Edge discusses feeling most comfortable on Friday Night SmackDown and feeling most comfortable when tapping into the "Rated R Superstar.”
Edge was retired for nearly ten years. Now, as he stands at the cusp of another WrestleMania main event, Edge is reflecting on growing his character while also rediscovering his comfort zones and the elements that make his character the Hall of Fame persona that it is.
Speaking on his WWE Chronicle special that was released after the first night of WrestleMania 37, Edge reflected on returning to SmackDown to wrestle Jey Uso in a singles match. In the eyes of Edge, Friday Night SmackDown feels like a brand that he feels he elevated along with other legends such as The Undertaker and Batista.
“It really does feel like SmackDown was always Edge’s home base. Being called on with a host of other talents to pull the SmackDown cart, Undertaker, Batista, JBL, Rey [Mysterio], Eddie [Guerrero], Kurt [Angle]. Because of that, it's always felt more so than any other, [like] my show and where I did my best work. So, it's fun to come back. It's fun to come back with an entirely different opponent, too, because this will be the first time I've had a singles match with somebody outside of Randy Orton since I've been back. That's really cool. That's a fun, interesting thing to wrap my mind around and to test myself, too.”
After the match, add reflected on just how far his comeback has taken him, reflecting on when it was once told that it would be dangerous for him to have a fall of any kind.
“No one will ever be able to fully grasp how far this has gone. I was told if I fell, I could die. To go from that to wrestling a 15-minute match, or whatever it was, against a young man like Jey Uso. I've said it before, I'm going to stop trying to understand it and just live it and love it. Man, this is what I do better than anything in my life besides being a dad. To have it back and to be able to do with a whole new crop of talent, that's what I wanted to come back and do.
“It was just a blast out there. He's good, he's really good. It felt good out there. Just like that, we were on the same page, we were in the pocket, in the zone. That's a good feeling, man. I'm just going to enjoy this one a little bit and call [Beth Phoenix] and tell her I'm okay.”
The story on this year's Road to WrestleMania would eventually see Edge take a turn to his more malicious side and embrace the antics that made him one of the top villains of WWE’s Ruthless Aggression era. Following the episode of Friday Night SmackDown where it was declared that the main event of WrestleMania would be a Triple Threat Match, Edge reflected on feeling most comfortable in the more villainous role as opposed to trying to change what the character would be this time around.
“I have to say Friday on SmackDown was the most comfortable I’ve felt since coming back. It felt like, ‘okay there it is.’ It's like putting on an old leather jacket that you forgot you had and it's worn in just right at the elbows and fits at the shoulders, it fits at the armpits, there's no stretching involved. You put it on and you’re like, 'oh yeah, there it is.’ That's what that felt like. That incarnation of Edge is what comes the most natural. I think there needs to be an element of danger and an element of, all bets are off when you see the character. I think, finally, on Friday we got there.
“But it was me that was holding that back because I was trying to do something different and trying to reinvent what Edge is now and sometimes, I've had to reinvent in the past, this is not an instance for that. This was an instance to -- I can look back now and go oh, they needed a reminder of what Edge is. They didn't need this new version of Edge because if they don't know, if they haven't seen the old Edge, well they're just seeing this new guy and going ‘okay, what's the deal? Why does this guy have so much hype?’ I think by dipping back into the old character traits, you realize, ‘That's the guy that slapped John Cena's dad, that's the guy that cashed in on the Undertaker, that's the guy that did all these heinous things.’
Throughout the WWE Chronicle special, Edge would reiterate that he isn't sure how long this comeback will last so he will continue to make the most of every moment. The biggest moment, which will come 10 years to the day after he announced his retirement, will happen on the second night of WrestleMania 37 when he challenges for the WWE Universal Championship in a triple threat match with Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns.
Fightful will have live coverage of Night 2 of WrestleMania 37. You can check out our coverage of the first night of WrestleMania at this link.
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