Since everyone else has done it, here's my look back at Edge's career, from my perspective. It's not a comprehensive look back of every match he had, but rather my thoughts and memories on his career as I saw it. I decided to wait a few days to do this so I'd have enough time to think it all through. So, after the break, my look back on what Edge has done in his career.
I'm fairly sure that I've pointed out here before that I started watching wrestling in 1998. So, anyone looking for thoughts on Edge's WCW match or WWF debut, that was a little bit before I started watching. Sorry.
People are probably going to call BS on this, but Edge is actually the first wrestler I ever saw on TV. At least, he's what made me get into all of this. My dad was flipping through channels one day and all of a sudden I see someone get speared. Now, at the time, I didn't know what a "spear" was, but I knew that it looked pretty cool so I asked him to turn it back. He was like "it's just wrestling", but I had never seen it before so I was pretty interested. I'm pretty sure this was on the old "Superstars" show that was on USA at the time. I don't remember the exact date or anything, but it was on a weekend. Presumably this was a recap of something that happened on Raw. After seeing that, at some point on the show I remember Jim Ross saying to tune in to the next episode of Raw or something to that effect.
I did. I don't think I ended up watching every episode of Raw from then on for whatever reason (maybe it was past my bedtime and my mom wouldn't let me see it? I'm not sure), but I do have some early memories of Edge.
This would have been shortly after his debut, but before he became a part of The Brood. I though the vignettes they had for him were pretty interesting. He was a character that not much was known about, and I was curious to see more. He had that mysteriousness about him, just showing up in the crowd in a trenchcoat and coming down to the ring. There's not too much to say other than that. They got my interest, and some of some fans as well. But the gimmick didn't last all that long, because he eventually became part of...
The Brood. For those of you who don't know about this gimmick, it was... well, pretty interesting to say the least. Basically, Gangrel was a vampire and along with Edge and Christian they were kind of "creatures of the night". The Attitude Era had some kind of "out there" gimmicks if you can't tell. It's pretty interesting to me looking back that Gangrel was the leader here, because his partners' careers definitely eclipse his own. I'd love to tell you that I saw even then that they were going to break out from under his wing and I saw a lot of potential, but as young as I was, I was more intrigued with the gimmick itself. It's the main thing I remember about The Brood, other than the weird music and lighting and the insinuation that they were some kind of supernatural entities. The calling card of the group was that the lights would go out (barring a few red ones here and there), and when they came back on, they had beaten down their opponents and given them a "blood bath". When you're young and think this is all real, it's a pretty surreal thing to see.
That gimmick continued for a little while before they joined up with the Ministry of Darkness (which is only natural looking back). The Undertaker of '99 was much more dark and supernatural than the current incarnation. I don't know exactly what Viscera, Mideon, and the Acolytes were "supposed to be", but they all were followers of The Undertaker. Edge(along with Gangrel and Christian) took more of a background role here, kind of the "B-team" of the Ministry in a way.
Eventually, the two sides split because Christian was basically thrown to the lions for letting 'Taker down. I don't really remember much after this until Gangrel split with them and joined The Hardy Boyz. Hey, it was around 2000. Spelling things with z's instead of s's was cool.
Anyway, this set off one of, if not the single best tag team feud I can remember. Nostalgia glasses probably play a part in that, I admit. Previously, all 4 of these guys were treated as pretty low-tier guys all things considered. Once this feud started heating up, people really started paying attention to them. This feud went on for a while, too. No one seemed to mind, because they consistently performed. All the double-team maneuvers that are so old hat now I was seeing for the first time here.
Basically, everyone went all out. We had ladders, we had chairs, and once the Dudley Boyz came along we even had tables. This was all pretty new stuff to me in particular, and apparently to a lot of WWF fans. Either way, we kept looking forward to the next match-up. Everyone was elevated in the process, too.
There isn't too much else to say about this time frame, other than they kept having consistently entertaining matches and the fans kept coming back. At some point, they changed their gimmicks to something a little bit like Zack Ryder is today: heels who thought they were a lot cooler than they were, and loved gloating about it. It was solid stuff. This is when we really started seeing the personality Edge (and Christian) had. The goofy "five second poses" they gave, saying things "reeked of awesomeness" and so on. The fans couldn't get enough of it. They loved to hate these guys. You know your program is over when the fans don't care to some degree whether you win or lose, as long as what happens is good. The whole feud was on fire, and they had a number of big matches over the time frame, including WrestleMania moments.
Eventually, however, they had done pretty much everything there was to do, so WWF moved on. Edge was pushed as the "Shawn Michaels" of the group so to speak, getting the bigger singles push between himself and Christian. Obviously this became a trend. Winning the Intercontinental Championship and King of the Ring back then really meant a lot. It was a little bit like Money In The Bank is becoming. It pretty much said "hey, this guy's a fairly big deal, and he's going to keep going in that direction". Now, it didn't always work (Billy Gunn being the most notable example, Edge even promised not to "Billy Gunn" his King of the Ring win), but people took notice. He had a solid feud with Christian around this time, showing that both were (and still are) awesome workers.
At this point I should probably state that I didn't see either of them as future main eventers at the time. I was still pretty young and pretty new to wrestling, and my eyes were on bigger fish in the wrestling pond. I did see SOMETHING there, but if you told me that he'd be an 11-time World Champion, I'd balk. He was good, damn good, but this is a time where we had Rock, Austin, Triple H, Angle, Taker, Kane, and Big Show as the top tier, and they were all in pretty good shape as far as workers went. Of course, at the time I was still a "mark" so there's no way I'd admit that anyone could be better than the guys they were pushing as top guys.
Then came the Invasion angle of WCW/ECW guys. The roster got a good deal bigger, and there were a lot of people I had never seen before. In short, a pretty competitive time. Edge was still looked at as "pretty good midcard guy" by me at the time. I probably would have said "future multiple time Intercontinental/United States Champion" but I don't think I QUITE saw him as future World Champ material.
Anyway, after that angle ended, and all the dust settled, I think he could a pretty nice rub by being the guy to unify WWF's Intercontinental Title and WCW's U.S. Title. Not as big as winning the WWF or WCW World Title obviously, but a good sign of "we're liking your work in the midcard area". Not to mention that he beat Kurt Angle at one point, who at this time was already in the WWF Title picture. Facing Test in the unification match was also pretty impressive at the time. Test was at a similar level of "right under that glass ceiling but there are a lot of other top guys still here now".
Edge was face at this point. I remember his next feud with William Regal pretty well. Edge had defended WWF against WCW/ECW and Regal had defected to that side (and only kept his job in kayfabe afterward by becoming the first member of Vince McMahon's Kiss My Ass club). Regal was a dirty wrestler. As a "mark" him winning via brass knuckles ("the power of the punch") was despicable. Now, I look at that as a great heel gimmick when not overused. The cheap bastard has to use a weapon to win, and he always hides it from the referees! Anyway, I liked that feud.
Then came the build for WrestleMania "X8" which was... well, weird. He feuded with Booker T. over something to do with a Japanese shampoo commercial. It was funny in a way, but kind of head-scratching looking back. Edge got the endorsement, if you're wondering. This was a weird time in general for WWF because they were still getting over the aftershocks of WCW going out of business. They were testing out some ex-WCW/ECW names and some of their newer recruits to see who went best where. It was pretty good to be a fan then because you had a lot of good names and good workers. That was kind of a "cross-roads" match because Booker's career had arguably peaked after losing his 5th WCW World Title, while Edge's career was still growing. Booker would have a number of title reigns later, and certainly wasn't a nobody during this time, but WWF was still testing out where he would best fit on the roster.
Moving on, Edge went to the new Smackdown brand and had a good feud with Kurt Angle, hair vs. hair. I'll save the aftermath of that match from Angle's perspective for when HE retires, but all in all, Edge's career kept rising. Again, I wouldn't definitely say "future World Champion" but he was definitely doing a solid midcard role, which wasn't a bad thing with as much good talent that WWE had at the time.
He got a pretty nice rub from being Hulk Hogan's Tag Team Champion partner shortly after that. Being a face alongside an American icon and winning the titles on July 4 is a pretty big deal. A younger wrestler winning alongside his childhood idol added to the moment.
The rest of 2002 had Edge continuing to be in solid matches on the Smackdown brand, now teaming with Rey Mysterio. Perhaps one thing holding Edge back was that he was just too good of a tag team wrestler to leave the division. Then again, that division also included Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, and Chris Benoit. The matches weren't always at the top of the card, but they were usually something to look forward to.
You're probably noticing a pattern at this point: Edge puts on great matches, and moves slightly up the card. I'd say that around 2003 I was really thinking "future World Champion". But in the same vein as a Kofi Kingston or a Drew McIntyre perhaps, still a ways off but definitely getting there.
Edge was injured early on in 2003 and it halted his career for about a year. I definitely missed him, but thankfully the product was solid enough that people weren't panicking too badly over his absence. I'd be lying if I said that I probably didn't temporarily forget about him at some point over that long recovery, but since I wasn't as "in the know" as I am now, I only saw him when they updated his status on TV, which was somewhat infrequently if I remember correctly.
For a while when he came back, his career stalled. He didn't have to "start over" with the fans or anything, but he had been out long enough that we needed a reminder of how good he could be in the ring and who he could hang with. I remember the time between injuries with Benoit and Orton. I don't know if I thought he was QUITE as good as he had been previously. It takes time to build momentum back.
When Edge came back from his second major injury, things were a bit different. I can't quite pinpoint it, but he wasn't the same Edge as when he left. Now, to some extent, he was going to change his style at some point presumably even without the injury, as his body got older and he went further into the main event scene (where psychology is generally more important than impressive moves). Still a pretty good performer though.
The feuds near the end of 2004 were great from a booking perspective. Triple H had been THE guy on Raw for a while, and fans were hungry for a change. Edge and Benoit had a great feud lower on the card that began to show what Edge could do as a serious heel. This continued up into the title picture.
Now, some fans probably hate the buildup to the first Elimination Chamber match. I did too at first, but looking back, I think it's just shy of brilliant. I remember people being REALLY into who was going to end up champion at the end of it. They were disappointed when it went back to Triple H, but that's another story.
Edge continued to climb up the ranks, beating Shawn Michaels and winning the first-ever Money In The Bank match. Whoever came up with that match idea (I've heard it was Jericho) deserves a big pat on the back. It might as well say "in case of glass ceiling, use this". I was skeptical for a bit when Edge won it. I didn't think he was quite ready for that next level. Part of me thought "future champion" and part of me thought "he's not there yet".
It wasn't long after this that the whole mess with Lita happened. This wasn't too long after I started following the business online. I wouldn't say that I wished death on the two of them or anything, but I definitely sided with Matt on the issue. I don't remember if I wanted WWE to fire Edge or not, but he wasn't on my "must push" list for sure.
Other fans agreed. Honestly, his relationship with Lita eventually becoming an on-screen deal really pushed him over that hump. Now we didn't just have a reason to boo Edge, we had a reason to straight-up dislike the guy. And the company for that matter. They really couldn't have made a much better set-up to an angle than Edge vs. Matt. Here was a guy legitimately cheating on his wife with another man's girlfriend, and the other man got fired. I don't think you can manufacture that much heat. At some point, it became more work than shoot and a lot of people were glued to their TVs and computers waiting on what was going to happen next.
This got Edge to that "controversial" "Rated R Superstar" we remember him as, because the fans really bought the gimmick. I don't know how much of Matt's online activities at the time were storyline-based, but they really fueled the fire here. When the feud actually happened, a lot of people were underwhelmed (Edge won the first match between the two rather quickly), but it boosted Edge's heel credibility for when he did cash in MITB.
The feud with Ric Flair was also somewhat rooted in reality. They didn't have any actual heat that I'm aware of, but it certainly raised some eyebrows when Flair's "road rage" incident became part of a storyline.
That feud went to an Intercontinental Championship match at New Year's Revolution. Edge had held the MITB briefcase for over 3/4 of a year at this point, so we were pretty used to seeing him with it. It had almost become an accessory instead of something that he could legitimately win the WWE Title with. I really wonder when he would have cashed it in if it wasn't for what happened at NYR.
If you think Cena's getting booed now, it was nothing like it was around this time. It had gotten so bad that people were cheering for a heel Chris Masters to win the title in the main event that night. That's saying something, because Masters was seen as overhyped and only pushed due to his admittedly impressive physique.
What was weird to me when Edge did win the title that night was that he had been in the match with Flair earlier and not faired all that well, so it was rather odd that he ended the match as the top guy on the Raw brand. Some would say that he only won the WWE Title to shut the most vocal anti-Cena fans up.
Edge's first WWE Title reign (which I didn't really think he was ready for at the time) lasted all of 3 weeks. They were an interesting 3 weeks though, and interest and ratings were up for that time. Edge played the heel part well, but in the end, WWE decided that Cena vs. Triple H was the match that they should go with for WrestleMania. It made sense, as Edge wasn't quite seen as a "real" main eventer just yet.
He did move towards that mark with his feud at WrestleMania though, getting another "Mania moment" when he speared Mick Foley through a burning table. That was definitely a "holy sh-t" moment for everyone watching. If there's one thing Foley was good at, it was getting people over when the time was right.
Edge tried to find his way back into the title picture, but it was hard to hang with Cena and Triple H when he was such a relative newcomer to the main event scene.
He then went back to feuding with Foley, and we got kind of an odd swerve going into One Night Stand II. Edge got a nice win there, and a very heelish one to boot as he speared Tommy Dreamer's wife and had a very suggestive cover. It was around this time when I started seriously seeing him as World Champion material, especially after the helmeted spear that cost Cena the title that night.
The ECW brand launched shortly after that, and RVD was the WWE AND ECW Champion. Now there were (to some degree) three World Titles to go after, and Edge looked all the more likely to be a credible Champion.
Eventually, RVD and Sabu had their infamous highway ride that got both of them in trouble, and Edge continued his opportunist ways in winning the WWE Title again. All of my "iffyness" on Edge as Champion was dissipated by the time he completed the feuds with Jeff Hardy and John Cena, the latter of which pretty much guaranteed him a main event spot for the rest of his career.
Then came the Rated-RKO era. Orton and Edge were both seen as main eventers, but this run (and particularly their big match with DX at New Year's Revolution) said that they were there to stay. I'd say after that feud they had made it so high that WWE would have to really go out of their way to bury them if they didn't want them to be seen as main eventers any more. I particularly liked that when HHH was injured, they pretty much declared DX dead and ordered security to confiscate any DX signs. Great heel move. The crowd was raucous there.
Eventually that ran its course and Edge was called upon to bail the company out again as the "Ultimate Opportunist" when Mr. Kennedy (now Mr. Anderson) was injured while MITB winner (as if they needed that as an excuse to realize that Kennedy wasn't main event material). Edge won the title again shortly thereafter in another solid sneaky heel move. The Undertaker had just been in a grueling cage match with Batista, and was attacked by Mark Henry.
Edge lost the World Title when he was legitimately injured himself. In a freaky parallel to a few days ago, he had to surrender the World Championship on Smackdown.
When he returned, they had another great idea for him. He dressed as a cameraman for The Undertaker and Batista's Hell in a Cell match and wreaked havoc to make his mark in the World Title picture again. He won the title not long thereafter when he had Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder dress as him and confuse his opponents while he snuck in and won the match. Hawkins and Ryder (who had long hair then) were then just a minor tag team on the ECW brand, so it was pretty unexpected.
The angle with himself, Vickie Guerrero, and the "Edgeheads" was fun while it lasted. They got a fantastic amount of heat in how he eventually won the World Title back after WrestleMania 24.
Edge then got to be in the position of putting over C.M. Punk after he was gloating about getting rid of Undertaker on Raw. Punk pulled one of Edge's tricks on him by cashing in Money In The Bank after Edge had taken a Batista Bomb.
After this, Edge continued to shine in his heel role in La Familia. He cheated on his wife-to-be Vickie and things eventually came crashing down when Undertaker finally got his revenge on him by destroying him inside Hell in a Cell. This was all pretty good stuff. Edge was finally on the wrong side of power and Vickie brought back the man they had banished in order to extract revenge on him.
Edge got to play the Ultimate Opportunist card a few more times when he returned to action, sneaking in the back door to win the title at Survivor Series '08, then getting it back when Matt Hardy turned on his brother at the Rumble. At this point, it had become a pattern that Edge was going to sneak his way into the title again at some point. Which wasn't a bad thing by any stretch, just something we had seen a number of times by now.
Then we got to Edge and Jericho as a team. We knew both of these guys, and we liked both of these guys as heels. Fun stuff while it lasted. They both played off of each other pretty well. This continued once Edge returned from another injury and they feuded.
Some say that Edge returning as a face didn't work as well as people would have liked, even though he was returning from an injury to face the person who injured him... for the World Title at WrestleMania. Hard to top that as far as big stories go.
Edge got to return to form as a heel when he was drafted to Raw and feuded with Randy Orton. Not bad feud, just two characters we were pretty familiar with facing off. In hindsight, I'm glad that we got this last heel run out of his system, because it was very much time for some freshening up when he turned face.
When he came to Smackdown for his final run, he had pretty much earned the respect of the fans to the extent that it'd be hard to turn him back heel anyway. We accepted him as the veteran face main eventer who still put on good matches. He was part of the old guard to a degree now. He still had a fair amount of time left in him (or so we thought), but it was time for him to take a bit of a back seat while helping some new talent come up to his level.
His feud with Kane was... interesting to say the least. It was actually kind of weird viewing him as a good guy in the face of his abuse of Paul Bearer. Thankfully that's not where his career ended.
I liked the feud with Dolph Ziggler, though I wasn't (and still am not) entirely convinced that Ziggler's a main event talent. Nice turnabout with the relationship with Vickie.
And that brings us to his final feud: Alberto Del Rio. Now, as much as I wanted to see Del Rio win here and as much as I want some new faces in the main event picture, Edge was still good in this feud. I don't even really mind that Edge won at Mania, as long as Del Rio was going to win at Extreme Rules. I don't know about time frames, but Edge still had a good run left in him as a credible main event babyface working with the next generation of wrestlers.
But unfortunately, that's not going to happen. No last feud with Christian, no passing the torch to Del Rio. It's certainly not his fault. I don't even blame WWE. Sometimes things like this happen. And the company and business will move on in his absence.
But that doesn't discount Edge's career and what he still could give to the business. We don't know what Edge does from here, but there are certainly some good options, whether as a trainer or agent or maybe even commentator. But that's a thought for another day.
I really enjoyed looking back at Edge's career today, just as I enjoyed living through a good part of it. It's definitely been a solid ride for the Rated R Superstar, and thankfully this chapter of his life has a fairly happy ending.
In closing, thank you Edge. For all of the memories I've detailed above, and for all of the memories you'll help make in the future as people study your career and learn what you meant to the industry. I hope you have a great retirement. You've earned it.
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