AEW star Adam Copeland recently addressed criticism surrounding perceived overly violent spots in modern professional wrestling, stating that the live audience reaction is his primary focus and predicting that the industry will naturally continue to evolve towards more intensity.
Speaking with Kenny McIntosh of Inside The Ropes Magazine, Copeland pushed back against negative online reactions to certain high-risk moments.
“I don’t really care about the reaction, besides the live reaction. That, to me, is the reaction that matters, and they were into it live,” Copeland stated. “Hey, I get it, I do. Because I understand that it can be diminishing returns and all of those things. You also have to know your audience and you also have to understand that times have changed, for good, bad, however you want to look at it.”
Copeland further elaborated on his belief that wrestling, like other forms of entertainment and technology, inherently progresses towards greater extremes.
“I like to think I’ve always been a proponent of understanding that things do change; it’s going to be more athletic now, it’s going to be more violent now, and things just naturally tend to get ‘more’ as time goes on,” he explained. “I mean, you look at the internet. I remember dial up and now there’s AI, things change, that’s just the nature of life. That’s the nature of the world.”
He concluded by reiterating his focus on the immediate audience’s response as his measure of success.
“So I don’t really factor in how people react after the fact. I just know they’re into it live, that’s my job, and that’s how I gauge things.”
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