Before he was feuding with Christian Cage, at least this time around, Adam Copeland was one of the most popular performers and most appreciated heels in professional wrestling in WWE under his long-time moniker Edge.

Debuting for the faction as a dark loner before becoming a member of The Brood with Cage and Gangril, Copeland rapidly found himself becoming one of the top heel performers, or at least anti-heros in the WWE Universe, which served as a stark contrast to some of the babyfaces on the brand, namely the top guy in the entire promotion, John Cena.

Discussing becoming one of the top heels of the previous era of professional wrestling with Sam Roberts on Not Sam, Copeland noted that he embraced becoming a heel versus WWE's stable of babyfaces, as every Hulk Hogan needs their Roddy Piper.

“There was an entirely new scenario in front of me. ‘Cause in that time, these guys have made those leaps. Randy, Dave, John, Brock, d**n! Now the crowds are booing me because I didn’t change anything. Then, real life adds to that, and I went right, I want to be the Roddy Piper of my generation. I want to be the Macho Man of my generation,” Adam Copeland told Sam Roberts via 411 Mania.

“John trusted me; I wanted him to be Hulk Hogan. And I wanted to be Roddy Piper. There can’t be a Hogan without a Piper, so this ain’t a bad place to be.”

Did Copeland achieve his goal of becoming a Roddy Piper-level heel? With some hindsight and a brand new babyface character debuted in AEW – even if it's not too different from his final character in WWE – it's pretty clear that's exactly what he accomplished. In an era where WWE transitioned to the PG era, having a fast-talking, leather-wearing hellion who had no problem embracing the concept of becoming a “Rated-R Superstar” worked out incredibly well for all parties involved, especially now that his legend has continued to grow.

Adam Copeland reveals how much longer he'll be wrestling in AEW.

Elsewhere in his conversation with Sam Roberts, Adam Copeland discussed the end of his professional wrestling career and just how much time he has left before he reaches that inevitable conclusion.

While Copeland always knew his jump to AEW was going to be for the final act of his professional wrestling career, there's something about the bright lights and pyro that makes getting in the ring incredibly hard to walk away from.

“Well, it is it is and it is addictive, yeah, there's no way around it. I've tried to explain to people, ‘You got theme music and as soon as a note hits, a crowd erupts. And you get pyro, and do like, you are a puppet master in a way because you're telling a story live, and you're getting instant gratification to know whether that story is hitting on all cylinders. If it's falling flat, whatever it is, that's super fun, and there's a lot of little stuff in there in that bottle. Yeah, and that.. that's… that's tough to walk away from, when I was forced to,” Adam Copeland noted via SE Scoops.

“I don't mean that in a disrespectful way at all,  but I just don't want to be that guy… maybe this is how I know I'm getting older. I'm at the point now where when I saw Dennis Stamp on ‘Beyond The Mat,' and I'm like, ‘Oh, that's the guy you don't want to be.' But now I'm like, there is a certain romance to being that guy who's just like, ‘Nope, this is my life and this is what I'm doing and I'm fully just I'm accepting it.”

So, if Copeland doesn't want to be the old guy who won't give it up, even if he's, by his own admission, kind of becoming the old guy who won't give it up, how much longer does the “Rated-R Superstar” see himself wrestling at a high level in AEW?

“Even though it's been four or five years back now, it's not like I got another four or five in front of me. I know I don't. We're looking at like a two year window here to be able to get as much done as I can get done, tell as many stories as I can.”

Welp, there you go, folks; enjoy Copeland while you can in AEW, as the day will eventually come in the not-too-distant future when he actually hangs up the leather duster for good.