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EXCLUSIVE: Adam Copeland Provides Update On Broken Leg, Jumping Off The Top Of The Cage At Double Or Nothing

How is Adam Copeland recovering from his broken leg?

Steven Muelhausen

Ricky Havlik - All Elite Wrestling

Heading into the 2024 edition of AEW Double or Nothing, Adam Copeland was in a rhythm and had found his sea legs after debuting in the promotion at the inaugural Wrestledream event in October.

Copeland was the current TNT champion and having one great match after another with the rising stars of the organization. But the unfortunate happened near the end of his Double or Nothing steel cage match with Malakai Black.

With Black lying on the table, wrapped in barbed wire, the native of Toronto climbed to the top of the cage. To the giant roar of the crowd at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena, Copeland leaped off and delivered an elbow drop.

But on the landing, you could see something was wrong as Copeland's left leg buckled instantly. Somehow, Copeland finished the match and retained the belt. Afterward, Copeland went to the hospital, where it was determined he had fractured his tibia with a return timeframe unknown at that time.

On Tuesday morning, Copeland spoke to The Takedown with an update on his broken leg, the state of AEW and his new venture with best friend, fellow AEW star Christian Cage.

(Editor's note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

The Takedown: What was it about Pure Plank that made you want to be like, ‘You know what, I need this, and I need it now’?

Adam Copeland: Jay and I invented it. We drew it. We came up with the concept and everything. But it stemmed from, you know, just like you said, you're pulling weeds, right? You're bent over all of those things. I was pressure washing the house. It knocked my back out for a week. I went, ‘That's ridiculous’. 

I was half bent over for eight hours, but still, come on, I'm supposed to be an athlete. Now, I was retired at this point and all of those things, so I wasn't doing the physicality that I would typically do. I realized I needed to get going again. And for me, planking had always been a vehicle to starting. That kind of thing doesn't seem too demoralizing. It doesn't feel too insurmountable. It feels like a place to start. I always enjoyed it too and I always saw results from it. That was the key. I thought, ‘Okay, well, if my lower back's bothering me, that means my core is not strong enough. So, I got to do some planks because I know it's a great core strengthening exercise. Once you're planking, it engages everything from your neck down to your toes. So I thought, I'll start with planking. Started there. Started feeling pretty good. Abs started coming back. Then I went down to Jay’s, and he was like, ‘What are you doing?’

I was like, ‘I've just been planking’, which he thought was ridiculous. Then he tried it. Within 20 seconds, he's shaking. And he went, ‘Oh yeah’. Then he had the idea, I'll give him the credit. He was like, ‘There's got to be something for this, some type of platform or something to be able to use it that would be easier on elbows, on wrists, on shoulders’. 

We're both 50, right? So then we did some research and saw that there wasn't anything. We thought we could fill that pocket. Then I just picked up a piece of paper and a Sharpie, and we started drawing ideas. He can't draw. He draws like a like a kindergartener. So we just started spitballing ideas, throwing it to the wall and see what would stick. By the time all was said and done, we came up with Pure Plank. We had to make some changes size-wise and in other ways. But it was really fun to create something from scratch, essentially. When we got the first product in our hands, it felt really good. It felt like we'd accomplished something that wasn't just jumping around in tights or wasn't pretending to be a god of war or something. It's like this might actually help some people. For me, the big thing with planking, with the Pure Plank, is the time commitment; it's very minimal. If you can take five minutes out of your day, it will help you. That's all you need because any more than that, you're going to start to really feel it. 

I've had some of the guys on the roster that have gotten it, and they're like, ‘Okay, I'm shaking at a minute’. I'm like, ‘Yeah, that's normal. It's absolutely normal. That’s ok. Build up’.

The Takedown: Why did you jump off the top of the cage at Double or Nothing?

