One of the most memorable rivalries during the Thunderdome Era was the feud between Randy Orton and Adam Copeland (Edge). Their feud culminated at WrestleMania Backlash in what was promoted as The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever.
During a recent interview with Sam Roberts, The Rated R Superstar opened up about the match. Adam Copeland first shared how he prepared for the match.
“What I tried to think of is, ‘What are the elements of some of the greatest matches I’ve seen? Let’s pull those in.’ So I was like, ‘Hey Charles [Robinson], long-sleeve shirt, bow tie, cool?’ ‘Yeah… Okay.’ ‘Can we get Fink’s MSG thing to come down? Can we get his voice?’ ‘Yeah, we can.’ ‘Okay. Amazing!’ And it’s just like we just got to go out and work. And if we hit some different finishers from over the years, then maybe people will start to understand that it’s a love letter to wrestling. It’s really what it’s supposed to be.”
Having no audience was a big challenge
Copeland said that their idea wasn’t possible, pointing out how the match took place during the pandemic. Despite that, he’s still proud of the match.
“I’m proud of it because we got thrown into the worst or most difficult scenario I can think of. I can’t think of too many others that are more difficult than that. In terms of living up to some sort of expectation that is placed on this thing that has nothing to do with you,” he explained, “And going, ‘Okay, the promoter is trying to promote. I get it.’ But damn! We are pushing this boulder up this mountain. And it’s… ‘How do you get it there?’
“So it was really trying to wrap my mind around a different way to come at it. Then as I’m driving down from Asheville to Orlando for all of those tapings, no cars on the road, it’s The Walking Dead like I’m on 75 and I didn’t pass a car. And I’m driving and I’m going, ‘What do I do? What do I do? Ooh! What if we treated this like a gaming in first person. And what would an audience member feel like if they were actually taking an RKO? So what if I wear a GoPro? And what if I get RKO’d? And we use that in a replay.’ I’m thinking just for replays. So that’s my mindset.”
Copeland injured himself during the match
Copeland noted that during the tapings of the match, he injured his triceps. He also mentioned that his right wrist was surgically fused during the time he was away from wrestling.
“So we go out there, we go 48 minutes, come to the back, they’re like, ‘You guys went 48 minutes.’ I was like, ‘Really? Man, it felt like 15. That was fun. We had a blast.’ And then it was like, ‘You still want to do those pickup shots?’ I was like, ‘Well, we’re here. We might as well see if they work. If they don’t, hey no biggie.’ So we do the pickups. We get cold in between. And as we’re doing the pickups, I take the RKO, blow my tricep. In the pickups. So I get home, I get surgery, they send me the match.
“But I also forgot in the time that I was retired, I had my wrist fused. So my wrist doesn’t bend. I just didn’t factor in, taking moves… Certain moves are going to be different with a fused wrist… So you take an RKO for the first time, ‘Oh! Wait a second.’ Pop.”
Vince McMahon wanted to add more camera angles into the match and Adam Copeland was not a fan of it
Adam Copeland revealed that he enjoyed watching the match when he received the tapes. But Vince McMahon wanted to add crowd noises and camera angles that Copeland did not like at all.
“So I get home. They send me the match. Our 48 through. And I loved it. I was like, ‘All right. No such thing as the greatest wrestling match ever but I love that.’ And they were like, ‘We want to add sound. We want to add an audience.’ I was like, ‘[Cringing] Okay, all right. Okay. We are trying new stuff. Cool.’ We got shit on for it. Then everybody else started doing it.
“Okay fine, but then Vince wanted the different camera shots and I hated them. I hated them. Because when I saw it in it, took me out of the match. I was like, ‘It totally takes me out of the match. Let’s just keep the straight match.’ ‘Yeah, but he [Vince McMahon] really loves them.’ So then it became, well they cut and they stopped, and this and that and that pissed me off so much. And then they added in those three shots.
“But, what I will say and my only… But if there’s one thing I wish could have happened is to have that match in front of an audience. If we had just… Do what we do, 48 minutes in front of an audience, man! It would have been awesome. It would have been so much fun. And it was still fun. But that might be the biggest challenge I feel like I ever faced,” Adam Copeland said.
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