW.
Elsewhere in his conversation with Sports Illustrated, Adam Copeland touched on Mercedes Mone signing with AEW, a performer he overlapped with in WWE during their shared tenures with the promotion.
While every situation is different, Copeland believes AEW is a blank canvas for former WWE Superstars and believes that Mone will fit right in alongside himself, Swerve Strickland, FTR, and the rest of the WWE castoffs.
“For her, AEW is a blank canvas with a brand new palette of paint,” Adam Copeland explained. “For me, it was the same. I saw Swerve, The Young Bucks, Jon Moxley, Hangman Page, Kenny Omega, Claudio, FTR, all these names I've never crossed paths with. It's the same with Mercedes–think of how much fun she's going to have here. Think of all the new opponents. I think it's super exciting. I love that AEW is here to bring a different product to the industry. Now there's Okada, Ospreay, Mercedes, plus all of us already here, and that makes one h*ll of a roster.”
One thing is true: AEW's roster is absolutely loaded with talent, homegrown and acquired, with enough main eventers to make even the glory days of WCW blush. How Tony Khan chooses to use all of that star power, however, will go on to define this chapter of his promotion's future.
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