When Adam Copeland debuted in AEW at WrestleDream 2023, it marked the end of a decades-spanning (albeit injury-marred) tenure with WWE. Copeland the only man thus far to jump ship despite double-digit WWE world title reigns; given this high profile, it's safe to say the landscape would have been a lot different if he'd made the opposite decision.
Known throughout his career as Edge, Copeland came into WWE in 1996 and quickly established himself in the tag team ranks alongside Christian, with the two of them going on to hold the tag team titles together seven times. But he found the lion's share of his success after splitting from Christian, winning 11 world titles, five Intercontinental titles, and sevenmore tag title reigns with the likes of Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, and HulkHogan. In 2011, Copelandwas forced out of wrestling with spinal stenosis, and for a long time, it seemed that was the end of his time in the ring. But at Royal Rumble 2020, Copeland made a shocking return; his revitalized WWE career would include winning the 2021 men's Rumble match, main-eventing WrestleMania 37, and founding (and then feuding with) The Judgment Day.
After a few years, however, Copeland's journey would ultimately take him out of WWE and back to his oldest friend in the business. He wrestled his last WWE match on "SmackDown" on August 18 in his hometown of Toronto, celebrating his 25th anniversary with the company with a win over Sheamus. In AEW, he and Christian exchanged utterances of 'go f*** yourself' and feuded over the TNT Championship before finally going on a reunion run that saw them defeat FTR at All Out 2025, also in Toronto. Copeland is currently absent from AEW, but with WrestleDream coming up again two years after his debut, one can't help but to think what could have been if he had stayed in WWE instead.
As his time as Edge drew to a close, "The Rated R Superstar" concluded his feud with Finn Balor in a WrestleMania 39 Hell in a Cell bout before eventually returning to the fold in pursuit of the title he never actually lost. He never did manage to get near the revived World Heavyweight Championship before decamping for AEW, as he was pinned by AJ Styles in a triple threat also involving Rey Mysterio in the first round of a tournament to crown the inaugural champion. Styles went on to defeat another future AEW star, Bobby Lashley, in the semi-finals, only to eventually lose to eventual inaugural champion Seth Rollins.
However, if Edge says in WWE, maybe that pathway looks a little different. Maybe he advances in that first round, pinning one of his new generation rivals in Styles and locking up with Bobby Lashley for, amazingly, what would have been their first-ever singles match. He wins that, and it's another rivalry renewed in the main event: Seth Rollins, the man he had beaten at Hell in a Cell in 2021, and this time it's for the World Heavyweight Championship the one that, and you may get this by now, he never technically lost.
Edge remaining with AEW throws another aspect of the timeline into flux, that being his ongoing or at the very least, recently ended reunion with Christian.
Christian last appeared in WWE the same way Edge returned: via a surprise entrance into the Royal Rumble match. Unlike his long-time partner, however, Christian had already spent time outside WWE during the years Edge was cementing himself as a main-eventer, and his subsequent moving on from the company in 2021 saw him brought into AEW just two months later.
Obviously, even by the very premise of this journey into the never-was, it would have never been a sure thing that their reunion would actually happen in WWE. But it's worth considering the possibility that Christian could have done the reverse of what his brother-from-another-mother did, walking away from AEW and returning to WWE for their final, and presumably Hall of Fame-adjacent, run together as a tag team. WWE has twice the amount of tag titles than AEW, so it wouldn't be the remotest stretch to say they could have yet another run as tag team champions.
Of course, that's assuming Christian would return as a friend to Edge, since he could have re-emerged and equally told Edge, in a WWE sponsor-friendly way, to go and fudge himself. And maybe that would have set in turn an entirely different spin on their real-life AEW feud without even considering what Christian could get up to on his own during one last WWE run.
As it stands, Edge will go down on the WWE honors list for his 11 world title reigns, putting him in esteemed company below just Hulk Hogan, Triple H, Randy Orton, Ric Flair, and the "Greatest of All Time" John Cena.
It's hard to say if he had stayed then he would have been able to make a push at the names at the top of that list, but given that he could easily have won the World Heavyweight Championship, he would have at least one more, tying him with his childhood idol and former tag partner, Hogan. It would have required him to win three world titles to match Orton and Triple H, and that is where this fantasy would get a little delusional. But the very fact that he would be in the conversation for chasing the record and present to do something about it would have surely led to a confrontation that's being clamored for as this is written.
After they threw nods to one another in their matches, there was a widespread expectation that Copeland could return to WWE and face Cena on his retirement tour. Triple H even directly addressed the notion, appearing to throw cold water on the idea, but if Copeland had never left, it seems very likely that Cena vs.Edge would have taken place one last time in 2025. Edge himself might also have considered a WWE retirement tour of his own though it remains to be seen how AEW will send him off into the sunset, should he remain with Tony Khan's promotion until the end of his storied career.
