Edge

Adam Joseph Copeland (born October 30, 1973), better known by his ring name Edge, is a Canadian professional wrestler presently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment, wrestling on the SmackDown! brand, where he is the reigning World Heavyweight Champion.

Copeland initially rose through the ranks as one half of the tag team Edge and Christian, alongside his real-life best friend and storyline brother Christian. He is noted for being one of the most decorated tag team champions in wrestling history, winning a record 12 tag team titles in WWE.

Copeland is a four-time world champion, having won the WWE Championship twice and the World Heavyweight Championship twice.[8][9] In addition, he won the 2001 King of the Ring and the 2005 Money in the Bank ladder match.

Aside from professional wrestling, Copeland has made guest appearances in television shows, including The Weakest Link, Deal or No Deal, MADtv, and Mind of Mencia.

Early career

Copeland was born in Orangeville, Ontario on October 30, 1973. He began watching wrestling at a young age. His favorite wrestlers included Mr. Perfect, Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, Ricky Steamboat, Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart, all of whom he admired.

Copeland won an essay contest in which he would have the opportunity to be trained by Sweet Daddy Siki and Ron Hutchinson.[13] Throughout the 1990s, Copeland wrestled on the independent circuit in Ontario and the Great Lakes region of the United States under the name Sexton Hardcastle. He became a part of the tag team Sex and Violence with Joe Legend. During 1997, Sex and Violence became part of a larger stable known as Thug Life, made up of Legend, Hardcastle, childhood friend Christian Cage, Bloody Bill Skullion, and Rhino Richards. During his independent career, he won the SSW Tag Title and the ICW Street Fight Tag Title twice with Cage, in addition to his reign as ICW/MWCW Midwest Unified Tag Title holder alongside Joe.

The duo of Copeland and Cage was known as Hard Impact before changing their name to The Suicide Blondes. In 1996, the duo worked in Japan under the name the Canadian Rockers.[14] Copeland also once wrestled under the name Damon Striker (although Edge writes it as Damien Stryker in his book) on an edition of WCW Pro against Meng and Kevin Sullivan. In his autobiography, Copeland states that it was his worst ring name to date.

World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment

Early years (1998-2000)

Main articles: The Brood and Ministry of Darkness

In 1998, Copeland was signed by the World Wrestling Federation and made his television debut on the June 22 episode of RAW is WAR as Edge, a loner character who entered the arena through the crowd for his matches. His character's persona included him walking around the city streets aimlessly and beating up defenseless bystanders. His first televised match was against Jose Estrada, Jr., which ended prematurely by countout when Edge performed a somersault senton from the ring to the outside, legitimately injuring Estrada's neck.[16]

In his first pay-per-view match, SummerSlam 1998, he served as Sable's mystery tag team partner against Jacqueline and Marc Mero, and bodyslammed Sable onto Mero in a pinning position to pick up the win.

Edge captured his first singles championship on July 24, 1999, defeating Jeff Jarrett for the Intercontinental Title at a house show in Toronto Ontario. He would lose the belt the next night to Jarett at the Fully Loaded PPV.

Edge was then placed into a feud against the vampire wrestler Gangrel. During the feud, Gangrel introduced Christian, Edge's kayfabe brother, as his ally. Eventually, Gangrel and Christian convinced Edge to join them, and the three of them formed a stable known as The Brood. The Brood as a whole was later abducted by and converted into The Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness. In May 1999, the Brood broke away from The Ministry after Christian was attacked by Ken Shamrock and forced to reveal the location of the captive Stephanie McMahon. The Undertaker chose to have Christian punished for his trespass, but Edge and Gangrel stood by him and turned against The Undertaker.

Edge and Christian (2000-2001)

Main article: Edge and Christian

Following a short feud with the Ministry, they began a feud with The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy). Soon, however, Gangrel turned on Edge and Christian and formed The New Brood with their enemies, The Hardy Boyz. Even after the New Brood split, Edge & Christian continued to feud with The Hardy Boyz. The two teams competed in a tag team ladder match at the 1999 No Mercy pay-per-view for the "managerial services" of Terri Runnels and $100,000, which the Hardy Boyz won.[17] On April 2 at WrestleMania 2000, Edge and Christian defeated the Hardy Boyz and the Dudley Boyz to win their first WWF Tag Team Title in a triple threat Ladder match which birthed the Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match.[18]

Following this victory, Edge and Christian found success as a heel duo, shifting their gimmick from borderline goth to a comedic pair of "cool dudes", winning the WWF Tag Team Title six more times (for a total of seven). During this time, their trademark became the "five second pose" where they performed a pose in the ring for five seconds "for the benefit of those with flash photography" to mock, insult, or otherwise amuse the fans. They also competed as a team in the first three Tables, Ladders, and Chairs matches, winning the first two over The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz, at SummerSlam 2000 and then again at WrestleMania X-Seven.[19][20]

At the 2001 Royal Rumble Edge and Christian were defeated by the Dudley Boyz and lost the World Tag Team title.[20] They unsuccessfully attempted to regain their tag team title at No Way Out against the Dudley Boyz and the Brothers of Destruction,[20] but they succeeded at WrestleMania X-Seven against the Dudley Boyz and The Hardyz in the second Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match.[20]

Singles star (2001-2003)

Edge went on to solidify himself as an emerging singles star by winning the 2001 King of the Ring tournament.[21] Christian turned on Edge shortly afterward, and the two feuded over Edge's Intercontinental Championship that Edge won the month before at SummerSlam, which Edge lost to him[22] and won right back.[23] Then, Edge lost the Intercontinental Title to Test[24] and shortly afterward won the WCW United States Championship from Kurt Angle. Edge defeated Test at Survivor Series to unify the Intercontinental Championship with the U.S. Championship.[25]

Throughout the winter months of 2001, Edge feuded with William Regal for the Intercontinental Championship. Edge came up short in the feud.[26] When WrestleMania X8 came around, Edge found himself in a match with Booker T that was the result of Edge beating out Booker for a fictitious Japanese shampoo endorsement.[27]

Shortly after defeating Booker T at WrestleMania, Edge was drafted to the SmackDown! brand in the first WWE Draft Lottery. Upon arriving there, he began a feud against Kurt Angle, which culminated in Edge shaving Kurt's head following a hair vs. hair match at Judgment Day.[28] When Rey Mysterio made his SmackDown! debut, he and Edge formed a team and captured the WWE Tag Team Championship. He also received matches for the WWE Championship against title holders Brock Lesnar and Big Show.

In February 2003, Edge suffered a legit neck injury and had to undergo surgery with Dr. Lloyd Youngblood. Recovery kept him sidelined for close to a year .[29] He was scheduled to return to the ring in February 2004, but he suffered a legitimate broken hand just before his planned return, forcing him to stay out of the ring for an additional month. He was placed on the Raw brand in the WWE Draft after WrestleMania XX and returned to in-ring action shortly after that event. On the April 19, 2004 edition of Raw he and Chris Benoit won the World Tag Team Championship.[30] They continued a close partnership even after losing the title, but it was disbanded when Edge won the Intercontinental Championship at Vengeance from Randy Orton.[31] He then began to turn heel by cheating to keep the title and getting confrontational with ally Chris Jericho. Following a (legit) groin injury in a non-televised match, Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff stripped Edge of the Intercontinental title. This was the first time that Edge turned heel since his alliance with then heel, Christian right after Wrestlemania 2000 and before the Invasion Storyline.

Pursuit of the World Heavyweight Championship (2004-2005)

Upon his return, Edge's character became that of a crazed heel with severe anger management problems centered around his obsession for the World Heavyweight Championship. Edge, Benoit, and Shawn Michaels received a chance for a title shot for Triple H's World Heavyweight Championship at Taboo Tuesday 2004. Michaels won the audience vote to receive the title shot, giving Edge and Benoit a Tag Title shot. During the match, Edge abandoned his partner (although Benoit managed to win the title on his own)[32] and instead interfered in the main event, costing Michaels the championship.[32] On the next night Edge and Benoit lost the world tag team championships while Edge abanoned Benoit again by sitting in a chair and just watching. After the match, Edge attacked Benoit.

In December, both Edge and Benoit competed in a #1 contender's battle royal, but eliminated each other simultaneously at the conclusion of the match, resulting in a draw. Due to this, the World Heavyweight Champion Triple H was forced to defend the title in a triple threat match. In the match, Benoit locked on the Crippler Crossface on Edge, who shifted his weight putting Benoit's shoulders on the mat for a pin. This match also ended in a draw for Benoit and Edge, as Benoit made Edge submit at the same time the referee counted a pinfall for Edge. As a result, the World Heavyweight Title was vacated the next week on Raw.

Edge competed in his first Elimination Chamber match at New Year's Revolution 2005 for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship. Shawn Michaels (acting as special guest referee) would hit Edge with a Sweet Chin Music in retaliation for an accidental Spear, causing Edge to be eliminated first.[33] This led to a match at the 2005 Royal Rumble later in the month, in which Edge defeated Michaels.[34] Subsequently, at WrestleMania 21, Edge won the first ever "Money in the Bank ladder match", gaining himself a contract that gave him a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship within one year.[35]

Even though he was already a heel, Edge faced even more scorn from the fans due to his adulterous affair with Amy Dumas, who was known on-screen as Lita.[36] Dumas had been the girlfriend of Copeland's close real-life friend, Matt Hardy. When Dumas suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament, she was put out of action,[37] and it was during this time that Copeland, began an affair with her while she was still in a relationship with Hardy. Shortly after the incident became public knowledge, WWE had released Hardy resulting in even more backlash towards Copeland and Dumas.[38] After Hardy returned, however, the real-life situation was translated into a storyline.

Nevertheless, or perhaps because of this, Edge was paired with Lita in an angle where she turned on her kayfabe husband Kane. On the July 11 edition of Raw, Edge's match with Kane was interrupted when Matt Hardy made a surprising appearance. The situation was a worked shoot, with Hardy referring to Edge as "Adam" and issuing a threat to Lita as well. When Hardy was officially brought back to Raw, he and Edge continued their feud, including a match at SummerSlam 2005 where Edge defeated Hardy, causing Hardy to have "excessive blood loss."[40] They also competed in a Street Fight, which resulted in a no-contest when Hardy performed a Side Effect on Edge off the entrance ramp into the sound speakers and other electrical equipment. They also fought in a Steel cage match at Unforgiven 2005 that Matt won after a leg drop on Edge from the top of the cage.[41] The feud culminated in a "Loser Leaves Raw Ladder Match" at WWE Homecoming, which Edge won, causing Hardy to move to SmackDown!.

Shortly after the Homecoming victory, Edge suffered a legitimate torn pectoral muscle that kept him shelved for several weeks.[42] During his time off, he starred in his own talk show segment on Raw entitled The Cutting Edge, dubbing himself the "Rated-R Superstar". Edge used his talk show to start a feud with Ric Flair following Flair's well-publicized arrest in connection with a road rage incident. Edge eventually began using The Cutting Edge as a soapbox to run down Flair until, after weeks of public mockery, Flair eventually showed up and attacked Edge.

Edge and Flair formally met at New Year's Revolution 2006 in a match where Edge was disqualified. Later that night, following the main event Elimination Chamber match, Vince McMahon appeared on stage and declared that John Cena would defend the WWE Championship he'd just retained "one more time." An already bloodied and fatigued Cena was forced into a match against Edge, who decided to cash in his Money in the Bank contract at that moment. Edge defeated Cena in less than two minutes after two spears to become WWE Champion for the first time, as well as a Triple Crown Champion.

In an interview conducted after New Year's Revolution on WWE.com, Edge announced that he and Lita would have "hot, torrid sex" in the middle of the ring on Raw the next night to celebrate his victory. On Raw, Edge held up to that promise by engaging in foreplay with Lita until they were interrupted by Ric Flair, who called Edge a disgrace and "dead in the bed." Flair, however, ended up on the receiving end of a con-chair-to on the announcers' table until John Cena came out to rescue Flair and deliver an F-U to a half-naked Lita much to the surprise of Edge. The "Live Sex Celebration" segment earned Raw a 5.2 rating,[44] the highest Raw rating in over a year,[45] leading Edge to call himself the "most-watched WWE Champion in the last 5 years" due to the high ratings.

Three weeks later, at the 2006 Royal Rumble, Edge lost the WWE Championship back to Cena. He then lost a return match on a special Thursday edition of Raw held on February 16, 2006. Edge blamed special guest referee Mick Foley for his loss, claiming biased officiating and attacked him. At Saturday Night's Main Event, Foley got revenge on Edge by assaulting him with a Con-chair-to. They feuded until WrestleMania 22 in April, where Edge defeated Foley in a Hardcore match by spearing him through a flaming table.[46] The victory brought Edge's WrestleMania record to 5-0, the second best undefeated streak at WrestleMania (second only to The Undertaker's being 14-0 at that point in time).

Edge used his victory over Foley to once again challenge John Cena for his WWE Championship. Triple H was involved in a feud with Cena at the time, resulting in a Triple Threat match at Backlash 2006, where Cena pinned Triple H to retain the title.[47] After Backlash, Edge continued his feud with Mick Foley as they entered a Triple Threat Hardcore Match. However, Foley immediately attacked friend Tommy Dreamer with Edge's assistance. Edge and Foley then proclaimed that, because of their brutal match at WrestleMania, they were the true Hardcore Champions. At One Night Stand 2006, Edge, Foley, and Lita defeated Dreamer, Terry Funk, and Beulah McGillicutty in an "Extreme Rules" tag team match.[48] Edge later interfered in a WWE Title match between champion John Cena and challenger Rob Van Dam, helping Van Dam win the title.[48] Edge had been #1 contender for the title at the time, and there appeared to be some sort of collusion between him and ECW. Edge was unable to win the title at Vengeance 2006.

