Adam Copeland has detailed how a one-year plan for Judgment Day was thrown out the window.
On night two of the WrestleMania 38, the star defeated AJ Styles with a helping hand from Damian Priest. One month later the pair were joined by Rhea Ripley, and WWE’s next big faction was off to the races. However, that bliss, at least for Edge, didn’t last long.
That June, Edge was deposed as leader of the faction in brutal fashion by Finn Balor. Since then, they have recruited Dominik Mysterio and gone from strength to strength after waging war on their former leader.
Appearing on Talk Is Jericho, Copeland broke down how creative for the group changed dramatically. This included scrapping plans for him to remain in the faction for a full year alongside Balor before being betrayed. Instead, Balor joining Judgment Day and Copeland being kicked out happened in the same segment on Raw.
“It was odd, you know? Because that’s all I knew. And even just in terms of me coming in and out, I missed a lot of things. So I’d come back and go, Oh, this is happening now. Got it. And I’m just trying to wrap my mind around that. Because when we were doing Judgment Day, the plan was Balor joins and about a year later, they all turn on me.
Well, then, we get to Hell in the Cell. And I was like, No, we’re changing everything. And we’re speeding up that year long process. And he’s joining tomorrow and turning tomorrow, it wasn’t long, and it was just starting to find some legs. But it was gonna be swimming upstream with me. And it really was. And I started to have that realisation. It’s like, I don’t think they’re gonna get where they need to get to with me in this thing.
[Why did you think that?] Again, people know the real story. Right? And that was an instance where I did try and flip everything. Change it all overnight. cut my hair off. Change the music. Yeah. Start coming out in suits Like, like, I got 30 custom suits.”
During the conversation, Adam Copeland discussed leaving the name “Edge” behind.
When Did Adam Copeland Leave WWE?
Copeland remained at odds with Judgment Day all the way up until WrestleMania 39 when he defeated Balor inside Hell in a Cell. From there he moved to SmackDown as part of the Draft, but on-screen appearances would be few and far between.
Following a match against Sheamus on August 18th the WWE Hall of Famer allowed his contract to expire, debuting with AEW at WrestleDream on October 1st.
Adam Copeland has repeatedly stated there’s no bad feeling between himself and WWE.
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