Edge on Knowing About Christian’s Rumble Return, Enjoying His Comeback as It Happens
Sporting News recently interviewed WWE Hall of Famer and 2021 men’s Royal Rumble winner Edge, who discussed returning from injury at the Rumble this year, the return of his former tag team partner Christian, and more. Below are some highlights.
Edge on Christian’s in-ring return at the Rumble: “I was one of the few that was privy to the fact that he got cleared a few months ago. We didn’t know he was going to be in the Rumble until Friday, though. I was in the midst of driving down to his house from North Carolina to stay for the weekend. And then we found out and we’re like ‘OK, well, we’ll drive over to the rumble together then.’”
On if he considers this his Rocky moment of his career: “It seems blasphemous since it is such an iconic character to me. This wasn’t supposed to happen for me, but it is. I always said that Edge is purely a character. I’m Adam until I go through that curtain. Then I am Edge. Edge is a pretty horrible human being, character-wise. But this incarnation of Edge is basically Adam. This is a really transparent character now and that’s a lot of fun. I really feel like, mentally, this is the best I’ve ever been. Now it’s just a matter of whether my body can continue to keep up with that. And I don’t know how long that is. But that’s also part of the beauty of this thing is we just don’t know. So I want to enjoy it while it’s happening because I don’t know when it’s gonna stop.”
On entering the Rumble this year without fans during the pandemic compared to last year: “There’s not that same shot of adrenaline that you get from Royal Rumble last year with 45,000 people directing their energy at you. Without that, it feels different and it doesn’t feel as good. But once I saw Randy Orton, I was just dialed in and it was time to go. But I sure do miss audiences. You know I can’t wait to have everybody back to be able to soak this in with me.”
On knowing he’d be ready in time for the Rumble: “I usually have a gauge when something has happened and my mental calculator kicks in. I said, ‘OK, this feels like a torn tricep and that’s probably six to eight months.’ When the injury happened, I knew that I could get back for the Rumble. But it really didn’t start to come together until a few weeks ago. I just made sure that I trained accordingly so that I could be ready. I never stopped training cardio and I got to the point where I could do burpees and pull ups again. On top of my cardio, I implemented a workout so that I could be able to pull off an hour in the Royal Rumble.”