AC: If you've watched my career, it's not out of character.  It's one of those deals where every once in a while during my career, I felt like it was time to do something a little stupid, and for whatever reason, my brain has not gotten the memo that my body got that I'm 50 years old. I was feeling great. Having a lot of matches. Having different types of matches made me feel like I was getting into a groove because it's doing it more often. It's hard to feel like you're in that groove, in that pocket, when it's like once every three months, once every four months, or anything like that. I was wrestling much more often, which gave me a false sense of security in that, ‘Yeah, I got that, no problem’. 

I also didn't realize how much higher AEW cages are until I got up there and went, ‘Oh, this is interesting (laughing). Here we go’.

I landed the way I was planning to land.  I just figured I'd land, and then I'll roll backward, which is what I did. And I still didn't fully know the extent of what had happened. I figured a bone bruise. I got up and ran, heard and felt a click, and went, ‘Hmm, interesting. Ok, I can get through this. It's no big deal’. 

We finished it off, and by the time I got to the back and was starting to go to the trainer's room, I was like, this might be a little more than what I was thinking. There's no grand reasoning for it whatsoever. I just got a cement head sometimes. 

The Takedown: As you said, you felt like you heard something click. Is your mind at all like, "Maybe we should do something else?”

AC: No. Once I realized I could run and move, I was like this would be fine. I knew what we had planned, too. We had worked hard to make that moment with Gangrel happen. I didn't want to call an audible and throw that away. I was like, ‘I can see this through. No big deal’. 

Once I got to the ER that night, Darby (Allin) and I walked in together. He's wearing his oversized faux fur coat with his face all smashed up with thumbtacks in his nose, and I'm limping in, and I go, ‘Look at us’.  

The Takedown: The million dollar question is how is the leg? You haven't provided too much of an update since the injury. All we've seen is a picture that's made the social media rounds in the last 15 hours or so. 

AC: It feels really good. I got the surgery. I guess it was June 1, by the time I finally got the surgery done. So I guess yesterday was three months. I've never broken my leg before, so I didn't know what that entails or what that entailed. With my Achilles, it was a process. This is not that which is good, because the Achilles, I was working eight hours a day on that thing. It became a full-time job and I got back in six months. But it was a lot of grinding of teeth. This isn't that more than anything. It's trying to get the power back and flexibility from bringing your toes to your knee. That's the last area that doesn't want to go yet because the plate goes down to the ankle because it was a lower fracture. It was a lower tibia fracture, so the plate butts up against that ankle bone. I think that'll be what I need to get through in order to be able to get all of that power back. I don't know what a timeframe is. I don't know any of that. I know that now I can walk, get in the ring, and move around a little bit, but I still feel the deficiency. So, I know I still have some work to do to return to where I need to be. 

The Takedown: What do you make of what's happening in AEW? They had a great show at Wembley. They are coming to Chicago on Friday with Collision and All Out on Saturday. What do you make of some of the key things going on right now in the company?

A: I enjoy that we're getting more character-based stories. I look at the evolution of Hangman (Adam Page), his story with Swerve (Strickland), and how he slowly but surely went from being right to letting this thing turn him into this bitter, angry character. But like any good villain, there's an excellent reason for it. That is really compelling. So I've been loving watching that. 

Bryan Danielson, what he brings to the table, and the emotion in that match with Swerve were so well done. Like with anything, you're not going to knock it out of the park 100 percent of the time. Nobody does. But I love that our roster really tries their ass off to make that happen. It's an exciting place to be because there's so much young talent. You got your guys like me, Christian, (Chris) Jericho, and your Samoa Joe's sprinkled in. You always need that to sometimes guide a little bit. But man, it's fun to be around and contagious to the point where I find myself jumping off cages and realizing I have to set a better example and show them that you don't need to do that. I've been enjoying the product. Sometimes it's hard for me when I'm out to watch the product, but it hasn't been this time, which is nice. 

Published
Steven Muelhausen

STEVEN MUELHAUSEN

: Steven Muehlhausen is a veteran combat sports writer for various outlets including Sporting News and Yahoo Sports. He can be reached at stevemuehlhausen@yahoo.com and followed on Twitter @SMuehlhausenJr.

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