The star formerly known as Edge jumped ship to the rival promotion in October, and has since become a brief AEW TNT titleholder and worked a long-running program with lifelong friend and fellow former WWE superstar Christian Cage.

Now, another former WWE colleague of Copeland's and Cage's has signed with AEW, as Mercedes Moné (known in WWE as Sasha Banks) made her onscreen debut with the organisation earlier this month. Copeland says Moné's inclusion in the five-year-old company is "exciting" and explained why established stars feel comfortable taking a chance on a new organisation.

"For her, AEW is a blank canvas with a brand new palette of paint,” Copeland told SI.

“For me, it was the same. I saw Swerve [Strickland], The Young Bucks, Jon Moxley, Hangman [Adam] Page, Kenny Omega, Claudio [Castagnoli], FTR, all these names I’ve never crossed paths with.

"It’s the same with Mercedes–think of how much fun she’s going to have here. Think of all the new opponents.

“I think it’s super exciting. I love that AEW is here to bring a different product to the industry.

"Now there’s [Kazuchika] Okada, [Will] Ospreay, Mercedes, plus all of us already here, and that makes one hell of a roster.”

Live on DAZN: Watch Dalton Smith vs. Jose Zepeda on March 23