The image of an emotional Edge “taking in” his Royal Rumble return will go down as being as iconic of a photo as a bloodied Becky Lynch, particularly for this moment in wrestling lore.
Just like Becky, Edge’s reaction to the natural electricity of the crowd was in itself organic. With scripts and sterility of “Universe vernacular” we tend to not receive the non-homogenized as we once did in WWE. The sincerity of the talent is what sold the Attitude Era, not the salacious or sex-fueled storylines.
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Edge carried all of those nine years of pro wrestling purgatory on his face as he assessed and absorbed that wild Houston crowd. Fans not in attendance absorbed Edge absorbing that the connection with The Hall of Famer was back as fierce as those spears we witnessed (that first one notwithstanding).
Take us to the next night on RAW where Edge breaks down his dispelling of the “what if” in his head in favor of ending his career on his terms. He wore his sincerity again. It looked as if he himself couldn’t believe he was saying that much. To the fans that haven’t seen him compete in nearly a decade – we couldn’t believe it either.
But we believe him, and as a wrestler, whether you’re green behind the ears or a legacy talent looking to stay relevant, that’s what you strive for.
Plenty of WWE folks either don’t receive an opportunity to express such or haven’t an idea how. The ones that do have either been grandfathered in, earned it or even lucked into it. If you happen to fit in one of those three categories, what matters is what you make of opportunity and what helps is if you have something honest to build it upon. McIntyre’s winding road to Sunday is what allowed him to lean on the ropes with tangible confidence to open RAW. Edge end-capped it with his own road and even Seth Rollins’ road of animosity is continuing to get pavement laid down. Let’s also not forget Roman showing us Joe after his return from remission.
Honesty’s the best policy for WWE and it’s time for them to smooth this Road To WrestleMania out.
Thoughts? Give feedback to @DominicDeAngelo on Twitter.
Dominic is the daily coverage writer for WrestleZone and writes for MLW doing their weekly Fusion recaps.
