Adam Copeland says he believes Tony Khan would have allowed him to make a one-off WWE appearance to face longtime rival John Cena during Cena’s retirement tour.
Speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show on Tuesday, August 18, Copeland said AEW was never the roadblock. He stressed, though, that he never actually pursued the match and that his belief WWE would have turned it down comes from personal experience and his own assumptions.
“Here’s what I realized. They could link to each other. One place didn’t want it to. So, okay.
Absolutely [Tony would have been okay with it]. I truly believe that because he knows what it would’ve meant to a very large segment of the wrestling fan. I can see it from all sides. I really can. But John knew I was there in spirit. No [he did not explore it].
I assumed, and a lot of these are assumptions, but having been there long enough and knowing how the mindset is there, I realized it ain’t gonna happen. If it were up to me and John, sure.”
The possibility never reached the negotiation stage. In November 2025, Tony Khan told Helwani that WWE never contacted AEW about bringing Copeland in for Cena’s farewell.
Cena and Copeland built one of the defining rivalries of their careers. It traces back to New Year’s Revolution 2006, when Edge cashed in Money in the Bank on Cena to win his first WWE Championship.
Even without a final match, both men paid tribute to each other throughout 2025. Cena worked Copeland’s Spear into his farewell tour, while Copeland returned the favor at AEW All Out by hitting Cena’s signature moves, including the Five Knuckle Shuffle and the Attitude Adjustment.
John Cena officially retired from in-ring competition on December 13, 2025, losing to Gunther at Saturday Night’s Main Event in Washington, D.C.