Adam Copeland explains why AEW is ‘much more’ like the Attitude Era than current ‘overproduced’ WWE

The man formerly known as Edge in WWE has found himself being more creatively free and satisfied since joining All Elite Wrestling.

Copeland debuted in AEW at WrestleDream 2023, interrupting a post-match beatdown being carried out by his longtime best friend and tag team partner, Christian Cage.

In the three years since Copeland joined AEW, he has found tremendous success, winning the TNT Championship and currently reigning as the AEW World Tag Team Champions with Cage.

Speaking on the Ariel Helwani show, Adam Copeland discussed his time with WWE following his 2020 return after retirement, and why he chose to come to AEW.

Copeland noted that his second run with WWE was enjoyable, but creatively shackling, while he finds working with Tony Khan and his creative team a lot more freeing.

“I gotta say, man, right now, this last year really turned the corner. It feels like everybody is pulling in the same direction.

“Once you can do that, once you get a few creative elements to the show that are really starting to hit, I feel like everything then gets dialled in. And it feels like that’s where we are right now. That’s always fun.

“What is amazing about AEW is the freedom to explore and to try things. It’s much more like the Attitude Era in that regard. A lot of times when we were out there during the Attitude Era, there might be a plan, or there might not be too…

“My experience by the end with WWE was overproduced, overrehearsed, over-everything, and they kept handcuffs on you to the point where you couldn’t really explore too much. That’s not the case with AEW, and that, again, is fun.”

Upon returning to WWE in 2020, Copeland was mostly working under the creative direction of Vince McMahon, with whom he shared a great working relationship.

From 2020 to 2022, before McMahon resigned in disgrace, Copeland’s work received criticism for being overly methodical and self-aggrandising.

While the man formerly known as Edge had some good moments in his second run, such as his return in 2020, his Royal Rumble win in 2021, and his rivalry with Seth Rollins, the return wasn’t as lauded as people had hoped.

Some of this can be blamed on the lacklustre creative direction from McMahon, but the creative team isn’t entirely to blame.

In 2022, following a poorly received match against AJ Styles, Edge formed The Judgment Day faction with Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley.

And while in the years to come, the faction helped elevate the likes of Ripley, Priest, and Dominik Mysterio, the conjecture at the time was that Edge’s direction for the group was not working, which led to WWE pivoting and reverting him back to a babyface.

In his final run of matches, Edge bafflingly won a Hell in a Cell showdown against Finn Balor at WrestleMania, competed against a debuting Grayson Waller, and got an incredible final match in WWE with Sheamus in Toronto, which served as his sendoff from the company.

Many feel that Edge left WWE partly because he wasn’t a priority under the new creative regime helmed by Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, someone who had been critical of Edge when they were active competitors in the 2000s.

Now in AEW, Copeland finds himself in a more collaborative creative environment with Tony Khan, which allows him to execute the vision he had for the end of his career alongside Christian Cage.

Copeland and Cage are set to defend the tag titles in a dream match against the Young Bucks at AEW All In at Wembley Stadium on August 30th.

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