Last night (Sunday October 2), following the conclusion of the company’s blockbuster Wrestledream Pay Per View that featured cross-promotional matches from some of professional wrestling’s biggest stars, All Elite Wrestling pulled off a major coup by confirming that Adam Copeland - known for his years spent in the WWE as Edge - had signed with the company. The announcement was preceded by Copeland’s shocking AEW debut at Wrestledream itself, where he interrupted a post-match beatdown being conducted by a group of wrestlers led by Copeland’s former tag team partner, Christian Cage (known in WWE simply as Christian).
Arriving to a thunderous ovation soundtracked by his legendary theme song, Alter Bridge banger Metalingus, Copeland made his way to the ring before delivering two trademark spears and staring down his former WWE pal, leaving wrestling fans dizzy with excitement about what might come next.
Watch the incredible moment of Copeland's AEW debut below.
Edge released a statement following the confirmation of his signing to AEW, showing excitement for his next chapter while expressing gratitude to WWE for his hall of fame career there.
“My new home is AEW. I’m excited,” said the 49-year-old. “Whole new roster. Some familiar faces that I wanted to work with again and a whole set of first ever matches. New challenges, and if you’ve followed my career, you know that’s what I’ve always been driven by. But first and foremost I want to address my 25 years with WWE. I love WWE and appreciate everything the company did for me. Always have, always will. They put me on the map, gave me amazing opportunities and through hard work on both ends, I’ve been supplied with a wonderful life. Hell, WWE helped me meet the woman I’d start my family with. Sometimes relationships just grow apart and I feel the WWE and I have just outgrown each other. I wanted to do more. They didn’t have much more for me to do. Simple as that. And that’s ok. I’ll still be watching and still be supporting all of my friends there.”
Earlier this year, Edge made headlines in the metal world thanks to his eye-popping entrance at WWE’s flagship event, Wrestlemania. Decked out in a glittering skull mask, a leather trench coat and horrifying bat wings, Copeland completed the most metal wrestling entrance ever by using Slayer’s South Of Heaven as his intro music. A lifelong metalhead, Copeland once told Metal Hammer that he wanted to see Metallica play Wrestlemania one day, telling us in 2021: “How has that not happened? It’s a very good question. Especially when we were in San Francisco. I don’t know, but it feel like it needs to happen.”
