Adam Copeland Reflects On The ‘Greatest Wrestling Match Ever’
In a recent appearance on Talk is Jericho, Adam Copeland, formerly known as Edge in WWE, reflected on working the ‘Greatest Wrestling Match Ever’ with Randy Orton at WWE Backlash 2020, the subjective nature of the notion, the challenges presented by the hype and the lack of crowd, how Vince McMahon pitched the match, the unfortunate circumstance that resulted in him suffering torn triceps, and more.
Regarding the pressure of delivering a match with such enormous hype, added to the fact that the notion of the “Greatest Wrestling Match Ever” is entirely subjective and ever-evolving even for the same person, Copeland expressed,
“It’s the toughest. I might be biased, but I think that’s the toughest position. There is also no such thing. It’s totally subjective. You probably think of a match when you think of your favorite match, and I think of a match, and then it’s going to change. This month, it might be Austin [Steve Austin] and Bret [Bret Hart] submission match [WrestleMania 13]. Then it might be Nick Bockwinkel and Terry Funk from All Japan.”
Discussing how Vince McMahon pitched the match and how he and Randy approached the match from creative and production aspects, Copeland explained,
“It was pitched to us like that. ‘I have you two guys. You’re gonna have the greatest wrestling match ever.’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘That’s what we should call it.’ ‘Oh.’ He’s a promoter. That’s the way the promoter brain works. Me, as the performer, I’m going, there is no audience and there is no such thing. I really had to wrap my mind around it and go, ‘what angle do I come at this from?’ Just make a love letter to wrestling. That was the idea. ‘Charles [Charles Robinson], I need you in a long-sleeved button up and bow tie.’ I want Howard Finkle to announce us. I want the old MSG thing to come down. Now, hopefully, people understand, ‘this is really just a tip of the hat to what we do.’ Hence, using other people’s finishers.”
Recounting the actual performance of the match, Copeland stated that working a match of such nature with no real crowd was indeed a complex problem, but he decided to focus on the positives and experiment quite a bit. He also revealed that one of those experiments, which he did not end up liking, was what resulted in him tearing his tricep and being forced out of action for several months.
“What else are we going to do? Seriously, what else are we going to do? We had like 50 students from NXT. We did what we could with it. I also had a blast. I’ve often heard, ‘it was edited.’ We did it once, all the way through, 48 minutes. We didn’t have a time limit. We got to the back, ‘you guys went 48 minutes.’ ‘Really? Wow, it felt like 10.’ My stupid idea was, if we wanted to try different things, now we can. What if we picked up some iso shots. Might be kind of cool to cut in. I’m just trying to think of something different. I’m wearing a Go Pro on my head and I was going to take an RKO so it feels like a first-person player taking an RKO. Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t. I take the RKO, and I’m really trying to cover Randy here because we’ve gotten cold. It’s after the match, we did the 48 (minutes), we’re just doing four pick up shots. I take the RKO with a camera on my head, tear my tricep. It was an hour 20 in between. I took it too far. Then, I saw it with the edits in and I hated it. Vince loved it. I saw the unedited 48 minutes straight through and I loved it, even with no audience. Randy and I have great chemistry. I’m proud of that one, especially considering the scenario and circumstances, to walk in and still try and pull it off. I’m proud of that.”
(h/t Fightful)
