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ADAM COPELAND DISCUSSES HOW CLOSE HE CAME TO RETIREMENT, WHEN HIS WWE DEAL EXPIRED, CLOSING HIS CAREER IN AEW AND MORE

Adam Copeland, the former Edge, spoke with CBS Sports about his jump to AEW, with the article noting the WWE Hall of Famer expects to end his in-ring career with AEW.

On whether he considered retirement instead of moving to AEW, Copeland said, "As I got closer to the end of the deal, retirement was a very, very real option. It was not off the table...I really sat with the idea of retirement because I truly thought like, 'Man, WWE gave me that night. I don't know how that gets topped.' And that's still in my brain. But I guess now it's like, 'OK, how can I try and top it in this new environment.' Honestly, that Toronto show was a send-off of that character and it was the perfect way for that character to go out. Wrestling a guy that I've never wrestled that I always wanted to. It was just so much fun in there. That night, I'll never forget it. I'll always have that night with me. I told Sheamus that too. That will be one of the most special nights in my career, always."

On when he made his decision, Copeland commented, "It wasn't until my contract was up on [Sept. 21]. It wasn't until then.  So it was really, really quick to get everything done and get everything dialed in. Figuring out so many things like getting with Alter Bridge and getting the music and doing all of those things. There were nine or 10 days.  "I didn't know immediately, but I thought that's where I wanted to go. I really thought that working with Jay {Christian Cage] again was what I wanted to do and how I pictured it in a perfect world. Beth said, 'What's your perfect world? 'I was like, 'My perfect world is that I end my career with Jay.' So suddenly that perfect world looked like it could be there. It's tough to pass that up."

On where he stood with WWE towards the end of his run, Copeland admitted, "I kind of got the sense there wasn't really a plan [for me in WWE]. I get it because what else do we do? What else is there to do? And after 25 years I've literally done everything there. So what do we do? It wasn't anybody's fault.  I was coming up against creative walls too. I was having a hard time coming up with ideas and that's not usually the case. I think they were too.  There was also the conundrum that I was contracted for 10 matches a year. I offered to do more, but to their point, it wouldn't feel quite as special, which I understood too... It just felt like neither one of us really had any ideas and that's never been the case before. So when you look at that and then I look at my best friend over there having the time of his life, at a certain point, once I thought, 'You know what, I still have a window here where I can do this and I don't feel like I'm maximizing that.' I think that was really what it boiled down to."

On knowing this is the end of his career, Copeland stated, "I want to try and maximize what I still have left.  If that's one year, if that's two years, I want to do it as much as I can while I still feel like I can. I know that's going to be hard and I know that's going to take a lot of work physically. I know there's a different fallout now, but I know all of those things and I really just want to weigh the glory of this thing as much as I can."

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