WWE News: Edge Explains His Career-Ending Injury
On April 4, 2011, WWE Hall of Famer and multi-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion Edge announced his retirement. At the time, he was coming off a successful World Heavyweight Title defense against Alberto Del Rio at the previous night’s WrestleMania 27.
While Edge’s retirement kind of came out of nowhere, most WWE fans weren’t surprised to hear that the “Rated R Superstar” was going to hang up the tights after a long and successful career.
Edge had a long history of neck problems, which began in the early 2000s. He ended up having neck surgery in 2003, which caused him to be out of action for over a year. From that point on, as Edge said in his retirement speech, he was wrestling on borrowed time.
Daniel Bryan, who, like Edge, also had a history of neck issues, announced his retirement on last week’s RAW, but, unlike Edge, he was forced to retire due to a concussion issue.
On Thursday, TMZ Sports caught up with Edge, and they asked him about Daniel Bryan’s retirement, his own concussion history, and the injury that ended his own Hall of Fame career back in 2011.
“I think we’ve all been dinged up at some point. I think there’s so little known about it still at this point, so, I think I made out pretty unscathed when it comes to [concussions]. For me, it was neck. It’s gonna be something, though. Whether it’s hips or back, or concussions, for me it was neck. I feel off ladders a lot, and for me it took a toll on my neck, strangely, as opposed to my head. I never really whacked my head too much.”
Both Daniel Bryan and Edge ended up completely accepting the fact that they were being forced to retire, although it did take Bryan about a year to accept that fact, whereas Edge accepted it immediately.
In an interview with Sam Roberts of Sirius XM, Edge said that he was already looking to retire when Vince McMahon informed him that his career would be coming to an end. However, he said that he wasn’t looking to retire at WrestleMania 27.
Edge wanted his final match to be against his longtime tag-team partner and real-life best friend Christian at WrestleMania 28. But, Edge told Roberts that he can’t complain about the way he went out, because WWE let him retire as the current World Heavyweight Champion, saying that there really isn’t a better way to go out.
Instead of having his final match against Christian at WrestleMania 28, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame the night before the event by his former tag-team partner. As of this writing, Edge, who was 37-years-old when he was inducted, is the youngest ex-wrestler to ever be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, which is a stat that could be changed if Daniel Bryan, who is 34, is inducted into the Hall of Fame this year.
Spinal stenosis is what ended Edge’s in-ring career, which is the same injury that ended “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s career, and it’ll likely be the injury that end’s Sting’s career, although it’s being heavily rumored that he’s going to end up wrestling Undertaker at this spring’s WrestleMania 32.
Edge and Christian are set to make their WWE return at this Sunday’s WWE Fastlane show, where they’ll be interviewing Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods, also known as The New Day. Rumor has it that the segment will feature Edge and Christian introducing Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady as the new challenger’s for New Day’s WWE Tag-Team Championships.
[Image via WWE]
