After making his AEW debut at WrestleDream on Sunday night (October 1), Adam Copeland repeatedly spoke about feeling “free.”
This doesn’t just mean “the freedom to film intro vignettes with Darby Allin on the streets of Seattle at any time of night.” The WWE Hall of Famer tells Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso that wrestling for New Japan Pro-Wrestling also means fulfilling a long-held dream:
“I’ve never wrestled at Wrestle Kingdom. I’ve never wrestled in the Tokyo Dome. How about a match against Kazuchika Okada? That would be pretty cool. I’m pretty excited about it.”
The Rated R Superstar just named the name of NJPW’s biggest show, biggest venue and biggest star. He says he loves to challenge himself. He definitely has high goals.
However, he’s not just looking across the Pacific for debuts and dream games.
“How about Jon Moxley? Hell yeah. A singles match in AEW against Bryan Danielson? Miro? Claudio Castagnoli? Kenny Omega? Will Ospreay? Adam Page? Chris Jericho? Malakai Black? FTR in one day? Teaming up with Darby against the Young Bucks? Opposite Darby? Facing Sting? A promo battle with Eddie Kingston? The possibilities keep me awake at night. These new encounters are all super exciting.”
Currently, Copeland’s first AEW match is scheduled for next Tuesday against Luchasaurus, when Dynamite takes on NXT (and fka Edge’s old rival John Cena).
Elsewhere in the interview, Copeland says there are no hard feelings between him and the WWE (“I guarantee you – they’re not angry. I’m not angry.”) and makes another appeal to fans of the work there, who may be hesitant or hostile towards their new employer:
“Since I came back [to WWE in 2020], you pretty much have Adam Copeland, although I had a nickname – Edge – that was pretty well known. Now I’m going to go into the ring as Adam Copeland. That’s the only change. I’m still me.
“If this isn’t for you, then I won’t take it personally. But if you enjoy watching someone love what they do, then tune in. If you’d like to come along on this ride with me, I’ll make sure there’s room. Jump up.”
You can read SI’s entire interview with Adam Copeland Here.
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