WrestleMania 36 will mark the first time WWE has no live crowd for its signature show, and it will also be a two-night event. The company has decided the show has to go on, and so did we. WWE offered to media the interviews they couldn’t have done, and we will share them with you all week long. Legends, main roster, and NXT wrestlers, this week is all for them.
Edge is back. It’s still hard to take in given the sad farewell we had some years ago but now he’s back and has a match on the Grandest Stage Of Them All against an old ally and older foe, Randy Orton. Here, he recounts some of his favourite Mania moments from over the years.
WrestleMania 6:
“My first live WrestleMania experience was WrestleMania 6. I’d been to see four and five at closed-circuit venues back when that was a thing, and I remember listening to WrestleMania 3 results on the radio. But WrestleMania 6, that was the first one I was there for. It was in Toronto, at the Skydome. It was Hulk Hogan, who was my guy, against the Ultimate Warrior, who was the ascending phenom and I, to this day, still remember how it felt. Throughout the night, I just kept getting Goosebumps and the hairs on my arm would raise. I already knew I wanted to be a wrestler, I’d already been to a bunch of live shows, but that one man, that one. WrestleMania is just a different animal, just a different beast entirely, and also that kind of iconic match, the story they told and the way that they crafted it, my god, it was just so amazing.
To be a part of and to come back 2 years later as a performer in the same arena, in the same building, in the same Skydome. There’s so many moments in life that are surreal, and that’s one of them. Even just my mum scraping together the money using my grandparent’s credit card to get the tickets, cause we didn’t have a credit card, just everything behind it. We took the bus there because we didn’t have a car. It will forever be etched in my brain as this magical thing, and that’s why as weird as it is from the Performance Centre, Mania has to happen.”
WrestleMania 16:
“The TLC ladder match against the Dudleyz and the Hardyz was the first time that I competed at a WrestleMania. I had been blocked at WrestleMania 14 as talent. I hadn’t yet been on TV. WrestleMania 15, I was involved in Undertaker’s match. But WrestleMania 16, WrestleMania 2000, was my first performance, and it was with a childhood friend, Christian. We were involved in something that had never happened before. We had a blank canvas at WrestleMania for these tag team championships that we told ourselves we’d have one day. I truly believe that if you can visualise it, you can make it happen. I’m big on visualisation.
Did I expect that we’d be stood on a table, crashing through two ladders? That wasn’t necessarily how I’d pictured it. I’d always pictured Christian and I being the tag team champions, the fact that it was happening at WrestleMania, standing on a table propped on two ladders, just adds so much more to the memory. I’ll never forget I pushed Matt off, I saw him land, and I went, “Oh My God,” that had to have hurt so badly. Then, trying to balance, I felt like I was surfing because everything was very uneven. Christian couldn’t stand up. He couldn’t pull it off because I have far superior core strength, so I stood up, grabbed those belts, handed him his, and it felt like a dream sequence from a movie.”
WrestleMania 21:
“You know, at the time, I didn’t know what Money in the Bank was going to mean. I didn’t. When I look back at it now, I realise the significance of it in terms of what it did to the wrestling industry. If I look back at it, even as a passing of the torch aspect. There was a whole new crop of talent. We were all getting ready to make our mark. I feel like I helped make my mark in tag teams, but now it was time to do it on my own. Money in the Bank was the first step in that. Then you had John Cena winning the WWE Championship, Batista winning the World Heavyweight Championship. Think about what the three of us did after that. You had Randy Orton wrestling the Undertaker. It was pretty pivotal looking back. A very pivotal Mania in terms of the changing of the guard. Now, what really sunk in for me for the climbing of the ladder to grab the briefcase, and looking down at Rick Rubin, Billy Corgan, and Anthony Kids were in the front row cheering me on. Now, as a music guy, that’s when I realised this is something. This is pretty damn cool. But again, it wasn’t until I talked to Vince about the idea of cashing in and how to cash it in, that it really sunk in what that match meant. So, at the time, I didn’t understand the significance. As I look back now, you can say, “Okay, that was pretty big.”
Hall of Fame 2012:
“I wasn’t even a year removed from being retired, so I don’t know if I really fully grasped any of it, to be honest. I knew I was retired, but it was only a year, so I don’t know if I fully understood how retired I was. I remember getting the phone call, and I was like really? That was quick. I greatly appreciate it, and without trying to sound egotistical, I figured it was going to happen. I just didn’t know it’d be that quick. Honestly, I think it was just, maybe it was a tip of the cap. We know it wasn’t your choice. We know that this sucks. You’re going to get it eventually, so let’s do it this year and try and have a nice feel-good moment. I’m sure there were people saying it was too soon, but I mean it was going to happen anyway, so who cares when it happens? It’s not a race. It’s not who gets there first. It’s a fun thing, and that’s how we tried to treat it. To have Jay induct me, it was fun. That’s how I looked at it. I chopped all my hair off the night before, and I came out looking like I don’t know, Word Cleaver, that’s a really dated reference, but somebody will get it.”
WrestleMania airs live on the WWE Network on Saturday, April 4th, and Sunday, April 5th. Check your local listings to see if PPV coverage is available in your area.
Special thanks to DS Communication – All images and videos courtesy of WWE