AEW's Tony Khan On Cope In Cena Tournament: 'WWE Never Asked'

With the first round of the "Last Time is Now" tournament now over, so are the surprises, with Zack Ryder and Dolph Ziggler ultimately being revealed as the two talents outside the WWE umbrella to attempt to earn the opportunity to wrestle John Cena in his final match. As such, it put to bed any possibility of AEW's Adam Copeland being involved, something that had been debunked, but continued to draw speculation after Copeland paid tribute to Cena back in September.

So when AEW owner Tony Khan stopped by "The Ariel Helwani Show" on Tuesday afternoon, Helwani made sure to ask Khan about the speculation, and whether there had ever been any sort of discussion between Khan and WWE regarding Copeland participating in the "Last Time is Now" tournament. Khan couldn't have been more definitive with his answer.

"No," Khan said. 

Helwani proceeded to follow up, asking if there was any chance Copeland's contract could be coming up in enough time to where he could wind up involved in Cena's retirement tour. Khan didn't entirely dismiss the idea, but strongly suggested it was unlikely. 

"I mean, I'd never say never in wrestling, because I would imagine they could always extend that date past the end of the year," Khan said. "But no, Adam's going to be here with us through the end of the year...Adam Copeland is a huge part of AEW, and I have so much respect for him, and I really, really like Adam a lot. And I'm glad to have him here. He's away filming, but he's with us, and he's going to stay with us."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Ariel Helwani Show" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription