Adam Copeland Says 2027 Will Be His Last Year in Wrestling

Adam Copeland told a Cleveland crowd on Wednesday night that 2027 will be his last year in professional wrestling. The announcement came minutes after a win, and it turned a qualifying match into the biggest story of the night.

Copeland beat Josh Alexander on the October 14 edition of AEW Dynamite, a three-hour special from Cleveland, to qualify for the Clockwork Carnage match at WrestleDream on Saturday, October 17. After the match he took the microphone and said he is aging out of the business and wanted fans to know his timeline.

The injury that changed his thinking

Copeland said the decision followed what happened to his longtime tag team partner, Christian Cage. Cage was hurt early in a three-way ladder match at All Out on September 26, and Copeland told the crowd Cage suffered three broken ribs, with one rib broken in three places, and a collapsed lung. Cage still finished the match and was reaching for the titles near the end.

Seeing that, Copeland said, pushed him to take stock of his own future. He turns 53 later this month. He has held the AEW TNT Championship twice and the AEW World Tag Team Championship with Cage, but he has never won the AEW World Championship, which is held by Will Ospreay. Copeland said that title is the goal he has to chase before he stops.

What happened next

Don Callis interrupted the speech and told Copeland he would not get to choose how his career ends. Members of the Callis group then attacked Copeland in the ring before Konosuke Takeshita ran in and drove them off.

Copeland now goes to Orlando for WrestleDream on October 17, where the Clockwork Carnage match also includes Will Ospreay, Mike Bailey and Samoa Joe. A win there would move him closer to the one AEW title he has not held, with a final year now on the calendar.