Nearly two years ago at the 2020 Royal Rumble, a moment of raw (no pun intended), pure unfettered emotion took place when Edge made a shocking return after nine years on the shelf with an injury. The legacy of The Rated-R Superstar was already cemented. But upon his miraculous return, he has shown that he has been able to hang with this new generation of superstars.
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But Edge wasn’t going to be able to cement that legacy had it not been for two pivotal years in his career. His relationship with Lita and subsequent feuds with Matt Hardy and John Cena sparked a fire in Edge that to this very day hasn’t been able to be put out.
Edge's Rise Started At WrestleMania 21
Despite being a part of the highly touted Smackdown Six, Edge still wasn’t thought of by management as a tippy-top guy. He had won several titles and even had a high-profile feud with Shawn Michaels, but was still sort of just treading water in the mid-card. Heading into WrestleMania 21, with injuries piling up and not wanting to risk anymore, Edge originally opted to sit out of the inaugural Money In The Bank Ladder match. As far as wrestling personality goes, he was still sort of just hovering around. He wasn’t Rated R, and with no Brood or Christian to bounce ideas off of, he was just another “tough guy” heel. But once he was convinced to join the fray for Money In The Bank, he would go on to win the match and slowly but surely his career began to take flight.
Edge's Feud With Matt Hardy Showed His Main Event Heel Potential
Shortly after winning the briefcase, Edge was involved in several feuds that were intended to help get him over as a credible threat to any title. But it was his personal life that would help propel him to main event status. Matt Hardy discovered a series of messages between his real-life girlfriend, Lita and Edge. The jilted lover went off of the deep end, going public with the philandering. He would be released for his unprofessional actions.
Related: Edge's First 10 Matches Back From Retirement, Ranked
Considering how much the WWE Universe were getting on Edge and Lita’s cases about the affair, they got paired together on screen as well to fuel the fire. During Edge’s feud with Kane, a previously released Matt Hardy would come through the crowds trying to assault and accost Edge. The Rated-R Superstar was born, and the matches between Hardy and Edge were brutal and at Raw Homecoming, Edge won the war, vanquishing Hardy to Smackdown.
Edge's Feud With John Cena Was The Most Important Of His Career
If you could cash in anytime and anyplace, why would a heel cash in fairly? After John Cena started and survived The Elimination Chamber at New Year’s Revolution 2006, Edge made his move, successfully cashing and becoming the WWE Champion. His first reign was short-lived, but it proved that Edge equaled ratings. Not being booked as the defending champion or in the main event of WrestleMania ticked Edge off enough that challenged Mick Foley to a hardcore match at The Show Of Shows and wound up stealing the show. 2006 was a huge year for Edge. He would actually team with Foley against Terry Funk and Tommy Dreamer at ECW One Night Stand. He would once again become WWE champion and even find time to form Rated-RKO.
Edge of course would go on to have a mammoth Hall Of Fame career and become one of the top heels of The Ruthless Aggression Era. After having a successful tag team run with Christian and etching his name into history with several TLC matches, one might think the brass would’ve been fully behind Edge.
Related: Edge Vs. John Cena: 10 Things Most Fans Forget About Their Rivalry
But instead, he stayed floating through the mid-card for a moment until his personal life became part of the story. Once that happened, he was able to hold up more than his fair share of the bargain and take that scandal and turn it around into something special. The affair with Lita might have gotten him noticed a little more, but it was his skill on the mic and in the ring that helped make him a top guy and top heel in the industry. It also didn’t hurt that he knew exactly how to be a nasty foil for a John Cena, who was just starting to crack through himself and had not started hearing the “Cena Sucks” chants just yet.
