The history of pro wrestling competition rarely sees WWE working together with most major United States competitors. AEW and WWE have done nothing together, despite both promotions strengthening their relationships with other promotions in recent years. It turns out Tony Khan would have allowed AEW’s Adam Copeland aka Edge to appear in WWE for John Cena’s tour if WWE asked him.
Khan revealed the following when asked during an interview promoting AEW All In 2026 in Wembley Stadium:
“I was never asked, and as far as I know, Adam was never asked, so it’s hard to say. But when there have been opportunities to collaborate, I have been collaborative in the past, I never got asked, but if I had been presented a plan and the dates and the information of what was going on, yeah, I would have supported it. But nobody ever asked us or me.”
The biggest news to come from this quote is that Khan won’t automatically deny every single effort to work with WWE. However, one would assume that WWE doesn’t want to associate with AEW based on history. WWE refused to work with WCW during their long run as a competitor, and they didn’t work with TNA until years later when they posed no threat.
Why WWE Didn’t Reach Out For John Cena Tour
Copeland potentially showing up in WWE as an AEW talent to face Cena was more of a fan dream than any real rumor. The match would have made sense in theory due to Edge being arguably the best overall rival from Cena’s long career.
WWE has set a precedent of never wanting to work with companies like WCW and now AEW. It remains unlikely that WWE would have changed their stance unless Cena went out of his way to use his star power to force their hand.
Cena has too much respect for the company to utilize his personal leverage here and instead focused on realistic opponents. AEW letting Edge appear in WWE is irrelevant if WWE didn’t want to play ball and spotlight a talent working elsewhere.
Why Vince McMahon Would Have Considered Match
Vince McMahon is the one to create the standard of WWE refusing to work with competitive promotions, but he would have considered this more than Triple H. Edge not fully connecting with the new boss as well as he did with Vince played a role in him leaving for AEW.
McMahon’s love of both Edge and Cena could have seen him playing ball if Khan did allow Copeland to show up. Edge was considered a “Vince guy” as a homegrown product who ended up having many world title reigns. However, Triple H had no reason to push this since he doesn’t have a great relationship with Copeland.
Fate would see Edge and Cena having their final match many years ago in 2009. Cena did get to face some of his favorite former rivals, like Randy Orton and AJ Styles, before retiring. Copeland is happy in AEW having the final stage of his career teaming with longtime best friend Christian Cage.
Tony Khan Would Have Let Edge Wrestle John Cena in WWE