Two weeks later on Raw, Edge pinned Rob Van Dam in a Triple Threat No Disqualification Match, after blindsiding John Cena with the title belt, to become WWE Champion for the second time.[49] The match marked the first time the WWE Championship changed hands on Raw since October 8, 2001.

This re-ignited his feud with John Cena, and Edge lost by disqualification at SNME in order to retain his title.[50] As a result of these tactics, Cena snapped and FU'ed him through the Spanish announcers' table.[50] Subsequently, a match was made for SummerSlam 2006 with the stipulation that if Edge was disqualified, he would not only lose the match, but also his title. At SummerSlam, Edge retained his title by pinning Cena after he hit him in the back of the head with brass knuckles while Lita distracted the referee.

On the next night's Raw, Lita threw Cena's customized "spinner" belt into the Long Island Sound at Edge's command, who declared it the end of the "Cena era" in his life. Edge later unveiled the new "Rated R" version of the belt. Cena, however, interfered in Edge's match later that night, chased him down to the outside of the building, beat him down, and tossed him into the polluted Long Island Sound himself. The next week, Cena made a deal with Edge: if Edge could defeat him in a match for the WWE Championship, he would sign a contract to move to SmackDown!.[52] Edge agreed, on the condition the match be a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match (TLC) held at Unforgiven 2006 in Edge's home town of Toronto.[52] At the event, he lost the championship after Cena FU'ed him through two stacked tables from a ladder. At one point during the match, Cena locked in an STFU on Edge, who later said he was legitimately choked unconscious, the first time he had been knocked out in a match during his career.[53]

Rated-RKO (2006-2007)

Main article: Rated-RKO

Edge and Randy Orton as Rated-RKO
Edge and Randy Orton as Rated-RKO

On the October 2, 2006 episode of Raw, interference from D-Generation X (Shawn Michaels and Triple H) cost Edge his "final chance" at Cena's WWE Championship in a Steel cage match, though their interference was a response to the interference of Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch. On October 9, 2006, Edge used an edition of The Cutting Edge on Raw to join forces with Randy Orton to form Rated-RKO (although they did not use this name until several weeks later) and began a feud against DX. Edge cited Orton's lack of success after being kicked out of Evolution by Triple H and DX's "stale" antics "taking up TV time" as reasons to join forces. The duo succeeded early in defeating DX at Cyber Sunday due to the vote-in guest referee Eric Bischoff favoring Rated-RKO.[54] The pair then won the World Tag Team Championship from Ric Flair and Roddy Piper on the November 13, 2006 Raw,[55][56] making Edge hold a record of 11 World Tag Team Championship title reigns in his WWE career.[56] The success halted at Survivor Series 2006 when Team Rated-RKO was defeated by Team DX in a clean sweep of 5-0.

The feud with DX continued at New Year's Revolution 2007 where Edge and Orton were battered by DX to end the match in a no contest.[57] However, Edge and Orton claimed victory on the grounds that Triple H legitimately tore his right quadriceps in the match. To Edge and Orton, this marked the end of DX. Shawn Michaels vowed to deal with Rated-RKO, and the next week on Raw he took out Randy Orton with a con-chair-to while Edge looked on from the entrance ramp.[58] On the January 29, 2007 edition of Raw, Rated-RKO lost the World Tag Team Championship to Shawn Michaels and John Cena.[59]

In early February, Edge beat Rob Van Dam to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match, but suffered a legitimate broken jaw in the process. He remained on TV but avoided physical confrontations until WrestleMania 23. Meanwhile, his tag partner Orton also qualified for the MITB match, which led to dissent between them. He failed to win at WrestleMania after Jeff Hardy removed them both from the match by performing a nearly 20 foot leg drop off a ladder onto Edge. He then entered a feud, along with former partner Randy Orton, with John Cena and Shawn Michaels. All four men were aiming for the WWE Championship, and at Backlash they competed in a Fatal Four Way match in which Cena successfully defended his title.[60]

Move to SmackDown! (2007-present)

On the May 7, 2007 edition of RAW, Edge defeated Mr. Kennedy to win his Money in the Bank title opportunity (Kennedy had suffered a legit injury prior to the match), making Edge a two-time Money in the Bank holder.[61] On the May 11, 2007 edition of SmackDown!, Edge cashed in his newly won contract. After a brutal Steel cage match between The Undertaker and Batista and a savage assault to The Undertaker by Mark Henry, Edge took advantage and defeated Undertaker with a Spear to win his first World Heavyweight Championship.[62] As a result of this victory, Edge became a part of the SmackDown brand.

