Criticizing my Personal Favorites: Edge

[#hamler]

This thread series is a predecessor to my recent "Criticize the Best" series. In the previous series, you had a chance to criticize, who I thought, were the best and most influencial guys ever to grace a wrestling ring. In this series, you get a chance to criticize my current favorite wrestlers or superstars.

No matter how perfect the said Superstar is, criticize him. Now's your chance. Feel free to rip posts apart piece by piece.I want a dicussion here. Please, explain your answer and don't Spam. In this inagural thread, you have a chance to criticize my favorite current WWE Superstar...

Edge​

Mr. Money in the Bank, The Grand Puppetmaster The Ultimate Opportunist, The Master Manipulator, The Rated R Superstar, Edge. Edge won his first major World Championship in 2005 after capturing the first ever Money in the Bank at Wrestlemania 20. He would go on to become a four time WWE Champion and a six time World Heavyweight Champion. A total of 10 World Championships. That's averaging two a year since his first! Edge is the second WWE Superstar to hold a total of ten or more WWE World Championships. He's held the Intercontinental Championship 5 times. He holds the record for most tag title reigns currently in the WWE with 12 reigns. 2001 King of the Ring, 2005 and 2007 MiTB winner, Royal Rumble winner and a Grand Slam champion. Edge has trully done it all.

My current favorite WWE Superstar and has been since his rise from the shaddows in 2005/2006. Edge has done it all accomplishment wise and then some. Edge could retire any time now and i'd be perfectly fine and satisfied with his awesome career. Edge teamed with Christian in what I consider the best tag team ever. He perfected the ladder match and eventually became King of the TLC matches. After his tag team folded, Edge went on to have a very sucessful feud with Kurt Angle and eventually getting involved in the Invasion Angle. Edge was in the mid card most of his days after that, but soon got the push he deserved when he won King of the Ring. His momentum stoped when he injured his neck. When he returned he feuded with Randy Orton then turning heel again. Won the MiTB and became WWE Champion. The rest is pretty much World Championship after World Championship. Edge no doubt has something that the WWE loves enough to give a man with no particular in ring style, ten world championships. And I'm not complaining. But obviously, Edge hasn't been the perfect Superstar. Which leads me to the discussion questions;


What is one flaw you see in Edge?

Would fixing this flaw make Edge any better than he already is?


*(By the way, saying Edge won every World Championship by cheating IS NOT a flaw, don't use it.)*

If you see no flaw in Edge, state why. And please don't fuck up my thread with spam. Explain. Feel free to rip posts apart piece by piece, I want a discussion here.

Discuss this shit.

 

[Ferbian]

The thing that Edge seems to come off incredibly bland, and still a bit heelish when he's a face. Ever since his face turn in 2010 upon his return, he has been incredibly bland, and couldn't quite get the heat back when he turned heel again.

I'd like to think that Edge's face turn upon his return at the Royal Rumble destroyed a major joy of me watching Edge. He was, and always will be a better heel. His whole gimmick of the ultimate opportunist thrives off a heel moniker. Because in the end, who cares about a face that takes a lot of opportunities and slithers in to make the win? Who cares about a face that kidnaps someone for the sake of getting into his head. All of the things that Edge has done as a face in 2010 has been more than enough to make him incredibly bland. And it eventually hurt him enough to fault him in turning heel again.

 

[The Brain]

I have two criticisms of Edge. First are all the injuries. Over the past several years he has been shelved because of injury multiple times. He missed a full year between WM19 and WM20 which caused him to miss both those events. He got injured while champion in 2007 which led us to a Khali title reign. He was out for a few months in 2008 and then missed the second half of 2009. This guy just seems to have bad luck when it comes to injuries.

My second criticism is regarding his title reigns. They’re too short. Edge has been a world champion for a total of 438 days. That doesn’t sound bad until you realize he is a ten time champion so his average title reign is 43 days. His longest reign was from Armageddon 2007 until WM24. Not a bad reign by today’s standards, but not very good when that’s your best of ten.

To be fair these two things aren’t completely Edge’s fault. Wrestling is a dangerous business. Injuries happen. It’s actually pretty remarkable that Edge always comes back from these injuries and is able to pick up right where he left off. The title reigns are more a criticism of WWE booking. Edge is just one of the guys in the spotlight because of it.

