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| The Edge Of Despair? |
Luke Dormehl |
Why Edge's face return is doomed to end in tears for the Rated R Superstar...
When the buzzer sounded for the Entry #29 in this year’s Royal Rumble and the familiar strains of Metalingus blasted out, the entire FSM office burst into cheers. Seven minutes and a series of spears later (including one to Chris Jericho, who’d been badmouthing Edge in his absence) and the man nicknamed the Ultimate Opportunist was the winner of the twenty third Royal Rumble, making an unexpected return from injury to claim his prize and go on to WrestleMania XXVI to fight for the title of his choosing. Granted, it was a finish recycled from 2008 when John Cena arrived as #30 to win the Rumble, but it was still a great moment to close out WWE’s first pay-per-view of the new year.
Contrary to the lyrics of Edge’s theme, however, it seems that on this day we weren’t seeing clearly at all. Since making his triumphant return to WWE, nothing else Edge has done has come close to triggering the same reaction he received on 31 January… and judging by the reaction of the fans watching live, we’re not alone in thinking this.
Shenanigans aside, winning the Royal Rumble used to mean a sure-fire slot in the main event at WrestleMania (once upon a time, anyway). True, WWE hasn’t adhered to the stipulation so much in recent years but even by these standards, Edge’s match with Jericho must surely go down as one of the least anticipated title matches in WrestleMania history; probably on a par with Psycho Sid taking on The Undertaker at WrestleMania 13. And at least that was the main event! As it currently stands in terms of hype, Edge/Chris Jericho is way behind Shawn Michaels/The Undertaker II (which has been hyped better than any match since Triple H/Batista at WM21) and John Cena/Batista (which has been made interesting by surprisingly great mic work on the part of Batista). It’s far closer to a match like Sheamus/Triple H: not bad for a run-of-the-mill midcard match, but nothing like what we’d expect for a world class title bout on the company’s biggest show of the year.
Of course, this could lead into a discussion as to whether the Royal Rumble has lost its lustre as an integral part of the WWE calendar, but we don’t actually think that’s the issue here. Nor is the issue a fault with the short term booking of the writing team, who’ve been building towards Edge/Chris Jericho since at least last July when the twosome teamed together to win the Undisputed tag straps to kick start the angle. And the blame can’t be placed with Jericho either since he, along with CM Punk, has been the WWE’s best and most consistent heel in years (and even more consistent than Punk when booking is taking into account). To paraphrase Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle then: having eliminated all the possible alternatives, the only answer can be that the blame for our ambivalence towards this year’s WrestleMania World title match rests squarely on the shoulders of Edge himself…
For the rest of this feature, check out issue 53 of FSM - available at WH Smith and all good retailers. (For US readers we are now carried at Borders and Barnes & Noble, so check for local availability or click here to subscribe.)
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