Cope says that, at the base of wrestling, it’s about storytelling and not the moves.
Cope has been in the main event scene since he returned at AEW Worlds End, where he set his sights on AEW World Champion Jon Moxley. He has been feuding with Moxley and the Death Riders ever since. This has been one of AEW’s featured stories throughout 2025 up to this point.
Speaking with Jon Alba for The Takedown on SI, Cope discussed AEW‘s emphasis on storytelling in recent months and explained why it was so important.
“Everybody can have a good match if you’re at this stage, you know? And people can do wrestling holds. It’s when to do them. Do you know the right place? The right time? All of those things. And that becomes easier when you have a storyline built into it,” he said. “And so you look at like, Ricochet and Swerve. And yeah, they can have a spectacular match. But man, it’s going to mean so much more now because of Nana and Jimmy Rave’s robe. So you add that element of story to it. That, I’ve always said, makes the match that much more.”
Cope Highlights Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock
Cope then pointed to Hulk Hogan’s WrestleMania match against The Rock as an example, as he said that they didn’t do a lit of moves. He noted that the intrigue in the match was the story, and it wasn’t about moves.
“Hogan and Rock didn’t do a whole lot of wrestling moves in their match because they didn’t have to,” he said. “They had the people with these [poses], and they had them with just the enormity of it. But it was story. It wasn’t about moves. And at the base of it all, it’s still got to be about story. The moves are garnish.”
“You can tell stories with moves, especially if it’s a cold match and it’s a one-off. You can,” he said. “But give me those three, four-month stories with a culmination, or a six-month story, or a year-long story.”
At AEW Revolution, Cope will challenge Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship.
RELATED: Cope Says He Didn’t Fully Understand Death Riders Angle At First, Wanted To Figure It Out
