WrestleMania is the culmination of months' worth of storylines in WWE. It'due south where feuds terminate, new stars are built-in and legends render. I of those returning legends is Adam Copeland, better known equally Border.

Following a surprise and near-miraculous return at last twelvemonth'southward Majestic Rumble, Border will enter the weekend challenging for the Universal Title, his first title match in a decade.

"I'm trying to make sure I soak all of this in and really sit in the pocket of this, because I didn't think this would happen again," Copeland told Newsweek recently. "I don't want to await past it, I don't want to get caught upward in the locomotive that is WrestleMania season, and sometimes when that happens you lose runway of merely how amazing this job is—permit alone the fact that I had it ripped away for ix years and I got it back. I'm really merely trying to savor it all."

edge wins royal rumble 2021
Edge after winning the 2021 Royal Rumble pay-per-view. WWE

10 years ago, Copeland had his wrestling career come to an precipitous finish. Later successfully defending the Globe Heavyweight Championship against Alberto Del Rio at WrestleMania 27, Copeland, who had a history of cervix injuries and previously had surgery, suffered some other during the lucifer. Information technology eventually required a second surgery.

Just 24 hours after sustaining the injury, Copeland appeared on the Apr 11, 2011 episode of Monday Night RAW to relinquish the title and denote his retirement.

"It was a strange fourth dimension because information technology wasn't by choice. I was told I had no choice and this was it," Copeland recalled to Newsweek. "And then that forces you lot pretty speedily to come to some kind of decision. Like, 'OK, there's no selection in this affair. I'd better wrap my heed effectually this, otherwise, emotionally, this is not going to exist a healthy thing.'"

Copeland explained that having the pick of wrestling again taken away from him actually made it easier to cope with the fact that he wouldn't be able to do what he'southward known his entire adult life.

The so-37-twelvemonth-old didn't have to think about whether he could withal wrestle. Now, he said he tin can expect back at that time of his life and discover comfort in knowing that he tried and left it all out there in the band. And while he admits there were some rough patches of trying to figure out how to navigate the "emotional roller coaster" of his situation—he says that he didn't consume wrestling for three or four years later on his retirement—information technology led to some interesting acting opportunities.

Copeland's RAW retirement speech caught the attention of producers on the supernatural Syfy series Haven, and they decided to bring him on for one episode. It went well enough to actually turn into a total of 41 episodes. That office also catapulted the old champion to other acting roles, on series like Vikings and The Wink.

"Acting fell in my lap and that actually opened up a artistic doorway for me that had been closed, and that really helped me kind of plough the corner and go, 'OK, that aspect of my life is washed, and at present I'one thousand moving into this new chapter,'" Copeland said.

Of course, the career change didn't mean that Copeland's love for the wrestling business simply disappeared. He merely needed time away.

Copeland credits Jay Reso, a longtime friend and onetime tag team partner better known to wrestling fans as Christian, for his return to the ring. Years agone, WWE's Executive Producer Kevin Dunn offered the duo a chance to create an original show for the WWE Network streaming service. Copeland said they were given "carte blanche," which resulted in a wrestling sketch-comedy evidence called The Border and Christian Testify That Totally Reeks of Awesomeness.

"Jay was still watching [wrestling], merely I realized I got to get caught up now, considering I don't know the current product, so I need to see some of these current characters and meet how nosotros can fit them into skits," Copeland said. "In doing that, I'g seeing matches between The Usos and The Wyatt Family and going, 'Wow.'"

One time the sketch one-act show and Eastward&C'due south Pod of Awesomeness—a podcast in which the duo spoke about wrestling, music and other topics—were upwards and running, so was Copeland's path back to WWE television.

It'southward not uncommon for legends to appear in various roles on WWE's weekly television shows later they retire. WWE finds ways for its legends to be involved, whether information technology's in an administrative office, like on-air commissioner or general manager or via a backstage segment, merely Copeland wasn't interested at kickoff. He was determined about staying away from the business; but, once he finally became open to information technology, he wanted to be used sparingly and with purpose.

"I didn't want to be that guy that showed up every week and was just in backstage skits," Copeland explained. "I had to get away. I just had to become away from information technology."

Copeland appeared in various segments throughout the years, merely information technology wasn't until the summertime of 2019 that everything changed. SummerSlam 2019 took identify in Toronto, near Copeland's hometown of Orangeville. The Rated R Superstar interrupted a live performance past Elias and, to the shock of everyone in omnipresence and watching from abode, Edge "Speared" the troubadour. It was Copeland's commencement in-band "bump" since he retired.

