At AEW Double or Nothing Adam Copeland defended the TNT Championship against the House of Black’s Malakai Black. The match took place in a steel cage and neither man held back, torturing one another with absolute brutality. During the match, Copeland climbed to the top of the cage and jumped onto Black who was positioned on a table. That spot would cause Copeland to injure his tibia but he still continued on with the match and retained the championship.
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Shortly after, the “Rated R Superstar” confirmed that he’d gotten surgery in a procedure that took a total of 12 hours. He shared the news to his Instagram on Monday where he was also shown getting back in the gym. In an interview with Busted Open, he reveals that the surgery was “a little complicated.”
“I had the surgery on Monday, and it was a success,” Copeland said. “I guess it got a little complicated just because of where the break is. It’s kind of right above the ankle joint, which is called a peon fracture, apparently. So the cartilage between your ankle and your Tibia and Fibula got squished, and then the break. I guess there were shards of it too, so they had to try and compact it all with the plate and the screws.”
It’s unclear how long Copeland will be out of action, but AEW is currently working to crown a new TNT Champion in his absence. Across AEW programming, several qualifying matches have and will continue to take place to crown the new champion at Forbidden Door. On AEW Dynamite on May 31st, Konosuke Takeshita defeated Penta El Zero Miedo to advance while this week’s Dynamite saw ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe beat “The Machine” Brian Cage. On last night’s Rampage, it was confirmed byย commentary that the qualifying matches will continue on next week’s Dynamite. A ladder match to determine the winner will take place at Forbidden Door later this month.
Copeland joined AEW last October when he debuted at the inaugural WrestleDream pay-per-view. His WWE contract had previously run out and he decided to do one last run in a completely new environment. Outside of his early wrestling days, Copeland had been with WWE for decades. Since he’s been in AEW, he’s been having what some may argue are the best matches of his career. As it stands, he has indicated that he has “about a year and a half” left on his current deal.
“I have about a year and a half left right now,” Copeland revealed on Insight with Chris Van Vliet. “A lot of business trying to get done in that time, there’s a lot of people I want to work with in that time, and I look at it already and I think in the six months I’ve been there I think I’m close to 20 matches already.” (h/tย WrestlingInc.)ย
Copeland has previously gone on record to say that prior to his shocking WWE return at the 2020 Royal Rumble, he was “really close” to joining AEW. Ultimately, it wasn’t the time as Vince McMahon believed that the only place for him to come back would be to WWE.