 

[Ultra Awesome]

Well to be blatantly honest, I haven't liked Edge in over 2 years. I believe the main reason why is because his character just got so stale really quick. No matter if he was a face or a heel, he just wasn't interesting to watch at all.. I'm reminded to two years ago at Wrestlemania 25. It was him vs. Big Show vs. John Cena. Yea, I could not have cared less for that feud nor anything that Edge did afterwards. When he finally got something good (i.e. teaming up with Jericho), everything had suddenly changed. I was intruiged to see waht could come out of the team and wondered how far it cold go. Sadly, the man was injured; and thus, was unable to continue on with what could have been a glorious team.

So that leads me to the first flaw in Edge: injury prone. I think that had he not been through so many injuries, Edge would probably have been more highly regarded and in a better standing than he is now. As Brain pointed out, most if not all the injuries Edge recieved were at the times of crutial momments of his career. The tag team with Jericho could have done wonders for him. And who knows what he could have accomplished in those other times he was MIA. Edge being injured so often has a made a horrible stain on his career. Sadly, this one is not he could have done anything about because, well, it's not his fault he has to spend months trying to recover.

The second flaw that I see in Edge is (as briefly mentioned earlier) is that he gets stale so fast. How many changes did he go through in just 2010? And id any of those work for him? No. None of those were in the least bit interesting. When Edge wnet through the face turn when he came back at the Rumble, it was one of the owrst things to have ever happened to Edge. The whole "SPEAR_SPEAR_SPEAR" thing got incredibly annoying and I did not find it in the least bit entertaining. Then again, nothing that Edge has done up ntil now have I found entertaining.

At first when he had gone through the whole tweener mode where he was on a mission to get rid of everything stupid; I honestly thought that this would have been fantastic. I dare say, I was becoming a fan of Edge once more. However, Edge neded up going through such an absurd feud with Kane and now, I just have lost all interest in the man.

In short, Edge's two major flaws that I see is that he's too injury prone and tends to get stale quick. But other than that, I guess everything else is fine. No one superstar shoud ever be considered perfect--all of them have their flaws. And sadly, these are the flaws I see in Edge.

 

[RKOx7]

I definitely agree with The Brain, Edge's main flaw is something he might not have complete control over. He is injury prone. I love Edge and I'm so happy for his success, and that he became a 10x Champ before John Cena... He's also broke a WWE Record by holding the World Heavyweight Title 6 times, which is the most of any superstar, Triple H has held that title 5 times.

So as The Brain said, maybe if Edge could hold onto the championship for awhile... it would work in his favor as a solid champion... I think someone said once, being a 10x champ means you had to have lost the title 10 times... so lets hope for a long 10th title reign before the 11th one.

One other thing that Ferbian mentioned is the heel/face thing... Edge has been heel for such a long time, for 5-6 years, and he has manipulated everything and done every heel action you can think of. Its just hard to see him as a face because his motives and intentions don't change... kind of like Randy Orton, they're both faces who act out as they would when they are heels... minus a bit of cowardice.

----
So I guess my thoughts are the same as the two guys who posted before me, just with a twist and my input.

 

[LSN80]

I have a few criticisms of Edge, much of which I believe most people share.

He's simply had too many title reigns. Edge didnt really break into the main event scene until 2005, when he won MITB. It wasn't until 2006 that he won his first WWE Championship. Despite missing time on two instances due to injury, he's won the title subsequently NINE times since. I don't criticize him for getting injured, but do think that due to the time missed, he's simply had too many reigns.

Anytime a superstar has been pushed down our throats in that way, we get sick of it after awhile, no matter how much we may like them. Many of the title reigns were done for the purpose of advancing storylines, and this I get. But some did not, and could have been condensed into a few long, solid title reigns. Even in the era where the heel cheats to win the title(and Edge had plenty of help in Lita, Vickie and La Familia), he was unable to sustain a long or more importantly, defining title reign.

My other problem with Edge is that I don't buy him as a face right now. I want to, i really do. I enjoyed his short face run when he returned from injury, and proclaimed that he would "no longer be running from fights". But his actions during his feud with Kane were the definition of classic heel antics, and left Kane coming off as sympathetic at times. His proclamation that the torment he put Kane through was worth it because he won the World Title screams heel. The ends justify the means he tells us, even if they include, I dont know, felony murder? Sorry Edge, Im just not buying you right now as a face.

So to summarize, the biggest flaws I see in Edge revolve around his multiple title reigns, and the fact that Im not buying what he's selling as a face right now. Some of this can surely be blamed on creative for such poor booking, but its ultimately how Edge is presented to us that we have to judge him by. Many of his title reigns simply haven't advanced storylines the way they properly should, so its hard to classify him as one of the all time greats despite his 10 title reigns. His character, persona, and actions right now scream much more of being the same "Ultimate Opportunist" that he's always been, despite us being told he's a face.

