Edge Talks His Dream Opponents In WWE

Edge was a guest on the latest episode of After The Bell where he talked about his return match with Randy Orton at WrestleMania. Corey Graves asked him if his return was what he expected.

"I can't say I [was] mapping this out because I do like to visualize, and I think if you visualize it you can materialize it. I did not picture this. This was not part of my vision board. Yeah, it's odd no question about it, but gosh, it's so crazy, and it happened so fast," Edge said. "We're all in it together, and you just have to make do. You really do, and I could sit there and wallow in my own self-pity and be like, ah my first singles match back, my first WrestleMania back and there's a pandemic. What are you gonna do? You make the best of the scenario and really there's bigger things right now, right? It's all of us staying healthy and keeping our loved ones healthy and growing gardens."

Edge went into more detail about the disappointment of the circumstances of his return match. However, he chose to look at the positives of the situation and how he could make the most of it. While many criticized the length of his match with Randy Orton, he still praised Orton and the work that they put into the match.

"I mean a you have to admit there was disappointment, of course because as a performer, we want to be in front of the audience. It's not the same without the audience there, physically there, You know they're there watching at home and that's what you have to try and focus on is the performance for the people at home that are hopefully reacting the way that you want them to within the arena. You got to just try and look at the positives and that's all you can do because otherwise the wormholes getting very deep and and it's just not worth it," Edge expressed. "It was disappointing sure, but pretty quickly I went, 'okay, well, this is what we have. So now what can we do? Let's try and look at this in different terms, and then I started thinking about it in cinematic terms and apparently I wasn't the only one.

"So that's really what I tried to do and just focus on the story, and to me, the story is always the steak. If the story is there, I think you can do it without an audience. Sure, there's those challenges. Don't get me wrong and you do feed off of it with adrenaline and things like that. And I do think an audience can take something and make it better just purely by their reaction and how invested they are, and I think an audience at home does feed off of that, but this is the set of circumstances we have this is what we have to work with. You just you have to make it work. We're pros. That's our job. That's what you have to try and do. That's how I just wrapped my mind around it very quickly, and then also, for me, I understand that I have, who I believed to be the most talented person in the industry in Randy Orton as my as my partner in it, my opponent but my partner as well."

Edge noted the odd circumstance of watching his match from home. He said before that WrestleMania needed to happen to help people who have to stay home during the pandemic, and he reiterated that point with Graves.

"It was very odd very very odd. We build our whole year toward that night, and usually, you do it and it's that performance and then you can get home following RAW or whatever it is and then you can just sit and be with it and soak it in and just try to enjoy it. That wasn't the case this time. It was very weird just odd all the way around. There's no really no other way to describe it. It was an odd experience, and again, almost like if I pre-recorded something for RAW, a promo for RAW, and then watching it as it aired was odd as well," Edge admitted. "It's a strange scenario right now, but I'd like to think we're making due and just trying to put up products so that people can still have something to try and forget about, like I said, the wormholes that are out there even if it's just for two hours, three hours, whatever it is. And I know it's difficult right now, but if we can do that, then we've done our job."

Graves asked Edge if there were any wrestlers that he wanted to get in the ring with now that he is back. Edge has said before that he wanted to wrestle Keith Lee and he names many others from the NXT and NXT UK rosters.

"There's just there's just so many. I mean I could point at each roster. I could point at NXT. Let's start there: [Tommaso] Ciampa, [Johnny] Gargano, Adam Cole [and] Velveteen Dream with the way he's got his character dialed in. The way I could play off of that, and he's still so young.

"To get him so young and be able to try and teach him some extra tools, my god that would be so much fun," Edge said. "Keith Lee, man. A guy like that, who I don't think has worked somebody yet that knows how to present him the way he should be presented, if that makes any sense.

"I think Brock knows how and you saw two minutes of that. That's fun. God, you can look at that UK: [Tyler] Bate, Walter and I know I'm forgetting names. Shane Thorn, I'd love to get in there with him. I'd love to get in and really really just see what they got and see and try and give them some tools to take it to the next level. You know what I mean? And and there's so much untapped potential there. Roddy [Roderick Strong], [Bobby] Fish and [Kyle] O'Reilly just give me a partner. There's just there's so much there."

Edge talked about the Smackdown roster and wanting to get in the ring with Roman Reigns after their encounter in the Royal Rumble. He also praised Baron Corbin for being a heel that he aspired to be.

"If I look at Smackdown, I mean Reigns and I has to happen someday. There's just there's no way around it. It just has to and to get that little taste of it at the Rumble, that felt good man. That felt like we were in a pocket. We are in a zone, and that's the first time we've ever touched. So for it to feel like that, that's when you know. I had that with [Kurt] Angle. I had that with Randy. I had that with Taker. I had that with Jeff [Hardy]. That can be a rare feeling. It took work for Eddie [Guerrero] and I to get there. We weren't there immediately. We're both perfectionists, and we're both our hardest, harshest critics. We get to the back, and we beat each other up and be like, 'it could have been like this.' We peel it all apart and then try and put the onion back together, and eventually, we got there. Then it was like, oh man, and I remember the moment it happened where we were like, okay, we got on the same page. We got into that pocket, but it felt like that right out of the gate [with] Reigns," Edge said. "Baron Corbin, to me, is a guy who truly understands this industry. He gets it, and I love that he does not care about being cool. He wants every percent of that audience to hate him, and I love that because that's the kind of heel that I always wanted to be too."

Edge said that while he and AJ Styles have been in the wrestling industry for over two decades, they have yet to come across each other until this year's Royal Rumble. He also talked about Drew McIntyre's growth from his first run in WWE to now.

"There's so many. You look at RAW. I'm chomping at the bit to get my hands on Aleister Black and AJ Styles. The first time we touched, 25 years in the industry to get the first time we touch was the Royal Rumble. How does that happen?

"So that has to happen. [Seth] Rollins. That's a gimme with our history. The fact that I haven't been around for nine years and we have as much history as we do is crazy and it's built in, and it has to happen," Edge said. "Drew, at where he's at now. My gosh. When I got Drew, he was so young but just so eager, and he was a sponge man. To see him as a sponge collect everything he has and get that world experience and go through some crap and fight through it and hammer his way back. Now, we're talking about a complete performer because in real life, he's had to encounter some s–t. That's when you learn, and that's when you become that guy and you may show the road map on your face, but that just adds another layer man."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit After The Bell with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.