Adam Copeland Says He’d Be Retired If Not For AEW, Says His Run’s Been ‘Fun’

Adam Copeland has been enjoying his AEW run thus far and says if not for the company he would be retired by now. Copeland made his AEW debut at WrestleDream in 2023 after exiting WWE. After a run in the singles division, he has been tagging with Christan Cage and currently holds the AEW World Tag Team Championships which they will defend against The Young Bucks at AEW All In.

Copeland appeared on the Ariel Helwani Show and spoke about his run so far and how he felt he had done everything he could in WWE. He noted that without AEW, he probably would have gone one more year and then retired. You can see the highlights below:

On His AEW Run Thus Far:

“It’s been fun. And I think — I say that word, and it sounds like a simple word. But that was really the goal, was to have fun. I’m not chasing championships or — you know, they’re props, let’s face it. I’m not doing that. I just wanted to come and have fun and create with some performers that I’d never had a chance to touch. That and the fact that I knew I’d get a chance to team with Jay again and go against teams like FTR and the Bucks, those were big things to want to be able to try and do. And I knew there was only one place to do that.

“And I had kind of run the gamut with WWE. There was much left to do with either — for the company or for me. To me, that writing was pretty clearly on the wall. It was more along the lines of, ‘Am I going to go to AEW or am I going to retire?’ And during the match with Sheamus, I still didn’t even really know. Because I was having so much fun out there with him and loving that experience that I truly wasn’t sure. But then in looking at the roster in AEW and talking to Tony. And after the Toronto show and looking at the landscape, it became a no brainer the more I looked at it.”

On If He Would Be Retired Now If Not For AEW:

“Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I would’ve been done by now. Because I think I probably would’ve come back for a year with WWE and then retired how everyone wanted it to happen and that would be that. But man, this has breathed new life in terms of the creative avenue we can take. Because again, I feel like we’d kind of driven down most of those avenues with WWE.”

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