When Tony Schiavone and company broke the news on AEW Collision that the “Rated-R Superstar” Adam Copeland was going to wrestle Minoru Suzuki as part of his Cope Open, it turned heads around the online wrestling community.

Suddenly, one of the most popular wrestlers of the 2000s was going to go face-to-face with the most physical wrestlers in the world period, a 55-year-old “Wrestling King” who can beat the bricks off of just about anyone and pop a rating among hardcore fans who love his particular style of hard-hitting Japanese Strong Style.

Sitting down for an interview with AEW Digital to talk about the match following his fun, hard-hitting efforts against Dante Martin on Collision, Copeland addressed the matchup for the very first time publically and explained why he's so darn excited to work the sort of dream match that felt unimaginable when he returned to wrestling at the Royal Rumble in 2020.

“I started this Cope Open for a few reasons, one to prove to Christian Cage what I've always told him, is that I'm just better and I'm better because I work harder. I have more work ethic,” Adam Copeland told AEW fans. “I also wanted to see who would step up. Who would step up to the challenge? Who wanted it? Who would come face to face with me? So far, Griff Garrison, Lee Moriarty, and Dante Martin. And now, someone who has stepped up, and I wouldn't have expected. You asked any wrestling fans five years ago if they would have ever expected that they'd see this match that's gonna happen Wednesday, Savanah, Dynamite: Minoru Suzuki versus the ‘Rated-R Superstar.' Man, I get goosebumps just thinking about it. We are gonna beat the h*ll out of each other, to grizzly, gnarled, evil bastards b**ting each other up, and I can't wait. Suzuki, I know what you're gonna bring, I hope you know what I'm gonna bring. I'm going to sum this match up in three words for all of you: grit your teeth.”

While Copeland hasn't exactly set the world on fire during his initial run in AEW, as he hasn't broken the Dave Meltzer rating system or unseated the likes of Kazuchika Okada or Will Ospreay as the widely accepted best wrestler in the world, he has been turning in fun, hard-hitting matches with experienced performers like Christian Cage and Luchasaurus and young guns like Garrison, Moriarty, and Martin. With arguably the most highly anticipated match of his AEW career thus far now on the books for Dynamite, fans new and old will get to see what Copeland is all about in 2024 as part of a match against one of the most popular higher guns in the world today.

Adam Copeland is having run with the final act of his career.

With a match against the former leader of Suzuki-Gun, Minoru Suzuki, now on the books for Dynamite, it's safe to say Tony Khan is giving Adam Copeland some pretty incredible opportunities to show off his skills as a worker and storyteller.

Why? Well, in Cope's opinion, it's because he's not looking to do pretty much anything unless he's having a ton of fun doing it, as he explained in an interview on Busted Open Radio.

“Anything I do at this stage of life has to be fun, or I'm not going to do it. Wrestling was the first love, and it always will be. That can never be taken away. I still find so much fun. The minute it stops being fun is the minute I need to be done. Because it was taken away from me the first time, and then to come back and have this whole new generation of talent that I've never performed with or got in there with. It's fun. I've repeatedly said how much fun I'm having. That's what it boils down to. No matter what I'm doing, I'm having fun, or I wouldn't be doing it. I wouldn't be wrestling Griff Garrison if I didn't find the fun in that. I wouldn't be wrestling Lee Moriarty if I didn't find the fun in that. It's just a blast,” Adam Copeland said via Wrestling News.

“This may sound like a lie, but I'm at a stage of life that if it's not fun, I don't need the money. I know that sounds really, really bad, but I was always really smart. I still drive a pick-up truck. I don't waste my money. It hurt too much to make. If I'm doing it, it's purely for the joy of it.”

Say what you will about Copeland's run in AEW so far, whether it's too WWE-ish, he's too focused on Christian Cage, or that he's simply not as good as he once was, but it's impossible to argue that he doesn't look like he's having a ton of fun in the ring, as it's clear he's not just going through the motions to earn a paycheck as a 50-year-old WWE Hall of Famer-turned-part-time actor. And the best part? It doesn't look like he's slowing down any time soon, which, in turn, means there's more fun to be had by all.