9 Wrestlers Who Fell Off HARD In 2025

5. Adam Copeland

Adam Copeland had a shocker in 2025, and he set the tone early by renaming himself ‘Cope’. This was a disastrous nickname on at least three levels.

It’s an insult used by young people, and since Copeland actually had to “cope” in that infamously awkward exchange with Ricky Starks, it was all too fitting. It sounded like a name he’d have to use in TNA, since ‘Edge’ is WWE’s intellectual property. Also, and this is the worst of it, he gave himself the nickname. AEW fans seem to like the guy - or they like Alter Bridge - but they don’t love him like they love Hangman Page, Will Ospreay, Orange Cassidy and the like. Nobody else shortened his surname affectionately - which made it seem as if he was in love with himself.

Is he in love with himself?

This is a wrestler obsessed with his own lore, making constant callbacks to his history…in WWE. If Cope left AEW and returned a few years down the line, he’d still be referencing Edge. There’s not much ‘Cope’ has done on his own to warrant a reference.

His self-important streak notwithstanding, Cope’s performance level verged on awful at times. His intense, dour promos continued the charade that the Ultimate Opportunist was actually Jack Reacher all along. He wanted to work a “gritty NWA” match against Jon Moxley at Revolution, which made his decision to do a 2004 WWE main event a particularly boring mystery. He was mean-spirited and very unfunny in his mini-programme against Stokely Hathaway. And while his team-up with Christian Cage was fun, it wasn’t amazing, was it?

Also, Cope referenced Edge’s history in WWE in the match against FTR because he can’t help himself.