Adam Copeland Discusses Never Being Afraid To Talk to Vince McMahon, Reveals When it Started

In a newly released video of a 2018 interview with Inside the Ropes, WWE Hall of Famer and AEW star Adam Copeland (formerly Edge) discussed his career and building up a reputation to never be afraid to honestly share his thoughts with former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. According to Copeland, this began shortly before WrestleMania 16 in 2000.

Copeland revealed that WWE was looking to split up Edge and Christian at the time. However, Copeland and Jay Reso (Christian) met with Vince McMahon to state their case and that it wasn’t the right time to break up the duo. Below are some highlights:

Adam Copeland on When He First Started Standing Up for Himself to Vince McMahon

“It was really when the first time I remember it is when I heard that they were going to split Jay (Christian) and I up as a team, and that was before WrestleMania 16, before the first uh triple ladder match, I think it was called. So I heard that that was on the table, and Jay and I were like that, but this is too soon. I get that they want us to be our own things, but it’s too soon. We haven’t scratched the surface of what we can do together as a team, and if we can do that together as a team, we’ll be able to do more on our own eventually. So it was kind of I was looking at the long game, and so was Jay, and patience to me was part of that, and yeah, would you love to try and go straight into world title matches against Stone Cold? Sure. But I don’t know if that’s going to happen. What I know can happen is that if you let our personalities out and let us do commentary and let us cut promos and let the banter that is us out, then we can really do something with this. So, we went to him, and then we got on commentary, and that commentary changed everything. Then we went from splitting up to right, ‘We’re going to put the tag team titles on you.’ ‘Oh, wow.'”

On How He and Christian Spoke to McMahon

“So, we just went and talked to him and told him what we felt with commitment and with intensity because we believed it. And now we’re standing on top of a table at WrestleMania 16. I’m pulling them down because I have much better core strength. And he’s grasping the table. Watch it back. and we’re tag team champions, going right, this is what we said we were going to do, we just did that, wow, that’s that’s one checked off.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Inside The Ropes with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.