WWE legend Edge has insisted he and company had ‘outgrown’ each other and he needed to move on.
The Hall of Famer, now working under his real name Adam Copeland, has officially joined rival company All Elite Wrestling after making a surprise appearance at the end of last night’s AEW WrestleDream event.
Now, the former world champion has addressed his decision to leave 25 years after his WWE debut and start a new stage of his career in a different environmentas he saved Sting and Darby Allin from Christian Cage, Luchasaurus and Nick Wayne.
In a lengthy statement on X (formerly Twitter), he wrote: ‘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.’
Copeland added that he’ll ‘still be watching and still be supporting’ all his friends in WWE, but he’s excited to be joining the AEW roster as a full-time wrestler.
He added: ‘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.’
There is a lot of toxicity from ‘a segment of the fans’ who seem intent to start bitter rows between WWE and AEW, whereas the wrestlers themselves don’t have the same attitude.
‘I don’t buy into this odd mentality of one company or the other. It’s weird. If you took offense to that, take a walk, get some fresh air and soak up some sunshine,’ he continued.
‘It’s wrestling. An amazing gig. But still, it’s wrestling. Relax. It’s supposed to be fun.’
He noted how ‘more choices is better for everyone’, with competition forcing everyone to rise up.
‘As a wrestling fan, which I still am, it’s exciting that there’s viable companies providing wrestling on national and worldwide platforms,’ he said. ‘If you’re actually a fan of wrestling, and not acronyms, that should make you happy too.’
Similarly, he pointed out that anyone who has admired his work ‘still can, no matter what the initials are’, and he’ll be putting in the same effort.
He added: ‘This ride isn’t over just yet. Just try to have fun, like it should be. Because trust me I’ll be having fun everytime I’m out there in an AEW ring. Let’s go! (sic)’
AEW Dynamite airs Wednesday nights at 1am on Fite TV.
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