For 47-year-old Adam Copeland, better known as WWE Hall of Fame professional wrestler Edge, every moment he gets in the ring at this point in his career is a gift.
After his surprise return at the 2020 Royal Rumble last January, nine years after he was forced to prematurely retire due to a neck injury, Edge has wrestled with the vigor and dedication of a man who is trying to make up for lost time. Every action has been made with purpose, and while that intensity caused him to get injured again, that dedication allowed him immediately to win the 2021 Royal Rumble upon his return, becoming the first Hall of Famer to win the legendary event.
Edge may be walking down the ramp to the ring of the upcoming main event of WrestleMania 37 alone, but he didn’t get there by himself—he wants to make that very clear.
After his win on Sunday, the BT Sports on WWE Twitter account posted a picture of Edge and his wife Beth Phoenix, a fellow WWE Hall of Fame pro wrestler and current NXT announcer, as she looks on proudly after his against-the-odds Rumble win.
“Behind every great man is a great woman,” the account wrote as a caption.
“Just change it to beside,” Edge responded to his 1.2 million followers.
Just change it to beside https://t.co/bqQlCbnQa6
— Adam (Edge) Copeland (@EdgeRatedR) February 2, 2021
Esquire Middle East had the chance to catch up with Edge via Zoom, and asked him what ‘beside’ means to him. For the most part, it’s about partnership.
“I know that that quote is, you know, it’s not meant to be derogatory. When I corrected it, it wasn’t meant as a slap in the face. But to me, it’s important to correct that going forward in the future,” Edge tells Esquire Middle East.
“I know first-hand that without your support system, without a team there for you to help prop you up when you need it, whether it’s words of encouragement or carving out the time within your day to get into the gym to do the things that you need to do in order to be prepared for this, [none of this is possible],” he continues.
Edge is not the young man he was when he won championship after championship, cementing himself as one of the greatest superstars not only of his generation, but in WWE history. Edge could have rested upon those accomplishments, but instead he pushes himself harder than he’s ever had to before to return to the ring not because he has to, but because it means everything to him. That effort, however, takes its toll, both mentally and physically.
“There’s so much that goes into it now, especially at my age. It’s a process and there’s self-care involved. There’s just so many intangibles, and so many things. I’ll admit there’s anxiety, because I have kids now and that’s first and foremost and prevalent in front of my mind,” says Edge.
More than anyone else, it’s his wife Beth who makes it possible.
“For Beth, what she’s able to do for me is to talk me through some of those things. She’s almost as much a therapist as she is my partner. She’s side by side with me through this thing, and she’s experiencing all of these things with me. Then I take a step back, and I go, ‘what must she be experiencing?’ watching me in there and the worry that must be involved,” says Edge.
“And so that’s why I say beside, because none of this is possible without her having my back and being my support through all of this, let alone the other members of my team who go unheralded, from my nutritionist to the meal company I use, to the guy who draws up my workouts, to one of my best friends whose general contractor and if something goes wrong at the house, and I got to get in that workout, he’s there to help me take care of it.”
While Edge appreciates the magnitude of his accomplishments and knows that the WWE universe will give him all the credit, he knows, and wants the world to know, that he couldn’t do this alone. Without Beth, and without the rest of his support system, he would never have return to the highest level.
“Without all of these things that go into it that no one sees, and no one knows, it’s just not possible. it’s really not. So that’s why it’s important to me to really highlight that it’s beside. My face might be the one that that you see on the screen, but it doesn’t happen without everybody there beside me.”
One important person in his life was able to return beside him in the ring, his former tag team partner and real-life best friend Christian, who made a shocking return from retirement at number 24 in Sunday’s Royal Rumble.When the two embraced in the ring, Edge wants to make clear—that wasn’t just a performance—those were real emotions on their faces.
“Here’s the beautiful part. Here’s where wrestling can work at its purest, best level—it’s when you have reality and truth and real emotions. That can’t be fabricated, that can’t be written, that can’t be scripted. The look you saw in my face, as Christian was coming down the ramp, that was real, that that was me being part dumbfounded that we were both in the Royal Rumble in 2021, after being told we could both never do this again,” Edge says.
“That was pride, because I know how hard he worked to get back to the point where he could be cleared, which was evident by looking at him. There were so many emotions in in that moment and in that look.”
Edge also reveals that he’s known Christian was medically cleared to return to ring action well ahead of the Rumble.
“I’ve known he’s been cleared for a little while, right? I knew all of these things. Then, when it’s actually happening, you’re in the moment, you’re in the pocket. That’s when you get everything that you’ve been feeling for this last little while, and it’s able to come out and it just so happens to be able to come out on screen and that that’s a beautiful thing,” says Edge.
Edge is now hoping that Edge and Christian can reunite as a tag team, already ready to name his dream match ups for a potential united run.
“I would love it. I think I think at some point that would need to happen, just because there’s so many opportunities there between Edge and Christian against The Usos , or I mean, man, Edge and Christian against the New Day. Edge and Christian against Ziggler and Roode. Edge and Christian versus the Street Profits. Not for nothing, Edge and Christian versus Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. Yeah. There’s some stuff there.”
