Heading into All In, it's safe to say Adam Copeland was having the run of his post-retirement career as a member of AEW.
He was a two-time TNT Champion, a beloved veteran consistently giving new guys shots with his CopeOpen, and the first man to get a singles Pay-Per-View match with Malakai Black since Forbidden Door 2022, which was technically a four-way match, not a traditional 1-v-1 showdown.
And yet, with one poorly planned cage spot under the Las Vegas lights, that all came to an end, as Copeland crushed his tibia in a questionable table spot, and even the return of Gangril wasn't enough to soften the blow, as the “Rated-R Superstar” had to vacate his title even after securing the victory and has been on the mend ever since as he works back from his injury.
Discussing the recovery process from his broken tibia at the tender age of 5o, Copeland told Steven Muelhausen of Sports Illustrated that he is slowly but surely recovering from his injury, which has proven to be a process unlike anything else he's experienced along his professional wrestling journey.
“It feels really good. I got the surgery. I guess it was June 1, by the time I finally got the surgery done. So I guess yesterday was three months. I've never broken my leg before, so I didn't know what that entails or what that entailed. With my Achilles, it was a process. This is not that which is good, because the Achilles, I was working eight hours a day on that thing. It became a full-time job, and I got back in six months. But it was a lot of grinding of teeth,” Copeland told Sports Illustrated.
“This isn't that more than anything. It's trying to get the power back and flexibility from bringing your toes to your knee. That's the last area that doesn't want to go yet because the plate goes down to the ankle because it was a lower fracture. It was a lower tibia fracture, so the plate butts up against that ankle bone. I think that'll be what I need to get through in order to be able to get all of that power back. I don't know what a timeframe is. I don't know any of that. I know that now I can walk, get in the ring, and move around a little bit, but I still feel the deficiency. So, I know I still have some work to do to return to where I need to be.”
With just three months removed from surgery, it's not particularly surprising that Copeland isn't ready to return to the ring any time soon, as breaking a bone in your leg features a tough recovery for any professional athlete, especially those who were born in the early 1970s. While only time will tell if Copeland will wrestle any more matches in 2024 or if he will instead be more of a 2025 return, the fact that he was able to put together 16 largely good matches this year is impressive in and of itself, as that's three more matches than the “Rated-R Superstar” wrestled for WWE and AEW combined in 2023 despite having six more months to work with.
Then again, considering Copeland had as many non-Royal Rumble matches in two months in AEW last year than eight months in WWE, it's safe to say the two promotions have a very different idea of what he's capable of at this stage of the game.
Nigel McGuinness wants Adam Copeland before his AEW retirement
While Copeland isn't expecting or expected to return to AEW any time soon after suffering that brutal broken tibia at Double or Nothing, he does have at least one opponent chomping at the bits to see the “Rated-R Superstar” return to in-ring action, as, after making his own huge return at All In, Nigel McGuinness told Uproxx he wants a shot at the WWE Hall of Famer before they both retire once more.
“Bryan's certainly head of line because of our history, there's so much emotion tied up in a match with him,” McGuinness told Uproxx Sports . “Zack Sabre Jr. would be a dream match. Adam Copeland, he's got another of those ‘broken bones.' There are so many great talents, Lee Moriarty has been gracious enough to get in the ring with me before the shows at Collision, and that's helped me a great deal.”
You know, after being the most pro-Christian Cage commentator potentially in the history of professional wrestling during his time helming Collision, it would be incredibly interesting to see what a match between McGuinness and Copeland would look like, as it would give the former a chance to wrestle a WWE legend after his woefully wresting-free time and the latter a shot at a technical showdown that would showcase his own talents. If the timelines line up, this needs to happen asap, as neither man has a particularly long runway left in the ring.
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