Adam Copeland Is Kicking Off the Final Stretch of His Career Back in Front of an Audience

Copeland was forced to retire early due to a devastating neck injury, but now he's getting the career send-off he deserves—in front of a packed crowd.

Ten.

Nine.

Eight.

Adam Copeland could feel the anticipation building.

Standing only a precious few feet from the curtain, Copeland was moments away from making his surprise entry into the 2020 Royal Rumble match.

Due to a severe neck injury, he had not wrestled since April 2011. Throughout the course of those years, he experienced a range of emotions: anger for a career cut short; gratitude for all the opportunities he had been given; and, eventually, a serenity about the enormity of what he had accomplished.

Seven.

Six.

Five.

Copeland had come to grips with the fact that there would be no miraculous comeback, until, extraordinarily, he finally received clearance to return. More than just wrestle, Copeland was overjoyed that he would reunite Edge with wrestling fans across the globe. This was a love affair, with both sides appreciating the other. And even before he knew he was cleared for his return, Copeland had dreamed about the roar of the crowd.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Bursting through the curtain, a crowd of over 40,000 erupted at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. Edge had returned, and he could feel the reaction from the crowd in his soul.

“The sheer emotion of that night, it’s the most incredible night of my career,” said Copeland. “That’s a moment I never thought would happen. I’ll take that one to my grave.”

Copeland was back in his element, surrounded by a fandom he cherished.

Then, suddenly, he wasn’t.

****

Courtesy of WWE

For the first time since WrestleMania 37, Copeland returns to a live crowd this weekend. Beginning on tonight’s SmackDown, followed by Sunday’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view, Copeland can now finally begin the twilight of his career the only way he sees fit, which is in front of a crowd.

“This whole time, I’ve been thinking, ‘At least I got the Rumble reaction,’” said Copeland. “To return, and then very quickly go to through a stretch where we had no crowds for a year-and-half, it’s been surreal. It certainly wasn’t what any of us had expected.”

Copeland’s return has been storybook, with gripping lows and highs. There was his Last Man Standing match at WrestleMania 36 against Randy Orton, which was intended to be a glorious return to WWE’s signature event. Instead, it was a glorified studio show at WWE’s Performance Center in Orlando, with the broadcast team and camera operators doubling as spectators in the otherwise empty building.

“It was all so strange,” said Copeland. “But I wasn’t going to complain. The world was going through a pandemic. Our job was to try and make something entertaining.

“With that being said, not having WrestleMania in front of a crowd, with no audience, that part sucked. That back-and-forth with the audience, that instant gratification, as performers, that’s why we do this. Without that, it makes it much more difficult. And much more painful.”

Following WrestleMania 36, Copeland was placed front and center in a seemingly unwinnable storyline. WWE’s Vince McMahon decided to champion a rematch pitting Edge against Orton as “The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever”.

There is no such quality as the best when it comes to as subjective an art as pro wrestling, so this seemed destined to fail—until, as McMahon astutely predicted, Copeland and Orton found a way to make it succeed.

“At first I thought, ‘This is ridiculous,’” said Copeland. “But I’m not a promoter. My job isn’t to necessarily promote, it’s to take what the promoter gives me and make it work. So I started really thinking about how we would make this work.”

The Edge-Orton match at Backlash was a 44-minute work of art, with Orton picking up a genuinely surprising victory. Both performers put their bodies on the line to ensure that their encounter lived up to the lofty expectations, and Copeland took delight in crafting together a story that people would connect with, even if they were at home instead of inside the arena.

“My sole mindset was, ‘Make it a love letter to wrestling,’” said Copeland. “If you’re watching, you love it, and that’s also why we’re doing it.”

The “Greatest Match” featured plenty of throwbacks and tributes, including an introduction from the voice of late ring announcer Howard Finkel. Charles Robinson even wore the old-fashioned referee outfit, replete with a long-sleeve shirt and bow tie.

“I think Charles was probably pissed at me for that,” said Copeland with a laugh. “To me, it all added to the moment.”

Copeland and Orton exchanged wrestling holds while intertwining pieces of the history of their wrestling careers, showing their love for pro wrestling in a manner befitting the occasion.

“We had call-backs of moves and finishers of our different opponents,” said Copeland. “Our goal was to weave together our love of wrestling into the match.”

Had this match taken place in front of a crowd, the focus would have been entirely on the performers and the story they crafted. Yet 2020 represented a peculiar time period, and this match stood out for more reasons than just wrestling. It was WWE’s maiden attempt at manufactured crowd noise, which was met with a mixed reaction from the fan base. The wrestling masterpiece also finished on a bitter note, as Copeland left the ring with a torn triceps.

“After not wrestling for nearly nine years, my first two matches were something like 36 minutes and 44 minutes,” said Copeland. “Maybe that was biting off a little more than I could chew. My body responded by saying, ‘Hey dumbass, what are you doing?’

“There was a lot of pressure with that match. You need an audience in a big arena for a match like that, which we obviously didn’t have. We were the guinea pigs for piped-in sound, and that was another hurdle. Looking back, especially considering the circumstances, I am very proud of that match.”

Copeland did not exactly learn his lesson about long matches. When he recovered from injury, he next worked this past January’s Royal Rumble match, going over 58 minutes in his victory, last eliminating Orton. That propelled him into a program with Roman Reigns, yet the lack of genuine crowd reaction in the build hampered the build to WrestleMania 37. Daniel Bryan was inserted into the match, making it a triple threat to close out the second half of the two-night event. It turned into a breathtaking spectacle, significantly enhanced by the live crowd at Raymond James Stadium, with Bryan and Copeland ensuring that Reigns took another step in his ongoing climb to legendary status.

“I got to share a ring with Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns,” said Copeland. “Before that, me and Bryan, we’d been in the ring for something like four minutes together, so that was something I’d always wanted to do. And Roman is just operating on a whole other level. And he’s still getting better. Every week, I’m reminded of how good he truly is.

“That match felt like it flew by, and it was so much fun to collaborate with Roman, Bryan, Paul Heyman, Jey Uso, and Michael Hayes. My favorite part of the match was that ‘Glasgow Grin’ I got on Roman. That whole sequence was actually Jey Uso’s idea. It was so cool to have such great minds collaborate about something we’re all so passionate about.”

Despite an entertaining two nights of action, WrestleMania 37 became a bittersweet memory by the next night on Raw. The presence of the crowd had been incredibly invigorating for both performers and viewers, yet WWE then immediately returned to its ThunderDome setting.

“I felt the reaction that night at WrestleMania,” said Copeland. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be. As a performer, I felt whole.”

****

In 2011, Copeland was forced to retire, ending any glimmer of hope that he could end his career on his own terms. Now, a decade later, he receives a rare second chance to rewrite his final chapter in wrestling.

“This is the stretch I was looking for 10 years ago,” said Copeland. “I know this window is not open for a long time, but I get the chance to end my career the way I always wanted to, and I finally get to do it in front of a crowd.”

Copeland returns home this weekend. He isn’t from Houston or Fort Worth, Texas, but he did grow up working in front of a live crowd. He has pined to hear genuine reactions, left to exist as a fish out of water desperately trying to find a new way to swim. That is no longer the case, as WWE reopens its doors—and Copeland reconnects with wrestling fans from all over the world.

“We’re back,” said Copeland. “I’m going to enjoy every crowd reaction, and that’s only been amplified with the pandemic. We’re getting crowds back, and we get to do what we do in front of a crowd. I’m so thrilled to be here, and I can’t wait for what happens next.”

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