AEW TV 2026 discussion

[tiger_rick]

1 minute ago, Supremo said:

Shawn Michaels

 

1 minute ago, Supremo said:

even better.

[RedTwoster]

5 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Cope’s spoken about wanting to work the Tokyo Dome before retiring, but who the fuck is even left in New Japan, if he wants to work next year’s January 4th?

 

There are probably loads of logistical reasons as to why they wouldn't do this, but as much as I've soured on the Forbidden Door concept, I'd quite like to see them run a Forbidden Door: Tokyo show before they retire that show completely. 

[LaGoosh]

I think Copeland is just a bit boring and rubbish so don't really care about this retirement run at all. Not a single match he could have interests me.

[BomberPat]

I think part of the problem with Copeland's return from retirement is that different people seem to have different ideas of what Edge or Adam Copeland was or should be; I always complain about "super serious hard man" Copeland, because to me his best work was always as a slightly comedic heel, and even at the height of the Rated R-Superstar stuff he was never booked to be this unbeatable bad-ass. Yet every time I saw him during his WWE comeback, he was sitting in a dark room cutting a promo about how "fun time's over, it's time to get serious" - you're already too serious, how much more fucking serious can you get? That gets compounded by stuff like The Grit Couple, by the feud with Moxley in AEW presenting him as so hardcore and dangerous that he might have Moxley beat on both counts, and WWE booking "Brood Edge" as if it's his version of Demon Finn Balor, a scarier, powered up version of Edge, rather than a midcard gimmick that he did for less than a year. That presentation, across both promotions, was just all over the place, and it arguably stood out more in AEW where there's far less of a culture of babyfaces presenting themselves as tough guys and the most important person in the room.

But I think time in general will be kinder to Copeland's AEW run than we were in the moment - reduced to the highlights, it will look great. "Fuck you" from Christian - in fact, pretty much any of their interactions - and the majority of their tag team run, with a few singles highlights in the mix, will look pretty good in retrospect, particularly if they nail the retirement.

I just struggle to really imagine a match or angle that I'd be desperate to see Cope in as part of that retirement run, as I don't really have any desire to see him in the World Title picture, and in a straightforward singles match he can't hold his own against most of AEW's top guys and for the one he would potentially work well with, I don't trust his or MJF's instincts to work a good programme together. The best use of him is smoke and mirrors hardcore matches where they can disguise a lot of his flaws and weaknesses with brawling and weapon spots, or as part of a tag team, and with Christian presumably on the shelf indefinitely, I don't see either of those being the route they take.

[Supremo]

39 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

The Iron Man Match with Bret weighs the first run down that much. On a potential to disappointment ratio, it might be the worst match of all time.

On Copeland, I wonder if a heel run would work? Slimey dickhead heel was always his best work, but it’s probably too late to even try and in 2026 I suspect a heel turn would just bring out his worst instincts even more.

An MJF feud sounds fun, and I like the idea of MJF retiring him, but considering the strop he threw when he couldn’t keep up Ricky Starks (“aw, dude!”), I wouldn’t hold out much hope for Copeland doing promo battles with MJF.

The Sheamus retirement match in WWE was fun. Maybe just being Sheamus in to do that again.

Realistically though, he probably should have called it career after the wild over-delivery that was the,”I Quit,” match with FTR. It ain’t getting better than that.

Edited 10 hours ago by Supremo

[Arch Stanton]

22 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I think Copeland is just a bit boring and rubbish so don't really care about this retirement run at all. Not a single match he could have interests me.

I've felt the same way about him forever. His AEW debut was one of the first major factors in turning me off their product. 

[LaGoosh]

I don't even think he's particularly over outside of his entrance and he's made no difference to attendance or TV ratings. Hard to get excited about a singles run when he's not at the level of the vast majority of the roster who are way faster, harder hitting and exciting in ring than he's ever been. I think Omega/Copeland would be boring as fuck. Omega working a New Japan main event style vs a 2008 WWE main event style will be brutal.

To be honest, I've always found him pretty dull.

Edited 9 hours ago by LaGoosh

[RedTwoster]

35 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

But I think time in general will be kinder to Copeland's AEW run than we were in the moment - reduced to the highlights, it will look great. "Fuck you" from Christian - in fact, pretty much any of their interactions - and the majority of their tag team run, with a few singles highlights in the mix, will look pretty good in retrospect, particularly if they nail the retirement.

 

Other than the Moxley match, I think he's been really good. If you took his current run and had it play out in WWE, it would be leagues apart from most other things they've been doing in that time. His whole storyline with Christian right down to the tag title win has been really fun. 

His character has been, admittedly, a bit bland compared to the likes of Swerve, MJF, Darby, Willow, Toni Storm, Hangman, Moxley and Thekla but I don't think he's been bad. He's just had to compete with people who are doing career best work in a company that has, for the bulk of Copeland's time there, been going through a real purple patch.

[tiger_rick]

11 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

To be honest, I've always found him pretty dull.

I wouldn't go always, he was fun as a babyface on Smackdown prior to his original injury absence and decent as a heel after Lita shagged him and they got together on TV. I dunno quite when I started to sour on him but I think by the time he was Vicky Guerrero's toyboy, I was out.

[Merzbow]

I've never bought him as any kind of special singles talent, might actually be my least favourite wrestler who spent a lengthy time in the WWE main event scene.

[Chili]

Get Gangrel back in for a few appearances and give The Brood a shot at the Trios. Do it Tony, you coward!

I think Copeland's AEW has been alright, and for him I think it's nice that he did make a career comeback and wanted to challenge himself a bit.

The GRIT stuff and the I'M SRS bit of him is the worst though, hope he doesn't go for that again.

With AEW, they're canny at booking at good retirement run so I honestly think it's a wait and see thing and it could be really good if they've already mapped out or planned where it could go.

Edited 4 hours ago by Chili