Australian Foxtel Magazine
April 2005 Edition, Pages 24 to 27
Star Stats for Edge
Name: Edge
Height: 196cm
Weight: 109kg
Origin: Toronto, Canada
Match Winning Move: Spear
Career Highlights: World Tag Team Champion, WWE tag
Team Champion, Intercontinental Champion, WCW US
Champion
Athlete vs Actor
WWE Superstar “Edge” says the core of the professional wrestling business in 2005 is to be able to execute the step-over-toe hold or the full Nelson, under pressure.
“When it all boils down to it, the meat and potatoes of what we do is wrestle,” Edge says. “If you can’t wrestle, people will see through that, nowadays, because our audience is much more educated than they used to be. You have to be able to go in and wrestle a 20 minute, 30 minute, 40 minute, 50 and 60 minute match. Now the character is also important for them to be able to care if you’re wrestling a 30 minute, 40 minute, 50 minute match.
“That’s the key: being able to do the match and also having them care enough about your character to want to watch it.”
Fighting Edge
It’s out there, it’s scripted, it’s very Hollywood, and it’s huge. Mark Cashman looks at what makes WWE’s “Raw” and “Smackdown!” wrestling shows, screening weekly on FOX8, so popular.
Some say it’s just smoke and mirrors, an escape from the realities of everyday life. A bit of a giggle mixed in with some physical stunts performed live by some of the most gifted and buff athletes in the world. All-action “Funniest Home Videos” live each week in your living room.
Millions upon millions of viewers in more than 100 countries around the world tune in to watch World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) “Raw” and “Smackdown!” shows in 17 different languages each week. And the majority are instantly seduced by the zany plot lines surrounding the action in the squared ring.
To give the uninitiated a taste of the bizarre world of the WWE, in recent times on “Raw” and “Smackdown!” we’ve seen former Olympic champion Kurt Angle have his gold medal from the Atlanta Olympics tossed into a river by “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Then there was Kane’s crazy wedding to Lita (who hated him but was carrying his child), complete with a fire and a midget ring bearer. And who could forget “The Undertaker” being buried alive by some of his rivals and then coming back from the dead.
There are enemies, there are alliances, there’s intrigue and titillation. As they say, it could only happen in America.
But these two shows, which screen on FOX8 each week, are considered by many plugged-in TV Executives to be a cornerstone of any healthy cable network. They have an enormous appeal to the big-spending youth market and although the viewers won’t really admit it, there’s also a significant following in the older age groups.
At the end of the day this is a massive worldwide business and WWE Inc’s shares on the U.S. Stockmarket (running at around the $US12.50 mark at the start of March) are monitored closely by analysts and punters.
In 2003, WWE’s pay-per-view events pulled in more than five and a half million hits, making it the world leader in the field. The organisation produces more than nine hours of live television every week and it has huge licencing, publishing, video game and website arms.
WWE’s annual “Wrestlemania” event, considered the “Super Bowl” of professional wrestling, will be held at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles on April 4, and tickets sold out within one minute of going on sale.
This was despite fears that the bullshit nature of WWE was flagging because of lost “star power” in recent years, particularly after “The Rock” took a hiatus from the ring to make movies, which became a permanent career change last year.
So what makes a wrestling superstar tick? Why do they put themselves through this often gruelling and physically debilitating profession?
Canadian-born “Raw” wrestler “Edge” hasn’t been around that long but he’s living the dream, inspired by two of wrestling’s greats.
Edge sat on the floor at “Wrestlemania VI” at the Skydome in Toronto, Canada and watched “Hollywood Hogan” do battle with “The Ultimate Warrior” and even though he was only 16, he already knew he wanted to become a major player in the industry.
“I was into “KISS” and all the (comic) superheroes so when I saw wrestling for the first time, I thought these guys were great,” Edge remembers.
“Then when I was 17, the “Toronto Star” newspaper ran a wrestling column and asked readers to write an essay about their love of the sport. The prize was free training at Sulley’s Gym in Toronto and they chose me.”
Edge is making his way back into the WWE mainstream after a year on the sidelines following surgery for a broken neck, an injury that took medical staff some time to pick up.
“It seems the injury occurred over time. I didn’t even realise that it was broken for some months,” Edge says.
“It wasn’t just one time I landed – crack, oh, oh, there’s something wrong – but it got to the point where my arm was going numb and my hand was going numb and I lost all the strength in my left arm.
“So not only was I endangering myself but also the guys I was trying to pick up. I eventually had to bite the bullet and go see what was wrong and the doctors said essentially you have a broken neck. So it’s surgery or a wheelchair, take your pick.”
Edge was invigorated by his time away from the sport, a time when he honed his writing skills by working on a book and penning a column for WWE’s website.
And while he says there are elements of fantasy in the storylines, it’s all very real when the big boys are on show.
“Yeah I wish I could say it wasn’t and I wish I could say the chairs weren’t real,” he says. “But they go to Home Depot and buy chairs. And they go to Home Depot and buy real tables.
“We don’t cut them (so they break when you fall on them). The ladders are anything you can climb on, so year, I wish I could say it was all just smoke and mirrors, but it’s not. It’s all too real.
“I’ve always said fake’s not the best term. If I go to a movie and I don’t think, oh, that was fake. I think, that was a movie. And essentially that’s what we’re doing, we’re telling a story. It’s just a highly physical story that we’re telling.
“We don’t use stuntmen, we don’t have people come in and take our falls for us and we don’t fall on mats and mattresses and things like that. We fall on wood and steel beams – and we get up.”
The only honour that has eluded Edge, whose character is a bit of a lone wolf, is the world heavyweight championship and that drives him to perform at his best every time he enters the ring.
“It’s on the cards now.” He says. “I think it could definitely become a reality. That’s all I have left to do. That’s the only thing from a professional point that I haven’t accomplished. I could actually retire in contentment once I do that.
“What’s so fun about my character (Edge) right now is that his sole purpose in life is to win that thing, which isn’t too far off from what I actually feel.
“So in that respect it’s been fun to be able to do it because I actually believe in a lot of the things I’m saying. Like I said, it’s been a lot of fun to get everyone to hate me – again.”
Edge and Booker T agree that playing to audiences in Australia on the “Wrestlemania Revenge Tour” in April will make the long trip Down Under well worth it.
“The energy we get out of the crowds in Australia is fantastic. I’m sure the rest of the guys feel that way too or they wouldn’t be coming back,” Edge says.
“Sometimes you get to places, whether it’s Hoboken in New Jersey or somewhere else and they’re just ho-hum about the show. You do what you can, you always try and entertain, but when you see something a lot of times, it’s like well what are you going to do for us now? And then there are some places overseas we go to, like Ireland or South Africa or Australia, and they just blow the roof off the place. It’s always been a lot of fun.”
Credit: Australian Foxtel Magazine, April 2005 Edition
Special huge thanks to Carolyn for typing this up for me!