
AEW star Adam Copeland recently appeared on an episode of Busted Open Radio to talk about a number of topics including younger talents competing with veterans.
Copeland said, โIโve had a blast, Iโve had so much fun. Even this past weekend, getting in there with a guy like Griff Garrison. Just to get in there so that he can feel what itโs like, the difference that comes with that experience, because I look at it, and I look when I broke in and I had Rick Martel and Bad News Brown and all of these guys mentor me along the way. Thereโs not a lot of that anymore. All of these guys were doing the indies, and if you were lucky enough to get in there with them, man, I learned. I just soaked it all up. Now, it almost feels like these guys are gonna have to soak it up on national television, and thatโs a different challenge until itself, along with social media. So that to me is really fun, though, to get these guys in there, get hands on them and feel what theyโre all about so they can also feel what 30 years of experience feels like.โ
He also talked about how Griff Garrison will be in the business well after he is gone and how he feels like he can learn more in the five minutes he is in the ring with Garrison than he would in the 200 matches he is with people of the same experience.
โBecause long after Iโm gone, Griff Garrison will be there, and just like Bad News Brown showed me, or just like Rick Martel showed me, you just like Tom Prichard showed me or Pat Patterson showed me or Michael Hayes showed me or Bret Hart showed me, Iโm in that stage of my career. So if I can get in there with Griff Garrison, what is a 30-second match gonna do for Griff Garrison? But suddenly now, you get a couple like, โWoah, he almost took that thing.โ Well now you add in the element of the story, like, Copeland took this kid maybe a little lightly, and thereโs something to him. Itโs also an opportunity for him to get on a microphone. Itโs an opportunity for reps in front of an audience that will have eyes actually watching because thereโs a character in there that they know. That to me is all that needs to be said. If he can get in there and we have five minutes of time in there, I feel like he can learn more in the five minutes than he would in probably 200 matches with people of the same experience. I know that sounds kind of cocky and egotistical, but thatโs the way it was for me when I was his age. Thatโs what this is. Thatโs why. Thatโs why I wanna work a guy like Griff Garrison. Thatโs why, put me in there with Dante Martin or Lee Moriarty or Zak Zodiac. This is a part within the story that Christian and I are telling, where we can do this and add another layer in the final book that is this story. Thatโs so fun to me. I think nowadays, people are so, โWell, why isnโt it this? Why isnโt it right now?โ Then if you give them right now, โWell, they did it too quick.โ This is another chapter. While they continue to write more chapters on their end, Iโm gonna write over here on this end, and thereโs always a plan. Sometimes, like my favorite stories when I was growing up, and I know itโs a different time, but Steamboat/Savage, let โem wrestle for a year.โ
You can check out the complete podcast below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)