Adam Copeland has given an insight into his creative process in putting a match together along with his thoughts on the common criticism that AEW allegedly does not tell stories.
On March 9th, Cope will look to win his 12th World Championship as he challenges Jon Moxley for the title at AEW Revolution. Heading into the match, The Rated R Superstar has taken out The Deathriders one by one and looks to be the one to save the company and the title from Moxley’s stranglehold.
Speaking with Jon Alba of The Takedown on SI, the former TNT Champion spoke about the importance of storytelling in pro wrestling, especially when work-rate is higher than it has ever been:
“Everybody can have a good match if you’re at this stage, you know? And people can do wrestling holds. It’s when to do them. Do you know the right place? The right time? All of those things. And that becomes easier when you have a storyline built into it,” he said. “And so you look at like, Ricochet and Swerve. And yeah, they can have a spectacular match. But man, it’s going to mean so much more now because of Nana and Jimmy Rave’s robe. So you add that element of story to it. That, I’ve always said, makes the match that much more”
“Hogan and Rock didn’t do a whole lot of wrestling moves in their match because they didn’t have to. They had the people with these [poses], and they had them with just the enormity of it. But it was story. It wasn’t about moves. And at the base of it all, it’s still got to be about story. The moves are garnish.”
“You can tell stories with moves, especially if it’s a cold match and it’s a one-off. You can,” he said in admittance. “But give me those three, four-month stories with a culmination, or a six-month story, or a year-long story.”
Also in the interview, Cope pushed back on the notion that AEW does not tell stories, citing the work of Adam Page and Toni Storm along with the ongoing rivalry between Swerve Strickland and Ricochet:
“I see a guy like Hangman do it in every one of his angles, you know, Swerve, you know, and I see what Ricochet has gotten from coming over and having some freedom to be able to start trying to create. And obviously, it was there that whole time,” he said. “To see Toni Storm create this just amazing character, this fun, vibrant thing that’s totally different. So it’s not old, you know, it’s always there. It’s always going to need to be there.”