Hall Of Fame Edge Retirement

A man named Adam Copeland walked away from the career he loved tonight.  He walked away from the limelight, his adoring fans, the television cameras, the crowds… everything.  Where he goes from here is yet to be determined but I’ll be damned interested to know!!!

Adam Copeland is better known to the world as Edge, “The Rated-R Superstar.”  He wrestled for the last fourteen years in World Wrestling Entertainment and has held more titles in that organization than any other person in history.  That says a lot for his talent and his ability to perform.  The WWE is not an easy place to make it… believe me.

I’ve never been there, but I’ve known quite a few people who have been and couldn’t cut the mustard.  It’s the pinnacle of the wrestling business.

There are lots of people who will be reading this and saying things like “Wrestling is fake” or something of the same ilk, but I would challenge the most athletic of those people to put themselves up against any of the people who are wrestling in the WWE – or TNA – or most of the guys on the independent circuit, for that matter.  You wouldn’t be able to hold a candle to them.

Tell me when baseball, basketball, football, soccer…  when do those seasons begin and end?  There’s no off-season in wrestling.  On any given night in this country, you’ll find professional wrestlers giving their all in front of a crowd… from crowds of five to crowds of fifty thousand, “the boys” (and that includes the girls in the business… it’s a colloquialism, not a sexist statement) are giving their all – and sometimes paying the ultimate price for doing what they love.

Wrestling is scripted.  There’s a word that all wrestlers know.  Kayfabe.  That is – in the wrestling world, anyway – the portrayal of events as real or unscripted….. the suspension of disbelief.

Those of you who rattle on and on about wrestling being fake and chastising those of us who are true fans of the “male soap opera” as I’ve heard it described, should be chastising yourselves for watching NCIS or – worse yet – shelling out $20 for a night out at the movies.  Hey.. just so you know.. what you’re watching on the screen is scripted… it’s fake…. LL Cool J is not an undercover agent for the US Navy… Bruce Willis is not some rogue cop who likes blowing up buildings and shooting bad guys… They’re actors on a stage, playing their part.  That’s what professional wrestlers are… or at least that’s half of what they are… the other half is pure athlete…   Next time you see Bruce or LL…. ask them if they do their own stunts!

I got the chance to see Adam Copeland wrestle before he entered the WWE… which, by the way was in May of ’96.  He was wrestling – with his WWE tag partner Christian – as a character named Sexton Hardcastle.   What an awesome match that was.  I was thoroughly entertained and thought the 14 hour trip that my buddy and I took to see those two work was well worth the time and money.   I bought some “gimmick” he was selling, glad to be able to do something to show him how much I appreciated his work!

I watched that guy on television and in arenas throughout the southeast for the last fourteen years and have loved every moment – with the exception of one really poorly thought out angle that should have never been put on TV, but which gave him the moniker of “Rated-R Superstar.”  He put his body on the line, night in and night out.  He pulled off moves in the ring that I couldn’t dream were possible, much less re-create.  He was truly awe inspiring.

He broke his neck some years back and had to leave the business for a while.  During the time he was out, he began writing a weekly column on WWE.com called “The EDGE-ucation of Adam Copeland.”  This was one of the very first times that the WWE had publicly broken “kayfabe.”  I thought it was interesting to see how Adam viewed the business and his character.  The column was very insightful and was always an entertaining read.

He’s been injured on more than a few occasions, the most recent being a ruptured Achilles tendon… an injury he came back from in less than eight months time.

He defended his World Heavyweight Championship – a title he was honored with on 11 different occasions in his career – successfully at WrestleMania. He will now go into the history books as one of the very few workers to retire as a champion. Thanks to that broken neck from 11 years ago!

The business of wrestling should be left to people who are trained to do so… not to your kids, not to you…   These guys work very hard to choreograph their matches, to practice their moves, to improvise with each other in front of a crowd and – on the independent circuit, where EVERY wrestler gets their start – they do so for very little pay.  Don’t try this at home…. if you want to be a wrestler – find a credible school where you can learn to execute the moves safely and learn to “bump” without severely injuring yourself or someone else, then – when your instructors think that you’re ready – head out for your first match…

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Adam Copeland for taking me – and all his other fans – on one helluva ride!  Your charisma and passion inside the ring will be sorely missed.  I was looking forward to at least a few more stellar matches, but alas am thankful to have had the opportunity to see you work.  Your presence on my television screen will be missed, but I hope to see you in another realm of entertainment and hopefully, in time, a return to the WWE in another capacity.

You said that Jason told you that you had been able to work for the last nineteen years “on your own terms” and that’s something to be damned proud of… I hope that you are proud to know that there are millions of fans that were happy to let you do so and are still happy to be able to say that we are – and always will be – EDGEHEADS!

Here’s the link to view his retirement speech from Monday Night Raw:

Here is the official statement from the WWE, which explains the reason for his retirement…
“Less than a week after his successful title defense against Alberto Del Rio at WrestleMania XXVII, World Heavyweight Champion Edge has been forced to retire from in-ring competition due to injury. The unexpected news brings to an end a storied WWE career spanning 13 years and consisting of 11 World Title reigns.

“The Rated-R Superstar had been suffering numbness and uncontrollable trembling in his arms and hands. This is not the first time Edge has experienced these symptoms of nueropraxia. An MRI in Atlanta last Monday was sent to Dr. Joseph Maroon, a renowned neurosurgeon and professor of neurosurgery at The Pittsburgh School of Medicine. After careful examination of the MRI, it was determined that Edge would never be cleared to compete again, and thus, he is forced to retire.

“In 2003, Edge underwent a two level spinal fusion of the discs between his C5, C6 and C7 vertebrae. After being cleared to compete, The Rated-R Superstar returned to the ring, resulting in stenosis of the spine, or a narrowing of the spinal column, above and below the fused discs. This narrowing resulted in less and less of the vital fluid needed to protect the spinal cord. Medical professionals cannot clear Edge to compete ever again in WWE since doing so could result in paralysis or even death.”

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