MR. TITO: Assessing Adam Copeland’s (Edge) Response to CM Punk’s Recent Interview about AEW

So I logged into my SlingTV and caught the beginning of AEW Dynamite and I was surprised to see Edge Adam Copeland in the ring with street clothes. In what appears to be a direct response to CM Punk’s recent almost 2 hour interview with Ariel Helwani, Copeland was expressing pride of being in AEW by wanting to bring up the positives while speaking against “negative BS”. Didn’t mention Punk by name, but we know what this is about.

And I’m sure Mr. Copeland means well and as he says, he “loves professional wrestling”.

BUT… Was Adam the best guy to cut a promo like this? You know, an ex-WWE wrestler who is truly in this promotion because WWE lowballed him on his latest contract offer and Tony Khan was willing to pay. That’s just a fact… Edge was in the middle of contract negotiations with WWE before it ended, and then he joined AEW.

Wouldn’t AEW be better served with someone more organic to the AEW brand rather than a highly priced free agent?

Wouldn’t it be better to have someone younger deliver this message, too? I’m not about ageism, but AEW has this stigma of giving veterans big money at the end of their careers.

After all, you’re bragging about what a great 18-49 year old demographic with your viewership, yet you’re featuring and pushing older wrestlers.

But you have the wrong person cutting the promo. Now don’t me wrong, Adam Copeland knows how to use the microphone and is experienced on what to say. But the fact is that his contract from late 2019 and his contract from 2023 were chasing the higher bids. Adam expressed his desire to return and began negotiating to join AEW during 2019 only for WWE to make him a bigger offer to return with them. 4 years later after the contract expires and WWE questions the contract size for an older wrestler, AEW is willing to pay because WWE wouldn’t.

“I will put that locker room against anybody”

“By the way, those are first time ever matches, that happens in AEW”

“This is the most fun that I’ve ever had in my 32 year professional year career”

“I celebrate the guys who started AEW, the Bucks, Kenny, and that means Cody, and that means Tony Khan, and that should be celebrated”

I just question how genuine those quote are, considering the beef of not getting a great contract offer to re-sign with WWE and getting a nice deal with AEW. Furthermore with Edge, he gets a much lighter schedule with AEW, likely more creative say, gets to hang out with his buddy Christian… There are positives here, but again, he was negotiating with WWE and those negotiations did not end with a new WWE contract. Soon thereafter, he joins AEW.

And allow me to let you in on a secret… Adam Copeland (Edge) and Triple H do get along, and this has been 20 years of a dislike between the two wrestlers. During the 2000s, I heard it directly from a WWE source close to the situation backstage. They just clashed and never really had any big feuds, despite the various opportunities throughout the mid to late 2000s to have a major feud together. The only have 2 one on one match-ups against each other, one on RAW during early 2005 and another at Great American Bash 2008. Other than that, they’ve only touched for multi-person matches such as tags, triple threats, or other multi-person gimmick matches.

From what I understand, Edge was well liked by Vince McMahon, as was anyone who made him money during the Attitude Era. Thus, Edge’s push was kept strong and someone like Triple H, who was now married to Stephanie McMahon and attending production/creative meetings could not sabotage Edge’s career. Rated R Superstar versus the Game could have been an extensive and good feud, but it just didn’t really happen for any major length of time. How? Because both were main eventers for the latter half of the 2000s.

Thus, it’s no coincidence to me that when Edge’s contract came up, the guy in charge of Talent Relations would pass on giving the 50 year old a big contract to remain with WWE. While Edge had a fun comeback, his WWE net worth was kind of limping along after Roman Reigns pinned him and Daniel Bryan at the same time during Wrestlemania. It was a great return, but Father Time always wins.

So, of course Adam Copeland is proud to do the honors of showing AEW pride on AEW Dynamite. AEW is paying him well, he has a lot of control over what he wants to do, and there’s no mortal enemy named Triple H to possibly hold an old grudge over his head. Besides the money, I believe working for Triple H would be a problem for Edge.

BUT, Edge did say something right… AEW did, in fact, make pro wrestling better. It presents another place to make money in the wrestling business and that’s a great thing. If you’ll remember WWE through 2019, just as AEW began, it was crappy. Hence why during January 2020, we cheered heavily because maybe Edge could help this weaker WWE roster full of talents that many were a but burned out on. But the pandemic hit and Edge really didn’t have much opportunity showcase the talent he still had.

I just don’t think he was the right guy to deliver this promo… There for a few months and as a highly paid free agent, it just doesn’t hold up as strong compared to others that could have did this promo. Chris Jericho or Jon Moxley would have been great, even though both are ex-WWE guys. But both have been in AEW for 5 years now and have that credibility to speak because they keep re-signing with AEW and both are on contracts long-term now too.

And to deliver the promo in a half empty tiny arena… You could clearly see how tarped off the top of the arena was… Come on! As my buddy Virtue said, Edge probably looked into that empty hard camera side and wondered “where is everybody?”.

Adam, you’re just lucky that CM Punk got to experience the professional jealousy before you did or else the Young Bucks would play games with you instead.

The promo seemed to miss the mark with me and it’s time for AEW to move on from CM Punk, while maybe having the courage to really reveal what happened after the media scrum from All Out 2022.

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