He felt they could not continue to try and do a better version of the match.
Days prior to AEW Worlds End, Sam Roberts conducted a sit-down interview with Adam Copeland. As the conversation went on, various points from Copeland’s in-ring career were delved into.
Looking back at TLC II at WrestleMania 17, Copeland said it was then that he came to the realization that himself, Christian Cage, The Dudley Boyz (Bully Ray & D-Von Dudley) and The Hardys (Matt & Jeff Hardy) could not continue to try and do a better version of the match type.
It was that second TLC in Houston where I had the realization, we can’t continue to try and top this. A, they’re going to get desensitized. They, being the audience and it won’t feel as special anymore and in trying to top it, one of us is going to get really, really injured and we’re going to keep trying. So, I wouldn’t say it was necessarily there where I was like, okay, this is what I need to do now. That didn’t come until later and it didn’t come until I really started understanding what this Rated R Superstar thing was…
At Worlds End, Copeland won his first title in AEW when he pinned Christian Cage to become TNT Champion. He immediately lost the title back to Cage via a contract for a TNT Title match that Killswitch relinquished over to Christian.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Notsam Wrestling with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.