Not counting a stuffed closet, Adam and Beth Copeland’s South Asheville home has one room, their basement workout space, that contains most of the relics from their past: belts, photos, magazine covers, drawn caricatures. The former World Wrestling Entertainment superstars have separated themselves from their alter egos.
Their first career was public action-adventure — now it’s the personal dramedy of parenthood. For years they were known as Edge and The Glamazon. Now they are Dad and Mom to young daughters Lyric and Ruby. Adam is an actor. Beth is a college student. They haven’t totally dissociated themselves from the professional wrestling world, but their home doesn’t show it off, either.
They’re music fans (framed Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, and Avett Brothers concert posters adorn the walls) who also collect local art: purchases from ZaPow Art Gallery and custom pieces hang throughout the house.
Tucked in a room on the main floor is a grand piano that Beth, who grew up playing music, bought with her first check after she appeared at WrestleMania (the sports-entertainment equivalent to the Super Bowl). Built in 2009, the home is where they unwind and work. Set high on a hill, with a sweeping view of mountain peaks, it has a masculine feel: rock and granite outside, leather within.
They are both WWE Hall of Famers, and the only couple to be so inducted. Adam won multiple tag-team and singles championship in a 13-year career cut short by an injury in 2011. Then the 6’4” native Canadian became an actor. After stints on Syfy’s Haven, an appearance on The Flash (a series based on the DC Comics character) and in several films, he recently secured a role on The History Channel’s hit drama Vikings, playing Ketill Flatnose.
Beth, who entered the Hall of Fame on March 31 in Orlando, won every women’s championship available as “Beth Phoenix” during her 11-year career (she adopted the “Glamazon” persona for specific performances in 2007 and ’08). She’s now studying to be a counselor, and hopes to work with athletes after their careers have ended.
You’ve traveled the world, and you could choose to live anywhere. Why here?
Adam: We do shows in every city in the world. As I was getting closer to retirement, I paid attention to certain cities that resonated with me. It was here, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver. I knew that I’d have to spend days off here to get a sense of the place instead of just standing on a balcony looking to see what it was like. If we had [shows in] Atlanta or Greenville, I’d come here and stay and drive around. I really just loved the atmosphere and that you can hike, kayak, mountain bike, or you can [just] stare at the mountains. One of the big selling factors was downtown and that it was still mom-and-pop and locally owned.
Beth: I had a home in Upstate New York, and we were trying to spend a little time here and there. When we had our first baby we couldn’t shuffle anymore and decided to make Asheville our full-time base. It’s a great place to raise a family. We’ve really set roots here. We’re into art, music, and food, so this is really a mecca for us.
How often are you recognized in town — and how do people act when it happens?
Beth: Adam gets it more. We’ve pinned it down to him growing his hair out again. The majority of his career his hair was a signature of his look. He cut his hair and he’d get looks like: “Is that him?”
Adam: Here, honestly, it was never a really big deal, and I equated it to this: a lot of people aren’t inside watching TV, they’re out doing things. That being said, since I’ve had to grow my hair back for this new role, it’s kind of started again.
Beth: If I don’t have my hair done up or makeup [on], even when I was working in WWE, I wouldn’t get recognized. There was so much going into making the girls’ looks. We were painting our bodies with makeup, and we had huge hair. You don’t resemble anything you look like when you were on TV.
What was it like to walk out of the curtain and hear the crowd pop?
Adam: I’d say that’s the only thing I miss. That and the locker room. I’ve always said that if … [a person] wanted to bottle the ultimate drug, that would be it — that rush of adrenaline when 20,000 to 80,000 people’s voices are directed at you. If you haven’t been there for a while and come back, it hits you like a baseball bat. And I’ve been hit with a baseball bat, so I can tell you that, and it was wrapped in barbed wire. There were many amazing parts, but that initial pop was always the best.
Beth: I always worked as a “bad guy,” and as a girl, the reactions were different. I loved being a bad guy. I loved the bad guys growing up and always got a kick out of being booed [myself]. I enjoyed doing things to get a negative reaction, and that, in turn, would help my opponents get cheers. I didn’t care about the cheers. I felt very vindicated and satisfied if they hated me.
How was the transition from being in WWE to being a professional actor?
Adam: It’s been interesting. I’ve always said that they are on the same tree, just different branches. At the end of the day, they’re both entertainment. One is just highly physical and is theater, and every little thing is picked up in the other. Once, I was doing a close-up, and I did my “wrestling eyes” and it was disconcerting to everyone involved, but I didn’t realize it.
Beth: Traditionally, when we did live events in wrestling, they’d tell us to play to the cheap seats.
Adam: That’s why I say wrestling is like theater. You can always tell when someone comes from theater to a TV show. I’m always trying to remind myself to pull it back, pull it back. Wrestling was great training.
Has Lyric seen you in action?
Adam: No, but she did find Mommy and Daddy action figures. But she doesn’t equate it to wrestling. She thinks every kid’s parents are going to have them. She thinks every parent has a teddy bear, because she had Dad-A-Bear. We have a lot of the stuff in a closet downstairs, and she was down there looking and found them. There’s going to come a day when that explanation needs to happen, and we’ll try to explain it.
Beth: There’s a photo from a magazine downstairs of me posing and I [look like I’m] on fire — like a phoenix. She said, “Mommy, you’re getting all the power.” It made me wonder what she was thinking.