IGN Sports: Why do you think you're better as a heel than as a babyface?
Edge: I think in certain aspects I'm better as a heel, in other aspects I'm better as a babyface. I think when it comes to wrestling, I wrestle better as a babyface because I sell better as a babyface than I do as a heel. I'm better using the long, exaggerated Ricky Steamboat style of selling than I am the bump-and-feed, bump-and-feed, Rick Rude style of selling. It's something I need to work on, and it's something where I need to get back in my groove to get better at. When it comes to character, I think I'm a lot more effective as a heel because I can add a lot more layers to the character. This is something that I hope I'm doing now so that one day, if I do turn babyface again, I can keep all of those layers of the character and people will accept it. Initially I went from Edge and Christian, a heel tag team, to being a singles babyface, and it was hard. My character as a babyface never added that layer, that layer that Rock or Austin have, but they got that layer when they were heels. I never got that chance as a singles heel to add all those layers so when I turned babyface, people could say, okay, Edge is being a dick, but that's just Edge being Edge. When Rock carves everyone to pieces, people laugh and get it because that's something he started doing when he was a heel. What I'm starting to do right now is add that element to make my character something more than just he's good or he's bad. I'm trying to add that layer.
IGN Sports: It's interesting how the sport has evolved from Doink The Clown, to now you're talking about layers to a character.
Edge: It has come a long way, and I think it's because the audience has forced that. They don't want guys dressed up as a clown or a plumber or anything like that. I think now, all of the characters are a bit more like our real personalities.
IGN Sports: You have Survivor Series coming up this weekend. Do you still remember watching the first one?
Edge: Oh man, that's the cool part, I do. And this Survivor Series match is just like the classic ones, the elimination ones that started it all. We're doing that again on the 14th and it's going to be cool. It was the whole elimination thing that turned me on to the Survivor Series when I was a kid, so it should be fun. Plus, there's this extra stipulation put in where Hunter, Batista, Gene Snitsky, and me against Benoit, Maven, Jericho, and Orton and the winner gets control of Raw for a month. So it's pretty interesting to me to think about Jericho in control of Raw for a week. That should make for interesting storylines. But let's say we win: Hunter gets it for a week, Gene gets it for a week, Batista gets it for a week, then I do. This actually makes the match mean something rather than just having eight guys trying to eliminate each other. There's actually something at stake, because first thing I would do is give myself a World Title match, which is something I've never had. That's been the whole basis of the character and why I've evolved into this bitter, angry bastard, because he wants a World Title shot and thinks he deserves one. So if I get control, I want a title shot, and the cool thing about that is, the guy who is the champ, he's my partner. That makes for some interesting twists and turns in the story.
IGN Sports: Are you disappointed Flair isn't on your team?
Edge: Totally. I would love for it to be Evolution and me. It would be great to team with him because I've never teamed with him. I've worked against him a lot now, pretty much wrestled him all around the world, but I've never had the chance to team with him and that would be pretty cool. I figure we'll get to it at some point since we're pretty much on the same side right now. One of my highlights was teaming with Hogan because as a kid, you grow up watching Hogan and Flair, they were the guys. Just like now, there are a lot of kids who grew up watching Stone Cold and The Rock, and if they grew up to be wrestlers and had a chance to team with them, it would be a amazing for them. I never thought I would be able to team with these guys or work against them, it's been pretty cool. It's something I never thought I would have the opportunity to say, but yeah, I got to team with my childhood idol. Yeah, I got to wrestle against Ric Flair. Amazing.
IGN Sports: How do those chest chops feel?
Edge: Not good. I think Benoit's are probably the worst. They both just light you up, but Benoit's actually cut you open. Your chest actually bleeds and you walk around with scabs on your chest. Then you wrestle him the next night and they bust open again. You never get the chance to heal when you're working Benoit. You're always scabbed or bruised. That's why Flair's chest is like leather now because he's always exchanging chops with people. He's built up this immunity where he has like a leather couch on his chest and there's no way to break that skin.
IGN Sports: You say your one goal is to win the World Title. How long do you think it will be before we see you with that strap?
Edge: I would like to say this year, but who knows. I would say definitely within the next year and a half, though, I don't think anyone is going to have a choice. It's going to be something that I'm going to force down everybody's throat until I get it. I would like to think that by the end of 2005, I would've had it.
IGN Sports: Do you get to keep the belt?
Edge: I believe you do. I have a copy of all of the belts I have won. In the book, there's a picture where you can see I have the U.S. title, the IC title, and the tag team titles on my wall. I went ahead and reserved a spot right at the very top for that World Title, and it's still empty.
IGN Sports: So you're not the type of guy to turn around and sell it on eBay?
Edge: No, hell no. [laughs] And I don't plan on being one of those desperate guys who needs to sell it in 15 years. I'm hoping that I can keep everything that I've earned.
IGN Sports: Do you see yourself writing any more books in the future?
Edge: I would love to, but probably not another autobiography or anything like that. I always thought along the lines of Mick, again, of writing children's books. I already have a huge collection of them because I wanted to have this great big library of books to choose from, so when I have kids, we'll have all of these books that I can read to them at night.
IGN Sports: What do you hope to accomplish for the last chapter of your wrestling career?
Edge: I want to be the World Champion. If I can do that, I can retire in contentment because that means I would've accomplished everything that I set out to do, including writing a book. I win that belt, and I'm good. I can kick up my feet at the end of my career and say I did it. I made it there, succeeded there, succeeded to the point where I was the man there, and I'm good to go. Then I can look after my kids. I want to be in the mix, the mix I feel I'm in right now, and I want to stay there for the next five years or whatever it is, then ala Mick or ala Ric Flair, whoever the new kid is who comes in and is nice and red hot, I'll do the favor for him, tip my hat and walk away.
You can purchase a copy of Adam Copeland's new book, "Adam Copeland on Edge", at the WWE Shop.