Edge then began a feud with Batista and successfully defended his championship title against Batista at Judgment Day,[63] in a Steel Cage Match at One Night Stand,[64] and a third and final time at a last chance match at Vengeance.[65] Edge then started another feud with Kane after the SmackDown! General Manager Theodore Long announced Kane as the new number one contender for Edge's title. Edge was forced to relinquish his title due to a legit torn left pectoral muscle injury on the July 20, 2007 SmackDown! following an attack by Kane.[66] Edge stated he would be out of action for about four months.

At Survivor Series, Edge made his return, interfering in a World Heavyweight Championship Hell in a Cell match between Batista and The Undertaker.[67] The following SmackDown! show saw Edge and General Manager Vickie Guerrero make public their relationship,[68] making his official in-ring return in a World Title match against Batista on November 30, a match that ended after The Undertaker interfered.[69]

At Armageddon, Edge regained the World Heavyweight Championship, after giving The Undertaker three chair shots, and pinning the defending champion Batista (who had been Tombstone piledriven by Undertaker prior) in a Triple Threat match. During the match, Edge used two look-alikes to distract Batista and The Undertaker.[70] It was later revealed that these look-alikes were the Major Brothers,[71] who were then repackaged as "The Edge-heads".

The alliance also saw the inclusion of Chavo Guerrero, and on the January 22, 2008 broadcasting of ECW on Sci Fi, Edge assisted Chavo in winning the ECW Championship from CM Punk,[72] who had previously rebuffed Edge[73] and allied himself with Rey Mysterio, Edge's scheduled opponent at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.[74] At both the Rumble and No Way Out, Edge successfully retained the title after spearing Mysterio in mid-air. On February 22, 2008 Edge was interrupted by Undertaker as he prepares to defend the World Heavyweight Championship against the Undertaker at WrestleMania XXIV.[75]

Personal life

Copeland used to play hockey with current Detroit Red Wings Aaron Downey.[90] He is a New Jersey Devils fan.[91]

As a teenager, Copeland attended WrestleMania VI sitting in the eleventh row at ringside.[92] He was cheering on WWF Champion Hulk Hogan against The Ultimate Warrior, and he credits this match with making him realize he wanted to be a wrestler.[3] Twelve years later Copeland returned to SkyDome as a competitor at WrestleMania X8, and won the World Tag Team Championship with Hogan as his partner that same year.

During his high school years, Copeland was voted "Most Likely to Win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship".

Copeland has been married two times. He was originally married to Alanah Morley in November 2001, the sister of Val Venis, but they divorced after three years. He was then married to Lisa Ortiz in 2004, but they soon divorced.

His autobiography, titled 'Adam Copeland On Edge', was published on November 4, 2004. Unlike most wrestlers who used 'ghost writers' to write their autobiographies, Copeland wrote the entire book himself. Mick Foley wrote the foreword to his book.

Copeland does not smoke. He claims he had his first cigarette when he was sixteen, hated it, and hasn't smoked since.

Copeland has several tattoos. He has a tattoo of a red and black sun on his left upper biceps (which covers a tattoo of a muscular shark which resembled the Street Sharks), a star on his right upper biceps with several smaller stars below it, two skulls wearing bandanas, adorned with flowers and hearts, below said star tattoo, along with a tattoo of a cross on his left forearm. All of Copeland's tattoos represent a stage in his career: his sun, which Copeland got while recovering from his neck injury, represents "looking towards brighter days." The cross tattoo represents his time with the Brood, and his star and skull tattoos represent his Rated R Superstar persona and his self-proclaimed status as the "Guns 'N Roses of wrestling."

Acting

Film

In 2000, he made a cameo appearance in the movie Highlander: Endgame, credited as "Road Bandit". During the appearance, actor Adrian Paul remarks "Looks like you've lost your edge, lad" after defeating him in a sword fight.

Guest appearances

On the August 6, 2006 episode of Mind of Mencia, Copeland appeared as Edge as a commentator for "The Royal Religious Rumble". He punched out an actor playing L. Ron Hubbard to stop Scientology from ruling the world and then speared another actor playing Tom Cruise. In March 2007, alongside Randy Orton, John Cena, and Bobby Lashley, he appeared on Deal or No Deal. Weeks later he appeared on the sketch comedy show MADtv.

Television

In March 2002, Copeland alongside other WWE Superstars appeared on The Weakest Link. He was voted out in the first round, and the eventual winner was Kane. (Credit: wikipedia).

Websites

WWE profile

Edge MySpace

Profiles

WWE