Tony Khan Would Have Been Open To Adam Copeland Appearing During John Cena's Retirement Tour

AEW CEO Tony Khan has revealed he would have supported Adam Copeland making an appearance during John Cena's retirement tour, but he was ultimately never approached about it by WWE.

"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," Khan told Metro.

Khan's comments come after Adam Copeland said on the Ariel Helwani Show that he believed Tony Khan would have been okay with him making a WWE appearance for John Cena's retirement tour, but it never happened because WWE didn't want it to.

"Here's what I realised, they could link to each other. One place doesn't want it to, so okay. Absolutely (Tony Khan would have been okay with it.) I truly believe that, yeah... I can see it from all sides. But, you know, John knew I was there in spirit," Copeland stated.

Tony Khan has allowed AEW talents to appear on WWE TV in the past, including Billy Gunn at the 2019 WWE Hall of Fame induction for D-Generation X, Chris Jericho on Broken Skull Sessions, and Bryan Danielson to pay tribute to John Cena on a 2022 episode of Raw. WWE and AEW continue to have a largely hostile relationship, though, with WWE often counterprogramming AEW pay-per-views.

John Cena did pay tribute to Adam Copeland, FKA Edge, during his retirement tour as he hit an Edge-esque Spear to Sami Zayn on the September 5, 2025, episode of SmackDown. A couple of weeks later at AEW All Out, Adam Copeland paid his own tribute to his long-time WWE rival by hitting Cash Wheeler with a Five-Knuckle Shuffle and Attitude Adjustment.