When Edge revived the Brood for his Hell in a Cell match against Finn Balor at WrestleMania 39, plenty of fans expected Gangrel to be standing there with him. He was not, and Gangrel says he still does not know for certain who made that call, though he has a guess.
Speaking on Insight With Chris Van Vliet, Gangrel was careful to frame it as a suspicion rather than something he knows.
“I’m not sure, but I think maybe it might have been Hunter. Some people said Vince, but I think it might have been Hunter,” Gangrel said. “Somebody kiboshed it.”
Asked whether he had come close to being on the show, Gangrel drew a line between what Edge wanted and what the company wanted.
“In Edge’s mind, yes, he was trying hard. But in their minds, no, I don’t think so,” Gangrel said.
Adam Copeland has told the same podcast previously that he pushed for it and got nowhere, saying every person shut it down and that the reason he kept getting was that nobody would remember Gangrel. Gangrel confirmed that was the reasoning relayed to him, but he does not think it is the whole story.
“That’s what they said, that’s what he said. But I think there’s a little bit more to it. I don’t know what it is, but I think it was a little bit more,” Gangrel said.
He pointed to a separate WWE deal that fell apart at the last minute as the reason for his doubt. Gangrel owns the federal trademark to the Gangrel name, which WWE originally licensed from role-playing game publisher White Wolf.
“I’m not gonna mention the person in the office, but it was all lined up. It was right down to the final things, and then when the last of it should be signed, they came to me and said, do you have a letter from White Wolf saying that you can use the name, that they relinquish the name to you?” Gangrel said. “I go, you have lawyers after lawyers. They clearly could see that I have the trademark and the register, all that stuff. And they were like, no, you don’t have a letter. I go, no. And then I never heard back from him again.”
His read on it is that something else was going on.
“So it’s something weird. It’s a little bit more to it,” Gangrel said. “Maybe if you could figure it out in your investigative journals, you could tell me.”
Gangrel said the door being closed still bothers him less than it might, because he has been working more than ever.
“At this point, I’ve motored on and done my own thing for so long that it would be great to go back in some kind of form or fashion and do something. Of course, that would be awesome. And I’m sure the money’s great, and it gives you longevity to be on that powerful TV,” Gangrel said. “But at the same time, I’ve been busier than I’ve ever been busy. I wrestle more than I wrestled.”
Copeland left for AEW later that same year, and Gangrel said the appearances he has made there came directly from the people he worked with in the Brood and the New Brood, not from any office.
“He’s a guy that wants to have his way. Don’t tell him no on something, he’s gonna figure it out. So in AEW, he had me come back and come up to the ring,” Gangrel said. “That’s just Adam. He wanted it, and I think he talked to House of Black, and they thought it would be cool too. He had a lot of creative control there. He orchestrated all that, brought all that together.”
The pattern held for his other AEW appearances.
“The Young Bucks, they were the ones that wanted that too,” Gangrel said of the 2022 Rampage segment where they came out as the Hardy Boyz alongside him. “And prior to that, I did something with Matt Hardy during COVID, the Hardy Compound thing, and Sammy Guevara. So that was Matt that wanted that.”
He said the through line is the people, not the promotion.
“I’ve been blessed to have good relationships with guys that I was a part of the new brood, the brood, and stuff, and they’ve always really tried to give back to me in their own ways, the best they can, and help out,” Gangrel said. “They’re amazing individuals.”
At WrestleMania 39, Copeland made his entrance as Brood Edge to Slayer’s “South of Heaven,” wearing a coat with a photo of Gangrel and Christian on it, and used Gangrel’s Impaler DDT during the match.
