While it would be unfair to say WWE completely dropped the ball on Edge's return, it's hard to disagree with those who believe the Rated R Superstar wasn't used as well as he could have been.
For better or worse, the company decided the former multi-time WWE Champion should be a part-time talent and that led to some largely underwhelming, stop-and-start feuds. The pandemic did little to help matters, of course, and when the time came to renew his contract, Edge realised nothing was going to change.
He's made it clear that there are no hard feelings but chose to sign with AEW so he can wrestle on a regular basis. Talking on the Not Sam podcast (h/t WrestlingNews.co), Adam "Edge" Copeland reflected on his WWE run and elaborated on his decision to leave The Judgement Day.
"At one point it was talked about a cauldron with bubbling black fluid and I'm holding a pitchfork, and it's like, whoa," he recalls. "I don't want to do that because that's not going to work. Then there was one week they wanted us to float to the ring. I was like, 'What?' They said, 'Well, no, we'll put it on like a dolly.'"
We've known for a while that Vince McMahon wanted to take the faction down the supernatural route and that idea has thankfully been abandoned since Triple H took control of WWE Creative.
In the same interview, Copeland explained why he went to AEW and how much longer he plans to wrestle:
"I can do this for a limited time, because it is all limited. Even though it's been four or five years back now, it's not like I got another four or five in front of me. I know I don't. We're looking at like a two year window here to be able to get as much done as I can get done, tell as many stories as I can, and try and help talent along the way with that and I need to be there more and to do that and I want to be there more to do that because even still, it's not like the schedule was back when I was riding 220 or 250 days a year."
"At most, it's two times a week and that's very doable to still be the dad I need to be, to be the partner I need to be. I still have the time and the energy to do that because it's not as all consuming as it was. I don't let it be as all consuming as it used to be either. But by the schedule, it just becomes less all consuming. I wanted to be able to do as much as I could while I could and that felt like the place I was going to be able to be allowed to do that. That's when it really, I was like, that's where I gotta go."
Watch the full interview in the player below.