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

I wrote this thing in the thread "is edge as good as we think he is", but I don't think a single person read it which is a shame because it took a while, so I'm going to repost it here instead:

This is weird but I am one guy you'll find with the contravening opinion to everybody else posting I here, I honestly thought this would be a little more split. I have never been impressed with edge in ANY respect, absolutely any. The fact of the amount of title reigns he has had aside, for me edge is barely world champ material.

It's strange how you phrased your question. He is obviously as good as we think he is, it would be logically impossible for him not to be but that is straying off topic really. But if I had to answer your question in the way I think you want it to be answered I'd say that Edge is, in my opinion, as good as I think he is which is not very good at all.

I feel that in the ring he comes across as petty lethargic, but not in a randy orton methodically picking apart the opponent kind of way, in a fashion that actually makes him look slow and worn out. His move set is not an issue at all as many and most WWE guys have a very limited move pool that they use often in the ring, and in longer matches like most guys, he can pull out different stuff that makes the match better. But in the ring for me he always looks deflated and everything he does is un-hyped, almost like every victory he gets is a surprise. I have also always hated that poor excuse for a spear that he calls his finisher. I understand it is supposed to be his own innovation of the move, but it just ended look looking so weak because your basically slamming the guy into the ground from about 2ft away from it. OK that isn't a flaw in edge himself, more his move set but no matter. That isn't to say i think his execution is poor, I have always liked his impaler DDT or Edgecution and think that should be his finisher because it looks far more deadly. But as a whole although he has had some LONG matches, I've never seen one which was, for me, particularly good.

The category where he would therefore have to save himself would be talking. I don't like the way he does it, not one little bit. He is another one of those guys who sounds like a breathing, eating, sleeping Teleprompter with a voice. Nothing he does with a microphone has ever been globally branded as superb or ground-breaking or memorable, certainly I cannot remember any such example unlike guys like punk or Barrett or even cena who have segments that people will at least talk about for the week leading up to the following show, edge just talks and I breeze over. In a sport where I value the ability of improvisation highly, edge certainly scores lowly for me. They ave even had the exact same problem with edge that they had with another guy who isn't a great talker, John Morrison, on being unable to lock him down to any feud or angle for very long. One week he's spearing Jericho, then he's drafted to raw and turns heel....fair enough, then he turns face he's face on team raw at Summerslam but quickly heel again with Jericho walking out, then he's a tweener on raw feuding with stupidity and the GM, then he is full blown face on Smackdown again. A lack of ideas and direction for a now 10-time world champ is a worrying thing.

He is one of very few, perhaps 3 or more guys who won king of the ring and not been elevated to stardom shortly thereafter. That to me, like it did for the man formerly known as King Mabel, screams lack of potential and raw ability to make it on the first attempt unlike guys like Sheamus and Barrett who have taken a push and used it to cement themselves as a long-term option higher on the card. It wasn't until about 2004 where he began to build up a head of steam. His former tag team partner Christian was also beginning to really flourish at this time except whilst edge was locked up in tag team competition earning little mic time, Christian was taking on the rising star in John Cena and being very impressive doing it, not to mention the fact that he had no KOTR victory to fall back on. Before leaving, Christian was actually main eventing and had his own stooge whilst edge was starting to make head-way as a singles competitor. That likely tells you Christian was or is a better package, and if that's true then your in trouble because Christian isn't god's gift to wrestling, he's just pretty good.

The best work of his career by far was during his feud with John cena in 2006 where his promo work noticeably picked up, but anything he did since or before that was pretty mediocre. And addressing the entire innovator of TLC argument. I see Edge similar to the Hardy's or Dudley's in that match where they are just lucky that the match didn't involve and technical wrestling just a great deal of spots, and the match ended up being a lot better than the guys who took part in it on that day.

If I rated Edge as a performer, I'd say he was barely on the upper side of average in and amongst the same tier as Jack Swagger and diagnose him as good enough to be a multiple time tag team and intercontinental champ. And with the longevity and perseverance despite injuries in his career he may have been deserved of one, maybe two world title reigns maximum, because there is no way in heel he is better than Chris Jericho, especially not to the point of having more than twice his number of title reigns.

The best things I can think about him are his look, his theme and the length of his career, but nothing he has ever done as I said has impressed me to the point of me considering him to be anything more than alright.


