AEW star and pro wrestling legend Adam Copeland spoke with Inside the Ropes about various topics, including his and Christian Cage’s mindset in the early 2000s when they faced a competitive roster.
Copeland said, “Yeah. And we also know that we could do matches that those guys weren’t going to do and didn’t need to do. We needed to do that. And then we had these dance partners in The Hardys and eventually The Dudleyz, who knew the same thing, and we all were on the same page together. So you get this, you know, that cliche of lightning in a bottle, and all of these pieces come together at the right time. young, hungry, stupid, just willing to do whatever it takes because you are in, and you — it’s the most stacked locker room that I can think of in the history of the wrestling industry. And so, how are you going to get noticed? Well, you put six of us in there and give us some tables and some ladders and some chairs and look out. And our mentality was good luck cuz nobody’s going to be able to follow it. That was our mentality. That was everybody’s mentality on those cards. So Austin was thinking the same thing. Rock was thinking the same thing. Taker was thinking the same thing. Triple H, everybody was trying to outdo each other, which is why you get WrestleMania 17, which is why you get these, just you look back, and it’s like, my god, what a show. And that that’s really what it was, but it was also having the freedom to be able to go out and be this amplified version of ourselves.”
On the origin of the five second pose:
“And we also had a writer in Brian Gewirtz who was very, very key into the growth of Edge and Christian because we all three of us had a very similar sense of humor, very similar mentality, a very like weird, skewed sense of humor. So the three of us would write, sit down and write these ideas, or spitball, or say stuff, and if all three of us laughed, we’re like, right, that’s in. So, now there’s a 5-second pose. So, now there’s our own language with heinosity and dork chop and wreaking of awesomeness. That’s where it all comes from, is from these spitball sessions that we would have with Brian, and then just having the freedom to be able to go out there and see if it worked. And sure enough, it [snorts] most of it did. If it didn’t, we knew. And we knew, okay, that goes in the discarded pile. But we tried that 5-second post thing, and the first night we’re like, oh, we got something here. All right, wait, we could do this in every city and put down every city we’re in, man. Now we can use costumes. Now we can make this like a skit, like a Saturday Night Live portion of the show every week, and nobody else is doing that.”
On how they had to wrestle like wolves in the ring:
“Now we got our own thing and that was really, you know, the springboard, but you can have all of that, but once you get in the ring, you also have to, especially as a tag team like we were, it had to be believable that we could beat the Rock and Undertaker, which we did at one point for the tag team titles. In order for it to be believable that Edge and Christian can hang with Rock and Undertaker, we have to wrestle like wolves. When we get the heat, we have to pounce, and it has to be aggressive and quick and all of these things. And if one doesn’t match the other, it’s not going to last that long.”
On The Rock and The Undertaker wanting to work with them:
“I think it goes back to the Bad News Brown and the Rick Martel thing is that they saw guys who were hungry, but also guys who could make them look good, and we would work hard to make them look good because we knew we’re bumping heels. Our job is to fly all over the place and hopefully cheat to win so that you really hate us. You know, we were fully committed. Like, if we were entertaining during a promo, we wanted to make you really hate us during a match. And any baby face worth their salt wants that heel. So I, you know, I think that’s part of it, you know, and being lifelong fans and, you know, Rock’s born into the business. So he knows when somebody is a lifelong fan and who somebody who’s working hard and who’s trying to get noticed and, you know, Taker the same thing, always a fan of the business, and I would think that’s why.”
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(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
