Cope addresses AEW criticism by saying he “doesn’t really care about the reaction” besides the live crowds

As seen during the March 19th 2025 edition of AEW Dynamite, Jon Moxley defeated Cope (Adam Copeland) in a street fight (hardcore match) to retain his AEW world title. While speaking to ITRWrestling.com, Cope addressed the online criticism of Moxley taking a bump onto his “spike” bat covered in nails…

“I don’t really care about the reaction, besides the live reaction. That to me is the reaction that matters and they were into it live. Hey, I get it, I do. Because I understand that it can be diminishing returns and all of those things. You also have to know your audience and you also have to understand that times have changed, for good, bad, however you want to look at it.”

“I like to think I’ve always been a proponent of understanding that things do change; it’s going to be more athletic now, it’s going to be more violent now, and things just naturally tend to get ‘more’ as time goes on. I mean, you look at the internet. I remember dial up and now there’s AI, things change, that’s just the nature of life. That’s the nature of the world. So I don’t really factor in how people react after the fact. I just know they’re into it live, that’s my job, and that’s how I gauge things.”