After rumors surrounding AEW and the possibility of WWE Bad Blood, Edge clarified what’s going on and where he’s headed
When a wrestler talks about retirement – and even after he’s actually retired – there’s always the question of whether his time in the ring is really up. Edge knows this better than most, as he finally ended his run more than a decade later after initially being forced into retirement due to a neck injury that made him believe he would never wrestle again. Fans have always questioned wrestlers’ “retirement” when it comes to contract renewals, and reports have surfaced that he didn’t re-sign with WWE specifically so he could rejoin former partner Christian in AEW and face it. The best tag teams in this promotion. Are any of them actually true? Edge spoke himself to clear the air.
After seeing the chatter circulating around the web, the Rated-R star decided it was time to make things right by clicking through Social media and put together a lengthy video statement. In doing so, he told fans exactly what was going on behind the scenes, and confirmed that he had not made any critical decisions about his wrestling career. In his own words:
There is nothing going on. There are no hard feelings between me and WWE. I love WWE, you know, it’s my dream party. That’s all I wanted to do. I didn’t propose to them with a crazy contract or anything. They did not deny me. I have a contract extension sitting in my inbox. I just don’t know what to do. The first time I had to retire, I had to, and this time the choice is in my lap and it’s much harder. WWE gave me that night, Friday night in Toronto, and it was the best night of my career. A lot of people will say, “You should retire at WrestleMania or this or that,” but that’s not their career path. Friday night was very special to me and I don’t know if I can add to that to be completely honest. And if we think we can, that’s great.
I have to admit that while I had my doubts about saying goodbye to him forever after a random one smack down bout, Edge’s hometown match in Toronto seemed like a perfect send-off to a wrestler of his stature. It’s hard to tell if his retirement at WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia will match the energy that his fellow Canadian fans radiate. Like Edge said, it’s his career. If he feels like it was the perfect send-off, who are we to ask him to come back for upcoming WWE events?
Ultimately, Edge made this statement to make it clear that there are no issues between him and WWE, and that he (supposedly) isn’t doing any major work to appear at AEW’s mega All In, which takes place at Wembley Stadium on August 27. He’s still trying to figure out what he wants to do but has indicated that there are two main things that are most important to him before this next chapter, and he’ll prioritize that over everything else:
I need to sit with him and know that whatever I’m doing, whether it’s Percy Jackson – which is coming soon – or wrestling, or sitting in my rocking chair, it’s because I’m having fun. Having fun and raising my kids at this point in my life are the two most important things. So, I hope that clears things up, I’ll go back to my coffee.
Edge looks real enough in the video, but we’re in the realm of professional wrestling. If he was planning to appear on AEW’s All In in front of a massive crowd of over 80,000 people, wouldn’t a serious response debunking the rumors be the final curtain? Anything is possible, though, in the infamous words of Hulk Hogan, I might “work the shot” by speculating on that level.
If Edge returns to professional wrestling, he won’t be the first wrestler to come back out of retirement. Ric Flair recently went through his second retirement match in 2022, and even Edge’s wife and legendary women’s wrestler Beth Phoenix retired once before returning years later. Edge may be 100% ready to retire tomorrow and he may change his mind a few months from now. Again, it’s his career, he’s free to do whatever he wants, and there’s plenty of precedent for him to change his mind.
If Edge never wrestles another match in his life, many of his past matches are available to revisit with a Peacock Premium subscription. Well, we’ll have to wait and see if he agrees to extend his contract with WWE, or if he sticks to a lot of acting work like he did after his first retirement.