Edge Talks HOF Induction, Cena Vs. Rock, Wrestlers Being Bumped Because Of Rock, More
2012 WWE Hall of Fame inductee Edge joined Busted Open with Dave Lagreca and Doug Mortman. You can hear Busted Open from 2-4 ET on Sirius 94, XM 208, and Sportszone 860 on the internet. Here are some highlights:
On being inducted into the Hall of Fame: "It's kind of surreal. I was kind of expecting to be like ok in a few years or like you said if it's in Toronto, or Vancouver, or Montreal. I was fully expecting that too. I got the phone call and I was like "this year? Really?" Ok, I'm not going to turn it down. It's an honor. It's humbling, it really is. I didn't expect it. Number one, last year performing on it, had a year left on my deal, I thought this was the year I was going to retire. So it really sped the process up a year. If you had asked me when I was seventeen just breaking into the business, 'ok you're going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame the same year as the Four Horsemen, at the age of thirty-eight'. It's pretty surreal."
His favorite Wrestlemania memories: "My favorite moment was against The Undertaker. Just kind of walking down the aisle and just seeing him stand there, that might have been my favorite. I was like 'alright I'm ready, let's go'. So that and standing on top of a table when Christian and I first won the tag team titles was pretty big. If you had known us all the way through, you would understand how big that was for us. I mean they are all pretty massive and things that stand out, except for maybe the shampoo commercial with Booker T, which thankfully happened in my hometown of Toronto."
Vickie Guerrero: "I feel like a proud papa because when we first started doing our thing she was this timid general manager who wore a business suit and it really brought her out of her shell. She said I helped her along with that process. She kind of fed off my sleaziness on the screen. It was fun to watch this raging beast grow into the 'excuse me' phenomenon that it became. Man we would get out there and I couldn't hear her talk because it would be so loud and inside I would be like 'Good for you Vick, this is awesome, I created a monster.' I was like Dr Frankenstein watching the Bride of Frankenstein come off the bed.
John Cena and The Rock: "The worst thing is apathy and there is definitely not that. So I think a lot of it too, is John is kind of handcuffed. It's like there needs to be that guy and he is that guy. So it's like you want me to be this guy, then I'm going to be that guy and I'm going to do it with total commitment and do it, and if you don't like it then that's what I got to do. I think that's where it's kind of at. I think there is a lot more riding on it than just half the crowd in Portland reacting a certain way. You have to look at it from Vince's (McMahon) perspective, which no one seems to do anymore. Whether it's guys sweating Rock coming back. I'm like are you kidding me? It's great. I think it's awesome. If you get bumped off Wrestlemania because of The Rock, guess what? You weren't good enough. It's up to you to stay on the show."
What this year has been like for him not wrestling: "Not as tough as most people would assume it was. I had been mentally preparing myself for it anyway. I always gave what I had in the ring, but I was slowly going ok I'm going to start preparing for life after the fact. Because I could feel the limitations my body started to put on. So it was more of a shock to everyone else than to me. It really sped the process up. I knew how I felt after matches and something was off neck wise. I was like I better start wrapping my mind around this pretty quick because I have a feeling it's going to be within this next year and it was within two months. So it just sped it up."
When he knew about the neck injury: "I had no idea Wrestlemania last year was going to be my last match. We really assumed it was going to be possibly this year that I would be retiring. Going forward I was like we will figure this out, we will get it to Del Rio and do it in the ladder match and then maybe I will take a couple of months break, let everything rest up, come back and finish up. It didn't end up that way. We got additional MRI's the Monday after and they went 'Whoa! You got no choice in the matter here. We're shutting you down.' When they told me what the MRI's look like, the doctor was like 'this is the worst neck X-Ray currently competing in contact sports. You are done.' But we didn't know that and thankfully we caught it. I don't know when it started, obviously it's a gradual process, but I had neck surgery in '03, so if I really wanted to call it a day, I guess that could have been it. But I still had too much to do and I wanted to get it done. So I can look back without any regrets."