Then again if we all agreed this thread would be hella boring, so thank god I don't like Edge eh? Praise the opinionated everywhere for the immortal phrase IMO, and apply it to that behemoth works I just scribbled down.

 

[McGillicutty]

I don't have any CONSTRUCTIVE criticisms about edge , but.... hes boring lately I don't know what it is but he doesn't have that same magnetic-suck-you-in entertainingness he once did

 

[Dr. Stinger A. Zoidberg]

I think right now, it's because he's a bit too boring. Don't get me wrong, I think Edge is a great superstar. It's just that in the past few years, he hasn't been given anything worthwhile to do. It seems that his feud with Undertaker a few years back was the last time we saw Edge bring something different to the roster. Now, it just seems like he's a generic top-of-the-card guy. His in-ring work and his promos are still fine, it's just the fact that he's been given nothing to do. When he is, it's usually a bust. After Wrestlemania, he was put in a feud with Randy Orton. That was supposed to be "Feud of the year." Everyone would be talking about it. Unfortunately, it was a failure. It just wasnt interesting. I think Edge is to blame for that because he just isnt the same superstar anymore. It's very hard for him to be "The Rated-R Superstar" in the current WWE Product. He either needs to undergo a gimmick change, and become what he was back in 2003/2004, or just do something that sets him apart again.

 

[Ell]

I am a huge Edge fan, I believe in his character particularly when he's a heel because he makes it that more convincing.

I can hardly knock the guy, he is and will be one of the all time greats, he is a TEN TIME...TEN TIME world champion. He's done spots that people are still in awe of to this day, he's revolutionized the business as it is today with his aptly named ultimate opportunist gimmick which many people have took advantage of in the recent present... practically all the heels are based off his character as being an ultimate opportunist.

I have 2 criticism's of the man, one slightly being a grudge which ill get over with first. Essentially, he broke up what could have been one of the best tag teams of all time... I mean of all time! Rated Y2J... two egomaniacs, two fellow Canadians, two awesome believable character's, two former tag team champs, two former world heavyweight champions as one team, and hopefully a long reign ahead much like Jeri-show had. Now, i know a lot of people have posted already about Edge being injury prone and im going against my own opinion by saying this but, it really isn't any wrestlers fault if there injury prone, I mean... its wrestling at the end of the day its very unpredictable, In the famous words of Jim Ross... "Anything can happen"

My second criticism is not, yet again, necessarily his fault but his staleness as a face character... he/wwe creative need to find a niche much like they did when he was a heel and attack so hard that it bleeds out piss from the audiences mouths... because, me personally I'd love to see him rival the Undertaker as the face of Smackdown but right now, his character doesn't have that much meaning, when he jumped to SD! He was on a mission to sort out anything "Stupid" Yea well... he didn't do a very good job of that, and jumped straight into the main event scene, where of course he is very much needed.

Apart from the above, I think Edge has done amazingly well for himself, and definitely deserves the spot he's in today... TEN TIME.... TEN TIME.

 

[SullivanSmith]

"You think you know me"

Well, yeah, actually Edge, we sort of DO know you by now. I love the guy, he's one of my all-time favorites but frankly he hasn't been nearly as exciting and interesting lately.

I'd personally like to see him go into a radically different direction. I don't know what that'd be but I'd love for him to surprise us.

 

[Saint]

"You think you know me"

Well, yeah, actually Edge, we sort of DO know you by now. I love the guy, he's one of my all-time favorites but frankly he hasn't been nearly as exciting and interesting lately.

I'd personally like to see him go into a radically different direction. I don't know what that'd be but I'd love for him to surprise us.

I agree with you there, and I felt we were gonna get a new, more edgy (no pun intended) version of him when he was feuding with the Undertaker a few years ago but nothing really happened. I do think one of his issues is being face right now.

 

[Long Island Iced WXYZ]

I think Edges' best days are beind him.

He was white hot on Smackdown a few years ago when he cashed in the MITB for the second time on the Undertaker.

But now, he's entertaining, but not as much.

He's not a good face, he's way better as a heel.

I just can't buy Edge as a face, it doesn't look right.

I mean, he's the "Rated R Superstar", "The Ultimate Oppurtunist". That screams heel to me.

So for me, really. It;s just him being a face.

I think Edge is a great star.

He can talk, he can wrestle. He's great all around.

Just not as a face.

