Edge stoked to meet HBK at Royal Rumble
January 17, 2005
By Anthony Cali
TORONTO, ONTARIO – The bad blood between Shawn Michaels and Edge continues to escalate. For months now, the two Superstars have been at each other’s throats, costing one another chances at the World Heavyweight Title, and getting in cheap shots whenever possible. On January 30, their hatred will come to a head, when Edge and HBK meet one-on-one at the Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View in Fresno, California.
Last week, Shawn and Edge battled through the crowd, and into the outer regions of the Office Depot Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This week, Eric Bischoff decided to take their mutual aggression, and use it by signing a match between them at Royal Rumble. Making things more interesting is the fact that both Edge and Michaels were already entered into the Rumble match itself, meaning they’ll have two chances to tear one another apart.
Monday night, WWE.com caught up with Edge to hear his comments on his upcoming battle with HBK, and the chances of him winning the 30-man over-the-top-rope contest, after having already been in a grueling match that same evening with Shawn. Here’s what Edge had to say:
WWE.com: How do you feel about Eric Bischoff’s announcement that you and Shawn Michaels will compete at Royal Rumble?
Edge: Well, of course, I’m not a fan of the fact that I have to compete twice, but what else is new? The deck is continually stacked against me becoming the World Heavyweight Champion. I mean I’ve gone through the laundry list before, and I’ll go through it again. At Taboo Tuesday, he should have stepped aside. I mean I beat both him and Chris Benoit the night before in a Triple Threat Match, and still the fans voted him in by 6%. Then he got injured, and they still voted for a man who in no way, shape, or form was going to beat Triple H for the World Title, whereas I would have. So that forces me into a Battle Royal, which I rightfully won, and then a Triple Threat against Benoit and Triple H, which I also rightfully won, and after the title gets vacated, low and behold, Shawn Michaels comes back just in time to referee the Elimination Chamber Match, and Super Kick me out of another shot at the World Heavyweight Championship. You know what, the more I think about it, the more I actually like the idea, because I finally can get my hands on the man who’s continually screwed me out of the World Heavyweight Championship. So I guess you can say that I’ve got a lot of ammunition for this match, and I’m looking forward to it.
WWE.com: Do you think that having this match, and then competing in the Royal Rumble match itself will hurt your chances of winning the 30-man contest?
Edge: It will fuel me. I won’t let anything get in my way of that World Heavyweight Championship. So if that’s my only way to get to WrestleMania, and to fight for that World Heavyweight Championship, then fine, that’s one piece of advice that Shawn Michaels gave me that I’m going to listen to. He told me to win the Royal Rumble, because he’s done it twice. Well I’m going to prove that anything he can do, or has done, I can do too, and do it better.
WWE.com: Shawn made a statement that one of the reasons he was entering the Royal Rumble, was so he could throw you out and cost you another shot at the title. How do you feel about this comment?
Edge: I think he’s got another thing coming. And to quote Judas Priest and Rob Halford, “it ain’t gonna happen.” He can come after me, that’s fine, in fact he can come after me after I’ve already beaten his sorry @$$ 1-2-3 in the middle of the ring earlier in the night, and you know what I’ll do, I’ll throw him right out of the Royal Rumble.
WWE.com: Well what would you say your chances are of going 2-0 on January 30 – defeating HBK, and then winning the Rumble?
Edge: What are my chances of going 2-0 that night? I’d say if you throw another zero on that, then you would be correct in forecasting that there’s a 200% chance it’s going to happen. And that’s a whole lot better than 100%.
Credit: WWE.com