The moves that Jade Cargill and Adam Copeland made seem perfect for them and couldn’t have happened even five years ago.
Wrestling fans used to pray for times like this, to shine like this.
We used to yearn for the days of multiple viable wrestling promotions jostling for position in the marketplace, competing to land the biggest stars and creating unforgettable moments.
After the week that was in professional wrestling, that dream has become a reality.
Adam Copeland, the wrestler formerly known simply as Edge, made his AEW debut at the end of the promotion’s WrestleDream pay-per-view in Seattle after spending the last 25 years of his hall of fame career with WWE.
Days earlier, former AEW TBS champ Jade Cargill officially became a member of WWE.
And while there are many debating which promotion won this very unofficial trade, at the end of the day, there is one true winner: the fans.
The fans win because both of the parties involved got exactly what they wanted, as did the promotions they have recently joined.
In the case of Edge, I wondered what more could he have possibly been looking to accomplish once his WWE contract expired at the end of the summer. He’s done it all, main evented all of the biggest shows, won all of the titles, and as I alluded to earlier, is already a member of the WWE Hall of Fame.
However, the Rated R Superstar himself took to Twitter after his AEW debut and set the record straight. In short: He wants to be a full-time performer, AEW gives him the opportunity to do that, and WWE does not.
Although Copeland is less than a month away from his 50th birthday and has already been forced to retire for nearly a decade due to a severe neck injury, he apparently has the itch to go full bore back into the wrestling industry.
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I understand his frustration. Not only is Copeland an accomplished wrestler, he is a prideful one. One that firmly believes he still has what it takes to hang with the best of the current generation.
On the flip side, I also understand why WWE did not offer him that opportunity. Because Edge is so accomplished, he’s an attraction. One way to keep said attraction special is by having them appear sparingly. WWE also wants to shine the spotlight on its younger talent and continue to build for the future. Making Edge a full-time performer could get in the way of that effort.
Copeland could easily take offense to that, but according to him, he doesn’t. Nor should he. Because now he gets to go to AEW and enjoy at least one more run as a full-time wrestler. It’s something Copeland has not attempted in more than a decade.
When it comes to Cargill, she went to the place that better suited her skill set. That is not to say AEW mishandled Cargill. The promotion bestowed a 60-match win streak upon her with virtually no wrestling experience. On top of that, she enjoyed some of the best entrances wrestling has to offer.
Make no mistake about it, Cargill did quite well for herself in AEW. However, she believes that she can do even better in WWE. I, for one, agree.
And that is what makes this such a good time for wrestling fans. Five years ago, Edge would have been all but stuck in WWE, as there were no other major promotions for him to go and apply his trade. That is no longer the case in 2023.
Cargill tried out for WWE before her time in AEW and went unsigned. In years past, she’d either have to start wrestling for smaller promotions or basically look for another line of work. Instead, she went to AEW, learned the business, developed into a fully-formed act, and cashed in when the time was right.
Without multiple viable promotions, these situations could have either caused hard feelings or may not have even happened at all.
But we don’t have to worry about that nightmare scenario. Instead, we can dare to dream.
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