AEW's Adam Copeland Identifies Turning Point In WWE Career As Edge

Bob Dylan once said, "A poem is like a naked person," as any kind of honesty is a vulnerable act, and Adam Copeland is learning to be vulnerable with wrestling fans after leaving WWE and going to AEW under his own name.

"It's essentially me now," Copeland said about his AEW character in an interview on "Talk Is Jericho" recently. "Edge was always a character. Even in this last run, it was basically me out there and I'd even say in promos, 'This is pretty much Adam at this stage. Edge was just a name.' It's odd I guess to put that skin on over the years, but with this last run I don't feel like it really was."

Copeland said that especially since his emotional return to the ring after a long retirement, fans have come to know his story, both in and out of the ring, which blurred the lines between Adam Copeland and Edge, to the point where Copeland essentially jettisoned the character in the back half of his career.

"All of the real 'Rated-R' stuff gets left behind. Now it's just the person behind the performer that's almost front-and-center ... and it was also kind of freeing," Copeland said, as he was no longer confined by his character toward the end of his WWE tenure, and now in AEW there is no character, just Adam Copeland.

"The possibilities are wide open," Copeland said, "and that's fun. There's so many different paths we can go."

Copeland is currently embroiled in a feud with his former friend and tag team partner Christian Cage, with Copeland siding with Darby Allin and Sting in their bitter war with Cage and his compatriots Luchasaurus and Nick Wayne. He competed in his first AEW match on Tuesday, where he defeated Luchasaurus.