Edge retires from the WWE

With The Undertaker commanding lightning, a 61-year old Jerry Lawler almost headlining Wrestlemania, and a barrage of punches that couldn’t seem to give the opposing wrestler welts, one can see that WWE action is merely a staged dance sequence.

However, the injuries are all legit.

This April 11, current World Champion Edge announced his retirement from the squared circle. This came from the heels of him retaining the belt in Wrestlemania against 2011 Royal Rumble winner Alberto del Rio. Doctors have told him that it is risky for him to continue to wrestle. Neck injuries have claimed a lot of talents and other than Edge, the most important wrestler to suffer this fate is Stone Cold Steve Austin.

To give Edge’s injury a bigger name, let’s just call this spinal stenosis – which basically means an abnormal narrowing of the spinal column that may occur in any of the regions of the spine.

In Raw, they played out his retirement with him telling the crowd that the injuries his comrades suffer are real. He has been wrestling on borrowed time for eight years now (his neck was surgically-repaired on February 2003) and had the doctors didn’t stepped in, this would have been left Edge on a wheelchair.

Edge started from the bottom end before climbing to the top. He was a lone wolf before he joined the vampiric Brood with Gangrel and long-time friend Christian. He was once part of Undertaker’s Ministry stable. He had a bunch of intercontinental and tag team title reigns. His partnership with Christian was hilarious and it seriously reeked of awesomeness! Then there’s the stable he formed with Vickie Guerrero, Chavo Guerrero, Zack Ryder, and Curt Hawkins called La Familia. Perhaps his most powerful coalition was when he and Randy Orton formed the Rated RKO duo.

In real life though, Christian was Edge’s biggest ally. As youngsters in Canada, they shared a dream of one day they will work side-by-side in the WWE. In essence, Edge’s Wrestlemania moment was when he and Christian was trashing Alberto del Rio’s car.

He has battled a bunch of big and small-time prey in the course of his career. He has had epic matches with Christian, Chris Jericho, CM Punk, Triple H, The Undertaker, Kane, Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, John Cena, Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, Booker T, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Dudley Boyz, APA, Hulk Hogan, Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Chris Benoit, John Cena, Randy Orton, Rob Van Dam, Jack Swagger, Dolph Ziggler, John Morrison, Rhino, Alberto del Rio, Ric Flair, Paul Heyman, The Big Show, and Mick Foley.

When he and Christian fought against the Hardy Boyz, it catapulted the superstars to greatness. Their tag team matches would often steal the show from the main eventers.

This was the match that started it all.

Edge gained major heat when Edge and Lita non-fictionally stabbed Matt Hardy in the back by sleeping with one another. Hardy was then fired from the WWE which gave Edge more heat. That real-life drama was fused with the storylines and Edge and Lita paired up to become a sleazy duo. The Live Sex Celebration on Raw was one of the biggest things to happen on the show and the in-ring and outside the ring bashing of Hardy and Edge turned both wrestlers to even bigger stars. This was the start of the Rated R era and with Edge branded as the Ultimate Opportunist. 

In some ways, this is like an Attitude Era extension.

37 in wrestling years is a very young age to retire. Flair is still wrestling occasionally and he is older than Jerry Lawler. But I don’t want to know if he ditched the doctor’s advice and continue. Eddie Guerrero should have retired when he had the chance so we can still see him lying, cheating, and stealing. If someone saw what Chris Benoit was at the moment of his insanity, they would have saved him. Luckily Edge will not become a what-if. Definitely he is not a what-was because he has pretty won every single championship the WWE has unearthed.

Whether or not this is real or not, Edge is one of the all-time greats. From being Sexton Hardcastle in the indies to a 14-year Rater R career, fans troop to his matches because he can carry people and draw big matches from them. He is great as a babyface at the start and at the end (?) of his career. He was an even bigger heel because he can be goofy, he can be sadistic, he can be a playboy, he can be narcissistic, and he can play in a given storyline without looking lost.

Edge also has one of the coolest if not the absolute coolest theme songs ever.   

His mind tricks reek of awesomeness. 

AWARDS AND CITATIONS:

MAJOR TITLES

7-time World Heavyweight Champion

4-time WWE Champion

SECONDARY BELTS

5-time Intercontinental Champion

1-time WCW United States Champion (Invasion storyline)

12-time World Tag Team Champion

(7 w/ Christian, 2 w/ Benoit, 1 apiece w/ Hulk Hogan, Orton, and Jericho)

2-time WWE Tag Team Champion

(1 apiece w/ Mysterio and Jericho)

OTHER CITATIONS

2001 King of the Ring

2005 & 2007 Mr. Money in the Bank

2010 Royal Rumble Winner

WWE recognized his importance by letting him win his final match despite everyone’s thinking that Alberto del Rio’s destiny will prevail en route to his championship. He will live his career as champion and as he said – that’s an awesome way to go.

Say goodbye to that “You think you know me” girl voice, the smoke, him coming out either in a trenchcoat or shirt, and him pointing at the heavens where an array of fireworks are blasting out of the sky. I will miss the spear, the inverted sharpshooter, the Edge-o-Matic facebuster, and the Edge-O-Cution. Hopefully his retirement would mean that he’ll have a spot in commentary ala Booker T while Booker T returns to the ring because the void he left is seriously deep.

Alongside his idol, Hulk Hogan. 

I am hoping that Edge will be on hand at the Extreme Rules PPV and he will hand the title to either Christian or Alberto del Rio. I wish it would be Christian and while this isn’t Wrestlemania, them celebrating in front of millions, reeking of awesomeness, and giving everyone five-second poses for the benefit of those with flash photography is definitely a moment worth remembering.

Game over.