 

[Disturbed]

I'll start off by saying he is one of my favorite superstars of all time. I always knew he would be a champion one day but never thought he would be a ten time champion. I always really liked him untill his feud with Cena is 06 and that is when he became one of my favorites. Back then he had the perfect gimmick, the mic skills, the wrestling skills, and the valet in his girlfriend Lita. Now most of Edge's flaws today are not his fault.

Alright with that said, I would like to point out that Edge just needs new guys to work with. He has already worked with Kane and Mysterio in the past. I think it's time for him to move on to other guys. He started a program with Swagger and nothing really ever happened. So I would like to see him feud with Swagger some and that would help both of them out. It would give Swagger more credit as a main eventer and Edge someone new to feud with. Plus I think they could put on some good matches together in the process. Another guy who Edge hasn't worked with is CM Punk. There styles are very similar and I think these two guys could put on some epic promos and matches.

Another thing Edge can't help is the PG era. His gimmick is faded out when it comes to doing things that evolve around a family program. Back when he became the Rated R Superstar, he could do whatever the hell he wanted because he was just that, Rated R. Now he can't be Rated R and he can't be himself during a PG show. If you noticed before WWE went PG, he was more laid back during promos and spoke freely. He was able to be himself. Now he looks uncomfortable on the mic. I am not saying he isn't good at promos anymore but I am saying he isn't as good as he used to be. Now I can't really say the face turn was a bad move because it gave him something new in which he needed and if he was still the Rated R heel then he wouldn't be as over because he can't do the same stuff he used to.

Lastly, I would like to point out that he is injury prone. He has been injured numerous times throughout his career. How many times has Chris Jericho been injured in his career? Zippo, none, nodda, but this isn't about Y2J. Now ever since Edge has returned he has looked out of shape. His stomach used to be more muscular and now it's just floppy. His arms look smaller too but he is getting older and I don't think he can compete like he used to.

 

[nerd4life]

his finishser. the spear. i absolutley hate it. especialy when he barely runs at the oppenent with any speed whatsoever. worst finisher ever. And ya for someone who claims to be rated r what has he done to be rated r other then 'bang lita'

i think edge is pretty good but over rated. Id put him below cena orton jericho taker hhh even shamous!

 

[Tequila Dave]

When Edge won the World Heavyweight Championship at TLC, only 23 people have posted on the “Edge is the New World Champion” thread. More people posted in a thread about someone’s girl problems in The GSD. To me, this is an indication that people aren’t as interested by Edge as they used to be. There are many potential reasons for this.

Though Edge’s new face persona is relatively fresh, I don't feel emotionally connected to Edge whatsoever. He was a mess on Raw, he came to Smakcdown, turned face, tormented Kane, and then won the belt. Sure Kane was a monster, but Edge made him look weak; making it seem like Edge hasn't really overcome anything since turning face. Thus, I’m not connected to him and I don’t care about him. It probably doesn’t help that he continues to have heel qualities.

Also, Raw really fucked Edge up. It wasn't until he went to the A show and had to share the spotlight with the likes of John Cena and Randy Orton that I realised Edge doesn't entertain me anymore. He severely struggled on Raw, and the reason was he wasn't special enough, or entertaining enough to warrant himself being a big key player. Edge only thrives when he's the clear top dog, but when the main event is crowded, he begins to fade (for a reason.)

To summarise, Edge is stale.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

Edge is getting a lot of criticism but I feel that is due to a combination of the fact that he is stale and that he has been booked poorly rather than a reflection of his abilities. Just like Cena, Edge has dominated the main event scene for too long. I'm sure no one wants to see him as heel again. As a face I believe he was booked poorly on both occasions. The creative team should have gone a different route when booking him in his feuds with Jericho and Kane respectively. I personally think that his "crusade against stupidity" gimmick held a lot of promise. He got a good pop when he destroyed that computer on Raw. But that gimmick of his was used merely as a way to turn him face. He has gone a different direction ever since he started feuding with Kane and I think his feud with Kane has been utter shit.

Apart from that I have never liked his finisher a lot. The spear is a big guy's move and so it has never fitted Edge a lot, in my opinion. The Edgecution was a better suited finisher for him.

I think the way to get Edge his popularity back would be to have him feud with Christian, a feud that so many of us fans have been clamoring for. Of course he also needs to be booked better than he has recently been.

 

[El Rev sXe]

Well Edge has been one of the greatest in this era since 2005 until his injured tendon. He came back and won the Rumble, but then...it got stale. It could've been EPIC his feud with Jericho but somehow it was pretty borring. But as many posters already said, Edge's flaws aren't his fault, is the age and WWE's booking him that way.