Adam Copeland Emotionally Reflects on His Epic WWE Return at the Royal Rumble Turning Six Years Old

Adam Copeland, aka Edge, had one of the greatest Royal Rumble returns in WWE history with the kind of reaction he got in 2020.

Adam Copeland Emotionally Reflects on His Epic WWE Return at the Royal Rumble Turning Six Years Old

Adam Copeland (via- AEW)

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Six years have flown by since Adam Copeland made a miraculous return to wrestling by coming out as the 21st entrant in the 2020 men’s Royal Rumble match. Reflecting on the same, ‘The Rated-R Superstar’ posted a video on his Instagram where he started off by saying he didn’t realize so much time had passed since then.

Copeland said he would’ve called anyone a little bit crazy if they had told him back then that he would still be wrestling in 2026. The 52-year-old further said that he got to have a dream career twice—the one before that triple fusion neck surgery and everything he’s done after plotting his in-ring comeback.

‘The Rated-R Superstar’ admitted that he’s nearing the end of his legendary career that spanned over four decades. The 11-time world champion mentioned how he has gotten the opportunity to wrestle a completely fresh set of opponents across both WWE and AEW to a point where it felt like a blast to him.

Edge capped it off by saying that he’s at such a stage of his career where he wouldn’t have continued wrestling if he wasn’t having a great time doing so. The WWE Hall of Famer hasn’t appeared on AEW programming since late September. Copeland teamed up with his best friend, Christian, to take out FTR at the company’s All Out pay-per-view.

In its aftermath, Copeland’s wife, Beth, got attacked by the FTR members, with Dax Harwood planting ‘The Glamazon’ with a piledriver as a handcuffed Adam Copeland was writhing in agony.

On the subsequent episode of AEW Dynamite, ‘The Ultimate Opportunist’ told Christian Cage in a backstage segment that he was stepping away for a while to look after his family. It was done to allow Copeland to have some time off from AEW for shooting the new season of Percy Jackson & the Olympians.

Was there ever a chance of Adam Copeland wrestling John Cena in his WWE farewell tour?

After the aforementioned segment between Adam Copeland and Christian Cage aired initially, it made several fans believe that ‘The Rated R Superstar’ might be leaving AEW. The wording was done in a way that it sure did seem that way. It perfectly aligned with the time John Cena was in the last three months of his WWE retirement tour.

Adam Copeland and John Cena
Adam Copeland and John Cena [via- WrestleZone and Cageside Seats]

Then started the fantasy booking where the wrestling pages on social media started dreaming about Edge potentially returning to WWE to have that one last match with his great rival. However, the fans eventually learned that the 2-time Mr. Money in the Bank was signed with All Elite Wrestling through October 2026. And just like that, any possibility of another Edge/Cena clash got nipped in the bud.

The Ontario-born wrestling icon had an interview with Screen Rant at the beginning of 2025. During the conversation, Adam Copeland was asked if he ever had a conversation with ‘The Cenation Leader’ regarding his impending in-ring retirement.

The current AEW star did get a chance to chat with Cena briefly in 2023 at a time when the latter had returned to WWE during the SAG-AFTRA strikes in Hollywood. Copeland, however, noted that they didn’t talk about retirement.

We had talked briefly when he came back and I was with WWE. He said, ‘How are you doing this stuff, man? You’re having half an hour matches and stuff,’ but we haven’t talked about retiring or anything like that. John’s thought this through, and he’s thought of every scenario and every conceivable direction and all of those things.

Adam Copeland via Screen Rant

As far as Cena’s decision to call it quits was concerned, the former Rated-RKO member affirmed that the Peacemaker star would’ve thought about it just enough to come to terms with riding off into the sunset. ‘The Ultimate Opportunist’ also stated that the fans would have a hard time accepting Cena’s fate.

‘The Franchise Player’ had his last match in WWE with Gunther at Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13. The ending to it that saw Cena tap out with a smile on his face would forever be debatable.

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