Two friends and I decided to get tattoos of different animals. My one friend got a bulldog. My other friend got a bull, I think, and then I got a shark. Two years later, there was a cartoon called 'Street Sharks,' and by happenstance, it looked eerily reminiscent of my tattoo. Actually, it was identical.
I've always just introduced myself as Adam Copeland. I never really thought too much about it.
Being at Wrestlemania 6, I remember being completely in shock and dumbfounded when Hulk Hogan missed the leg drop and Warrior hit the splash and got the 1-2-3. I was devastated.
I am not a video game guy at all. Once it got past Super Mario Bros. and past two buttons, they lost me. I was like, 'I do not have the abilities to be able to do this. It doesn't work.'
Wrestling has to be more aggressive. It has to be bigger; it has to translate to the back of a football stadium. With acting, when that camera is up close, they can see your nose hairs twitch, and you have to pull back everything for it not to look clownish. There is that different mindset.
The way I look at it is I had to retire as world champion with my last match at WrestleMania.
I got put through a ladder by Jeff Hardy at WrestleMania 23, had bruises from the ladder rungs across my back, but I was back the next night. I did the hardcore match with Mick Foley at WrestleMania 22, went through a flaming table, and had thumbtacks in my back, but I was out there the next night. That mentality does get ingrained in you.
Obviously, being WWE Champion was my main goal in life, but when I started acting, the main thing I wanted to do was play a superhero or supervillain.
I greatly appreciate that people would like to see me have one more match or comeback or, 'Daniel Bryan got cleared, so why can't you?' I will never be cleared. Mine is a completely different injury. He had neck issues, but it wasn't his neck issues that retired him, actually. It was the concussion issues.
I saved everything, all my gear over the years: my trench coats and stuff that I have saved. It is all packed away nicely and neatly in vacuum-sealed bags and all that stuff.
Sometimes, taking a break and going somewhere else and, almost, for both parties, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
It was never my intention to be an actor, and I don't know if I'll ever call myself an actor because I've always said that would be a slap in the face to proper actors, but it's fun, and thankfully, I've had the luxury in my adult life that anything I've done has been fun.
That's one of the things I always tried to do as champ. If you saw me at house shows, I was going to make you think I was going down. If I was wrestling Kane, I could lose. I'm wrestling Batista, I could lose. I'm wrestling Big Show, Undertaker, you name it, I could lose.
It's interesting: I never got stressed before wrestling matches. I always felt completely confident that I had done everything I could do, all my mental preparations when I sat down and envisioned the match, so I never felt stressed.
There's not too much Edge in Adam Copeland, but there's a little bit of my sarcasm and my sense of humor, I guess, but I'm not a sleazy, raving maniac like the character of Edge could be.
I was one of the innovators of the TLC Match; some would arguably say that I am the master of the Ladder Match.
When I was a kid, I said this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a wrestler.
I was never stupid with my money, because I grew up without it. So when I started to make some, I was like, 'Okay, first rule of thumb, I'm not buying it unless I've got the money to buy it,' so I have no debt.
Every tattoo on my body symbolizes a phase in my career.
Chris Jericho and I were really excited about teaming together, but we didn't get to sink our teeth into what we could have done as a team. We really wanted to throw it back to the glory days of Pat Patterson and Ray Stevens. We were committed, we were coming up with team moves, and all of the things were made to work.
