How AEW Star Adam Copeland Feels Stepping Outside WWE 'Comfort Zone'

When Chris Jericho and Adam Copeland sat across from each other on this week's "Talk is Jericho," Jericho confessed that he initially wasn't buying rumors of his former WWE colleague joining him in AEW, and was therefore pleasantly surprised when the former Edge made the jump to the competition. A part of Jericho's reasoning was Copeland's loyalty to WWE, referring to his fellow Canadian as "such a WWE guy" whom he could never picture wrestling elsewhere.   

In response, Copeland was quick to concede that leaving WWE was a tough decision. "Any relationship of 25 years ... I had my first match with them in '96. From that point forward, I never went anywhere else. So yeah, there's a massive like, 'Ok, I'm stepping off the cliff here. How does this go?' But that's also really exhilarating, too. That's really fun [and] it's about challenging yourself. This is a challenge, and it's not the safe thing. I could have gone with the safe thing."

The "Rated-R Superstar" credited Jericho — a part of AEW's original 2019 roster — for paving the way for other veterans such as himself, Christian Cage, and Bryan Danielson to overlook the "safer option" in favor of the riskier alternative. "You did the exact same thing," Edge told Jericho. "Sometimes, you just have to do that — step out of a comfort zone — and kinda take the warm blanket off and see what else is out there." Copeland admitted that the presence of "great friends" such as Jericho, FTR, and Christian made the jump a lot easier, even though he's excited to cross paths with a host of wrestlers he's never met. "[My friends] here have been telling me their stories of having fun, and again, at this stage [of my career] ... fun, challenges, getting to work with my best friend. I mean, common!"