"That Spear to Elias was a visual audible. We caught eyes and I was like, 'We gotta practise this. This crowd wants this,'" Copeland recalled. "Thank God for Elias because y'all know to exist the performer that he is, to selection up on a visual cue similar that, it says a lot about him and information technology really kickstarted this whole thing."

Months earlier, Copeland was on a bike ride near his home in Asheville, North Carolina, with current WWE superstar Sheamus. Copeland crashed his bicycle during the ride, but he got on his feet and felt fine. For someone with past cervix issues, it was a surprising evolution.

A physician confirmed to Copeland that the "hardware" in his cervix was doing well, but when he asked nigh wrestling once more, his doctor couldn't answer. Copeland and then got a 2d stance, which cleared him to resume wrestling. He wouldn't be able to practice the 220 shows a year that WWE superstars unremarkably do, but he got the green light to re-enter the ring.

"I had a vi-60 minutes drive home back to Asheville and I went and found a donut place, and I bought half a dozen donuts and I cranked Foo Fighters and ate donuts on the six-hour drive home and I called [my wife, ex-wrestler Beth Phoenix] and was like, 'Love, I'grand cleared,'" Copeland said. "The windows were downwardly, the music was cranked. I'k stuffing my confront and I'm just similar, 'What is happening right now?'"

What happened next was the return of Edge. Later on his appearance at SummerSlam 2019, Copeland didn't get back into the ring until Jan 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic put the whole world on concur and forced the WWE to practice shows without fans nowadays. That didn't stop Border, though, from taking on his former rival, Randy Orton, over the summer of 2020. The feud culminated at the Backlash pay-per-view in June, which was promoted every bit the "greatest wrestling match ever." Orton came abroad as the victor, but the real lasting bear upon from the match was Edge vehement a tricep that put him on the shelf for months. But despite that injury disrupting his comeback run, Copeland took it in pace.

"That [injury] was almost like water off the duck's back," Copeland said. "It sounds like it should have affected me more. I oasis't done this for ix years and I simply wrestled for 48 minutes against a guy who is at the absolute tip-pinnacle of this manufacture. Okay, there was some fallout. I tore my triceps, that sucks, only human, I've had way worse than a torn tricep."

Copeland can list off the injuries he'southward accumulated while in a wrestling ring. A torn achilles, torn pectoral muscles, no labrum and the triple fusion cervix surgery that put a rubber disc in his spine—he'southward had enough. He drew on those past experiences to put himself in the mentality of rehabbing and getting back in shape for his return. At 47 years old, Copeland not only fabricated it back in fourth dimension for the 2021 Regal Rumble in January, but he actually won the thirty-human being battle royale. It was the second such victory of his career, stamping his ticket to this year's WrestleMania to wrestle for the Universal Title.

The man looking to finish Border's pursuit of his first championship in 10 years is the Universal Champion, Roman Reigns.

Reigns, a second generation WWE superstar, has held the title since August 2020. With a new attitude and persona, Reigns—once the company's biggest babyface fifty-fifty though fans refused to cheer for him like one—is now the WWE'southward biggest heel and the mountain to climb at WrestleMania.

"This is the Roman that I knew was always in that location," Copeland said. "As a performer, when you see a guy and experience similar they got the handcuffs on him, that'south what I always thought when I saw him. Just in terms of his promo and his character and things like that, because I'd come across him in the ring and I'm like, 'Man, this guy gets it.'"

The pairing of Reigns with advocate Paul Heyman, whom Copeland says has been instrumental in bringing out the strengths in wrestlers dating dorsum to his days in ECW, has been key for Reigns. "Information technology's really, actually great to see a talent just connect and fire on all cylinders like that," Copeland said.

When Border won the Rumble and challenged Reigns for his title at WrestleMania, it was originally scheduled to be a i-on-1 affair. However, the months leading up to the Showcase of the Immortals has seen the Universal Title match change to include former champion Daniel Bryan in a triple-threat bout.

Despite Edge feeling that Bryan is stealing his chance to get champion, the man behind the character has nothing simply wonderful things to say well-nigh the performer. Copeland calls Bryan a technician'due south handbook and likens him to WWE Hall of Famer Bret "The Hitman" Hart, because he makes the virtually out of everything in front of him while too making the story being told relatable and conceivable.

