Adam Copeland: More than one flourishing company ‘a positive for all wrestlers’

Adam Copeland reflected on his AEW Dynamite promo from April 3 during a recent interview with Sports Illustrated. 

The promo came two days after CM Punk's criticism of AEW and Tony Khan on The MMA Hour made headlines.  

Copeland said during it that AEW should be celebrated for having created more jobs for wrestlers, saying, "AEW has pushed this industry into a better place! It has gotten more people to do what they love for a living, and that should be celebrated." 

He told SI.com that he wanted the AEW locker room to hear his comments. 

Copeland said:

People can be so negative. That’s people who are wrestling, and that’s also among our fan base. There are people who have this super rigid ‘I’ll only watch and celebrate this one thing.’ For us in the industry, it’s completely different. We want each other to succeed. It’s an awesome way to make a living, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a tough way, too. When more than one company is flourishing, that’s a positive for all wrestlers. But there is this strange outlier of fan who looks at things from a different perspective. So I wanted to address that, and I wanted our locker room to hear it, too.

Copeland also reflected on his March 20 I Quit Match against Christian Cage in Toronto. During the match, Copeland put on a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey and brawled in the arena's penalty box with Cage, who was wearing a Boston Bruins jersey at the time. 

Copeland said of the match: 

Those jerseys were picked up two hours before the show. It’s Canada, we’re in Toronto. You always want to cater to your audience. I saw a penalty box. We wanted to tap into that.

Earlier in the day, I told our props guys that there’d be one place they could find a Bruins jersey in Toronto, and that’s the Hockey Hall of Fame. By that point, Christian had no choice but to wear the sweater.

I know some of the Leafs were watching. I got some texts on the bus after their game.

Copeland teamed with Eddie Kingston and Mark Briscoe at AEW Dynasty on Sunday. They lost a trios match to The House of Black after Malakai Black spewed black mist in Copeland's face.