Adam Copeland is eyeing some big New Japan matches

After debuting for AEW on Sunday night (Oct. 1) at WrestleDream, Adam Copeland’s spoken repeatedly about feeling “free”.

That doesn’t just mean “free to film intro vignettes with Darby Allin on the streets of Seattle at all hours of the night”. The WWE Hall of Famer tells Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso it also means fulfilling a long-held desire to wrestle in for New Japan Pro-Wrestling:

“I’ve never wrestled at Wrestle Kingdom. I’ve never wrestled at Tokyo Dome. How about a match against Kazuchika Okada? That would be pretty cool. I’m pretty excited by that.”

The Rated R Superstar just name-dropped NJPW’s biggest show, venue and star. He says he likes to challenge himself. He certainly aims high.

He’s not just looking across the Pacific for first-time and dream matches, though.

“How about Jon Moxley? Hell yeah. A singles match in AEW against Bryan Danielson? Miro? Claudio Castagnoli? Kenny Omega? Will Ospreay? Adam Page? Chris Jericho? Malakai Black? FTR in a tag? Teaming with Darby against the Young Bucks? Facing Darby? Facing Sting? A promo battle with Eddie Kingston? The possibilities, they’re keeping me awake at night. These new matchups are all super exciting.”

Right now, Copeland’s first AEW match is set for next Tuesday against Luchasaurus when Dynamite goes head-to-head with NXT (and fka Edge’s old rival John Cena).

Elsewhere in the interview, Copeland says there’s no hard feelings between he & WWE (“I guarantee you this — they’re not mad. I’m not mad.”) and makes another plea to fans of work there who might hesitant/hostile toward his new employer:

“Since I came back [to WWE in 2020], you’ve pretty much got Adam Copeland, even if I was going by a nickname–Edge–that was pretty well known. Now I’ll go into the ring as Adam Copeland. That’s the only change. I’m still me.

“If this isn’t for you, then I won’t take it personally. But if you enjoy watching someone love what they do, then tune in. If you want to come on this ride with me, I’ll make sure there is room. Hop on.”

You can read SI’s entire interview with Adam Copeland here.