Before AEW, Adam Copeland once nearly left WWE to join their rivals: Why did he stay?

Adam Copeland has taken the wrestling world by storm after debuting at AEW WrestleDream. Given Copeland was loyal to WWE throughout his career, many fans did not expect to see the 49-year-old at the Jacksonville-based promotion. But the move has happened.

While many fans are still in shock, this is not the first time the Hall of Famer has considered wrestling for other promotions than WWE. During an interview on Talk is Jericho, Adam Copeland mentioned that TNA approached him with a contract during a break from WWE.

"I don't know how word gets out about contracts being up and things like that. There was one point my contract was coming up and TNA reached out to me. (Christian) was there. They reached out to me and they told me numbers, schedule, and all of these things. For me at that point, the schedule was the thing like 'that would be a lot easier on the body,'" said Copeland.

The Rated-R Superstar added that while TNA also had great opponents at the time, WWE felt at home.

"And the opponents, There's Samoa Joe, There's AJ (Styles). There's a lot of fresh things to do. But for some reason, from day one WWE felt like my home. WWE did put that faith in me, they did pull that trigger with me. I felt like I couldn't look that gift horse in the mouth." [H/T Fightful]

While WWE took center stage in Adam Copeland's life at that time, this time around, things changed. The 49-year-old has moved on from the Stamford-based promotion and has found a new home in AEW.

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How did Adam Copeland's AEW debut go down?

At WrestleDream, Adam Copeland's real-life best friend, Christian Cage, defended his AEW TNT Championship against Darby Allin.

While it seemed the latter would win at one point, the tides turned in Christian's favor when Nick Wayne turned heel and attacked Darby Allin. This led to Christian pinning Allin, after which he and Wayne continued assaulting him.

After a while, Sting made his way to the ring to save Allin. While the legend succeeded early on, interference from Luchasaurus led to Sting being outnumbered 3-1. The trio of Christian, Nick Wayne, and Luchasaurus put a beating on Sting, after which they proceeded to hit him with a chair.

However, just before they could do that, there was a blackout in the arena. Seconds later, a video played, and the arena then heard Copeland's famous theme song.

Upon hearing it, fans gave one of the loudest pops in AEW history. While initially it felt Copeland was going to side with Christian, the former attacked Wayne and Luchasaurus as Christian headed out of the ring.

With his AEW debut, Adam Copeland has made his intentions clear. He is here to take on Christian Cage. However, before he does that, The Rated-R Superstar will make his AEW in-ring debut against Luchasaurus on the October 10, 2023, episode of Dynamite.

It will be interesting to see what Copeland does on AEW Dynamite.