For about two months, Bryan has challenged Reigns for the Universal Championship, and he's come close to winning on multiple occasions—Border toll him at the Fastlane pay-per-view in March. This has given Bryan leverage to get inserted into the match at WrestleMania. And it's also helped Copeland realize that he needed to resurrect a familiar part of Edge'due south graphic symbol.

"I was just playing the grizzled veteran. I'g Logan. I'thousand Rocky Balboa. I'm trying to get through and show that I still got that fighting spirit, but I don't know. It was the add-on of Bryan into this that fabricated me realize I tin can't practice that. That's not gonna work now," Copeland explained.

"Now I accept to flip the switch and find the Rated R Superstar once more. I gotta notice the graphic symbol that's dangerous. I gotta detect a unlike side to this three-man lucifer because Bryan is the perennial underdog. He's that guy who is always fighting from underneath and won't stop fighting, and then I can't have that lane now," Copeland connected. "And because nobody'south going to practice that lane meliorate than him, I had to pivot and figure something out. I but got to dip into that guy again. That guy who's merely motivation is the title; not only happy to be dorsum and try and hang, or try and go toe-to-toe with this era."

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Border after rediscovering the Rated R Superstar on an episode of 'Friday Night SmackDown' WWE

In the past, the "Rated R Superstar" was advised, barbarous and the ultimate opportunist. This iteration has "higher stakes," according to Copeland. Bringing some elements of truth into his character and promos, something he's washed since his return, this Rated R Superstar is more unsafe.

"Before [retiring], I knew in that location was gonna be another match. Now there'south that added layer of every match could be information technology. That adds a whole new twist of desperation for the Rated R Superstar," Copeland said. "That character was desperate before, simply now it'south to a completely different level and that makes it really fun."

Just don't telephone call him a heel—he'due south simply Edge, according to Copeland. In that location's a grayness expanse with this version of the character, where the only thing that matters to him is the championship and it doesn't matter who is in his manner. The multi-fourth dimension champion calls Edge a complex character closer to Walter White of Breaking Bad, rather than a clear-cut skilful guy or bad guy.

Other circumstances around Edge have changed, too. WWE looks different compared to when Copeland was working total-fourth dimension a decade agone. At that place are at present pay-per-views every month, and two shows to be promoted between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. NBC Universal purchasing the rights to the WWE Network for its Peacock streaming service too changed WWE's sensibilities equally to who would be featured on its shows, especially Fastlane, the beginning pay-per-view on the service.

"You probably want Roman Reigns on your show, but you don't desire him facing the guy he's gonna confront at WrestleMania, so how exercise you fill that time?" Copeland said, explaining why Daniel Bryan was added. "And sometimes, in doing that, you lot realize something's communicable fire and peradventure we need to go a different management here and figure this out now. That's but the nature of the current beast. Having a pay-per-view every calendar month, things are in such transition at all times. Everything's fluid, so there is truly a chance to alter an entire direction of the storyline because something's feeling this way and that mode."

With the WrestleMania 37 friction match set for this Lord's day, Apr 11, Copeland has a chance to leave Raymond James Stadium in Tampa equally the new Universal Champion. He'd become the focal signal of Friday Night SmackDown, and when WWE starts traveling once again and welcoming back fans, they'll be coming to run into him. Simply Copeland was quick to reiterate that his focus is on WrestleMania.

"When I say I want to be in the pocket of this thing, I want to enjoy it, then if I start going as well far ahead, I'1000 non enjoying information technology, I'm non savoring it. You lot know, there's a Pearl Jam song called 'Present Tense' and it just talks well-nigh living in the nowadays tense and that'south really what I'chiliad doing with this this whole thing, and then I don't want to get ahead of myself."

And who could blame him? A new affiliate is about to be written in a career that everybody thought was already consummate exactly 10 years ago.

"I don't know if it will fully dawn on me. The gravity of it, or the specialness of the fact that it's x years to the day, y'all can't write stuff like that," Copeland said. "That'south only one of those happy accidents, and I don't know if it will fully dawn on me until I'1000 in the ring and the intros are happening and we're in front of a oversupply over again. Maybe that's when it will all come crashing down on me again."

WrestleMania 37 is scheduled for Sat, April 10 and Dominicus, April 11 starting at 7 p.m. EDT exclusively on Peacock.