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.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment