Edge, Daniel Bryan, and Roman Reigns. These are the three individuals who will headline WrestleMania 37. While they are all former WrestleMania Headliners and have Hall of Fame-caliber legacies, just two years ago, this match would have been impossible for a multitude of reasons.
For Edge, he will challenge for the WWE Universal Championship, the one version of a WWE World Championship that he has yet to hold, on the 10-year anniversary of his first retirement in 2011. At one point, Edge was told that taking another bump could result in much more serious problems than just having to retire from his childhood dream.
Daniel Bryan faced a similar situation in 2015, due to the years of bumping and issues with concussions, Daniel Bryan was medically disqualified from competition and forced to retire.
Roman Reigns, in the fall of 2018, revealed that he had battled leukemia in the past and it had now returned, forcing him to briefly retire from competition.
Now, just before their showdown at WrestleMania, all three men spoke to CBS Sports about the unlikely nature of this match and the journey it took to get here.
"Right now, nothing feels real. That aspect of that thing is there with three guys who, at one point or another, thought that could be it. If you look at that aspect of the story, it's hard to hate any of the characters, and that's a part of our job. If you're looking at this from the aspect of Joe, Bryan and Adam, we're three guys who thought at some point that this would never happen again. That's kind of crazy. It really is. I think we'll have a moment to really sit and reflect on that, but it might not be until after the match. Then it will be like, 'OK, we got that done. We did it and there was a time we thought we'd never be doing it.' That's pretty special,” said Edge.
Daniel Bryan chimed in, “I've taken a couple moments to appreciate how great it is that my wife is going into the Hall of Fame -- that's super cool for me as a husband and I'm very proud of her for that. I've taken a little bit less time to appreciate that, hey, I'm going to be in the main event of WrestleMania again. It didn't seem like it could have been a real thing for me just a few years ago and then really being able to reflect on two guys who I have an immense amount of respect for and the three of us being in it. I've thought about it for a second, but never sat down and deeply appreciated that it's happening."
"To be honest, I don't think I've ever really focused on it," Reigns said. "I think that's just due to the experience. I think where we can all be connected and you can parallel all of our mindset is that we are all thankful for today and the opportunity that comes with today. I think in all of our own ways, we've experienced that feeling when it's not there. We've all woken up and the show went on without us. While we haven't all sat down and talked about it, there's a weird connection and chemistry. I'm not sure if they feel the same way or have experienced the same thing, but I can feel that through them. I can feel that gratitude, that gratefulness of having the opportunity to wake up and do what we love outside of our families and our children and our wives. We all deeply appreciate the opportunity to have the health to wake up and be physical beings, to be athletes, to be storytellers. There's not a form of entertainment like we do where you exercise every sense, every emotion, everything from the feel, touch, smell -- everything is a part of our show. That's where we are deeply connected."
All three men will say their final piece before they do battle on this Friday’s WrestleMania-sized episode of Friday Night SmackDown. Fightful will have live coverage.
