WWE Hall Of Famer Confirms They Plan On Retiring In AEW

Adam Copeland, formerly Edge in WWE, left the company with which he built his legacy to sign with AEW in 2023. Now, the Hall of Famer has shed more light than ever on why he decided to trade in his WWE credits to become All Elite, as well as confirming that he never plans on wrestling anywhere else ever again.

Adam Copeland Will Retire In AEW

Copeland was the most recent guest on The Ariel Helwani Show, during which he was asked if he plans on retiring in AEW. There was no ambiguity regarding his answer. No dancing around it to leave the door open for a potential WWE return. Just a firm answer confirming that Copeland plans on retiring in AEW.

“I know that may disappoint a lot of people, but I love it there,” Copeland admitted (H/T to Wrestle Ops for the transcription). “I don’t want to go anywhere else. I’m good. I did everything I could do [in WWE] and then some. And I think they got everything out of me and then some that they could have.”

Copeland has technically retired once already. In 2011, a neck injury forced The Rated R Superstar to end his career prematurely. Nine years later, thanks to the medical world having a better understanding of the issues that forced him out of the ring, he was able to make a return that will go down in history as one of the most shocking in wrestling history.

Why Copeland Left WWE

It would have been easy for Copeland to see out the rest of his career in WWE and eventually retire there a second time, this time on his terms. However, the former World Champion explained to Helwani why he wanted to leave. “My experience by the end with WWE was overproduced, over-rehearsed, over-everything, and they kept handcuffs on you to the point where you couldn’t really explore too much,” Copeland revealed.

One of the last things Copeland did in WWE was lead The Judgment Day. A little ironic that that wound up being his last order of business, as many fans assumed that without him, the gimmick would quickly die off. Three years later, the faction persists and has been the core of countless storylines since Copeland left the group to fend for itself.

As for whether Copeland will stick to this retirement promise, there are several reasons to believe that he will. Although he has come back from retirement before, those were very different circumstances. The Hall of Famer has been given an unexpected second chance to end his career on his own terms, and he seems to have already decided what those terms are going to be.