Every hero must have a villain, and that’s the role Steve Maclin will play on Saturday night in Toronto.
At Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling’s Northern Rising event at Mattamy Athletic Centre, on the grounds of the former Maple Leaf Gardens, the former TNA World Champion will go one on one with Canadian wrestling icon Adam Copeland in the main event of the show. It’s a homecoming for the 11-time world champion, who attended his first-ever live event as a fan in that very arena. A diehard Toronto Maple Leafs fan, wrestling in the Gardens is a dream come true for Copeland.
Maclin, born Steven Kupryk, will relish the chance to make it a nightmare.
The 39-year-old Rutherford, N.J. native made his MLP in-ring debut in late August with a win over Psycho Mike. After the match, Maclin cut an impassioned promo the crowd in attendance didn’t want to hear. Maclin said that while Canada has produced a laundry list of legendary wrestlers, naming the likes of Bret Hart, Kenny Omega and Copeland himself, they all had to go to the United States to make it in the industry. Canadian wrestling was, in essence, a farm system for the U.S.
Speaking to TSN.ca, Maclin says there’s no malice in his sentiments. It’s simply a matter of fact.
“I explained to the entire world that everybody who Canada produces has to come to the United States,” Maclin said. “Anybody from anywhere in the world has to come to the United States to be successful. Everybody is a product of where they came from, but here we are reaping the benefits in the United States. A lot of people didn’t agree with what I said, but at the same time, it’s very true and I love that for me. Whether you agree with it or not, I’m telling you the truth.”
Working in MLP is something afforded to Maclin because, for the first time in more than a decade, he’s not under contract with a major promotion.
Signed to WWE from 2014 to 2021, Maclin joined TNA shortly after his departure and spent five years with the company until departing the organization this past summer. Maclin says frustrations with the direction of his character and place within the company built up over time and, even though he loved his time in TNA, it became clear it was time for a clean break.
“I kind of felt towards the end of my fifth year I was just spinning the wheels where I was throwing ideas to creative and they were taking them and then nothing would come of it,” Maclin said. “Even when I became International Champion [in April of 2025], it was like, ‘All right, cool, where are we going to? Am I going to Mexico, Japan? How are we going to make this title mean something?’ And every pitch that I threw just never came to fruition like I imagined. It just felt like I was always fighting an uphill battle where I just folded every time, like, ‘Okay, cool, whatever you guys want, then.’ For me, that’s not something I like to do, especially when I try to put every bit of me into a story to better the product, to better the company and to better the person I’m in the ring with.”
In his final weeks on TNA TV, Maclin found himself embroiled in a feud with TNA World Champion Mike Santana with the company’s president, Carlos Silva, also getting involved. His final match with TNA aired on May 21. Santana, too, would depart TNA only weeks later, making a long-expected move to WWE.
If some of the tension felt real during that final program, it’s because Maclin wanted to channel some of his actual frustration into his onscreen presentation.
“I was trying to really dive into that story, like here I was as a guy trying to be so selfless for so long for the company and [management is] just clamouring for people getting ready to leave right away,” Maclin said. “The writing was on the wall with certain talent just leaving as to how the story was going to end. All right, cool, so how do we make the most of this story to make the product, for when they do leave, continue to move on instead of just coming to a dead stop? None of it made sense sometimes.
“Obviously, I’m not part of the creative process. I can add my two cents, which I’m really appreciative of, where I can throw my opinion into the hat, but it just doesn’t come out of it. It was just one of those things where I was trying to take real-life situations and feelings and add that into the storyline.”
The last time Maclin was a free agent, it was the brief period between his WWE exit and signing with TNA. The landscape in the professional wrestling has changed dramatically in the years since and talent like Maclin find themselves in a considerably more advantageous position than they did in the past. For Maclin, he couldn’t be more thrilled with what avails him.
“When I was let go from WWE, it was like, ‘All right, what do I do now? Go to the indies?’ but luckily with TNA there, there was another place,” Maclin said. “In the climate of wrestling now, there’s places to work everywhere. Independents are starting to boom again. You have TNA, you have WWE, you have AEW, you have New Japan, you have NOAH, you have CMLL, AAA – there’s just so many different places to work now. It’s just a good thing and a good time in the world of professional wrestling for the actual athletes.
“It’s taking advantage of those opportunities and they’re opportunities that you’d never think would happen. Here I am, Oct. 3, having a match against Adam Copeland in Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. It’s just something you don’t think of and I’m glad I bet on myself like I always have and it’s paying off.”
Being a legend like Copeland’s handpicked opponent is not lost on Maclin. It speaks to his standing in the industry and the perception of contemporaries. He’s earned his spot, but that doesn’t mean he still isn’t flattered by it.
“It’s very humbling,” Maclin said. “I dunno, it’s just a cool feeling where you think in your career, you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do or you’re not as good as you think you are and then you finally get that moment of somebody picking you in a situation like this with Adam. Then for me and him to be chatting and having conversations like we have in the past, it’s just fun. He appreciates the body of work that I’ve put out there and to just get that from my peers is so cool – and, also, to call Adam Copeland a peer is still odd to me, but it’s also very cool, too.”
Like Copeland, Maclin was a fan of pro wrestling long before he became a wrestler. He says it might be hard to turn off the fan in him on Saturday night.
“Here I was with my figures as a kid, 11, 12 years old and still playing with my wrestling figures, using Adam Copeland as me as if I were him,” Maclin said. “So it’s going to be a full circle moment for me emotionally, I think, standing across from him. I’ve even told my wife, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to look at him.’ It’s just going to be one of those moments like, ‘Holy s---, here we are. How did this happen?’”
While Maclin’s focus is squarely on Northern Rising, what comes next for the former United States Marine Corps gunner is a hotly debated topic in wrestling circles. Maclin’s wife is AEW’s Deonna Purrazzo, the current Ring of Honor Women’s Pure Champion. Though he appreciates the freedom he’s currently afforded, is a return to a major company in the form of AEW on the horizon? Maclin certainly won’t rule it out.
“Yeah, I’m always interested in that end of the world with AEW,” Maclin said, “especially with my wife there, but then a lot of my friends are also there – my best friend, Josh Alexander, you got the Rascalz [Myron Reed, Zachary Wentz and Dezmond Xavier] there now, too – a lot of TNA alumni, but there’s also a lot of the talent on the AEW roster I’ve been around a long time. There’s dream matchups for me, as well, and if that were to come to fruition and I ended up there, that would be awesome. I would love the opportunity to go out there on AEW Dynamite, Collision, Ring of Honor.”
Whatever does come next, it will be guided by the same ethos that Maclin has abided by throughout his nearly 15-year career.
“To be able to work is all I’ve ever wanted to do,” Maclin said. “Even with my time in NXT, RAW and SmackDown when we were the Forgotten Sons, all [Wesley] Blake and I ever wanted to do was just wrestle. We didn’t care what it was, just give us something to sink our teeth into and we’ll try to take the ball and run with it.”
