This past Sunday at AEW Wrestledream, Adam Copeland, formerly known as Edge, shocked the world by leaving WWE and signing with All Elite Wrestling.
This is incredibly exciting for many reasons, but not only is this article about why fans should be thrilled by this news, it’s also a message to those fans that have been criticising Adam’s recent career move.
Why is Adam Copeland’s move to AEW exciting?
I’ve always been a massive Edge fan, like most people in the pro wrestling community. Watching him return at the Royal Rumble after all he has been through was emotional to watch, he finally gets to finish his career on his terms, and he deserves that.
There have been some great moments throughout what is surely his last WWE run, his rivalry with Seth Rollins was probably the standout moment, a dream match that lived up to expectations and more.
But his last year in WWE didn’t quite go down how I hoped it would. We got a rivalry between him and AJ Styles, one that many fans including myself wanted for a while, but although it was good, it didn’t quite meet expectations. Then we got the faction, Judgement Day which looked promising at first, but it was clear a change was needed in the group, so for the benefit of Edge and the members of Judgement Day, he was kicked out. That was probably the best thing that could’ve happened to the faction though, as Rhea Ripley, Dominik Mysterio, Finn Balor and Damian Priest are all thriving in WWE right now.
But unfortunately, that left Edge in a feud with the faction for far too long. But now he is in AEW for a fresh start, which he probably feels he needs at this point in his career. There are so many potential matchups for Adam Copeland and wrestling fans to be excited about, other than of course the obvious one last dance with Christian Cage. You’ve got guys like Swerve, Kenny Omega, Samoa Joe and Adam Cole that he could face and that’s just to name a few. There is even the potential for one final tag team run with him and Christian.
The two main matches I’m personally hoping to see in his AEW run though is Adam Copeland vs MJF and Adam Copeland vs Will Ospreay. I think a match against Ospreay would be perfect for All In next year and a rivalry with MJF could be one of the best of the year if it’s done correctly.
Fans shouldn’t criticise Adam Copeland
With all this excitement, there are of course some fans that for some reason are criticising Adam for his decision to move to AEW. I’ve seen statements like ‘Edge has betrayed WWE’ and ‘Leaving WWE was a bad decision.’ To those fans I say, it’s his career so let him do what he wants without judging him for it. This guy has been on a long and tough road to be able to end his career on his own terms, so he absolutely deserves to choose which company he wants to do that in.
Adam Copeland said this on social media not long after debuting for AEW. “I don’t buy into the odd mentality of one company or the other. It’s weird. If you took offense to that, take a walk, get some fresh air and soak up some sunshine. It’s wrestling. An amazing gig. But still, it’s wrestling. Relax. It’s supposed to be fun.” I thoroughly agree with what he says here.
It’s not just Adam that has received this criticism for moving from one major wrestling promotion to another, many others such as Jade Cargill, Bryan Danielson and Cody Rhodes have been judged by WWE and AEW fans for moving to the other company. These wrestlers put their bodies through pain and sacrifice so much to put on a show for us fans, so we should respect whatever company they decide to sign with. 2024 is supposedly a big year for contracts expiring, which means we are likely to see even more wrestlers jumping from one company to another, so my advice is, instead of hating on talents for moving to a certain promotion, just sit back and enjoy the ride because wrestling is in a really great place right now.
