Adam Copeland
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Adam Joseph Copeland (born October 30, 1973 in Orangeville, Ontario), is a Canadian professional wrestler, better known under his ring name, Edge, currently performing for World Wrestling Entertainment on the RAW brand. Originally a successful tag team wrestler, he has also made a name for himself as a singles competitor. At WrestleMania 21, he won a "money-in-the-bank" contract, giving him up to one year to challenge the world champion for a title match. He is the former WWE Champion after defeating John Cena at New Year's Revolution 2006 by cashing in that contract to win his first WWE Championship. Just three weeks after he won the WWE Championship from Cena, Edge lost the title when Cena made him tap out at the 2006 Royal Rumble.
He gained some measure of infamy among wrestling fans after late February 2005, when he had a real-life adulterous affair with WWE diva Lita, causing her and her long time boyfriend and WWE superstar Matt Hardy to split, when Matt was contacted by Edge's ex-wife.
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Career
Throughout the 1990s he wrestled for many independent promotions in Ontario as well in the Great Lakes region of the United States under the name Sexton Hardcastle. As Sexton Hardcastle he was managed by Johnny Bradford and Judd the Studd and would go on to become a part of Sex and Violence with Joe Legend, a successful tag team in the Detroit area. During 1997 Sex and Violence were a part of a bigger gang, known as THUG Life - Legend, Hardcastle, Christian Cage, Bloody Bill Skullion and Rhino Richards. In his indy career, he also won the SSW Tag title, the ICW Street Fight Tag title and the ICW/MWCW Midwest Unified Tag title, all with long time friend, Christian Cage they were known as the Suicide Blondes. He was signed by the WWF in 1998, and made his debut on WWF television the same year.
1998
Edge started his career making random appearances by coming though the crowd. One of his more notable appearances was SummerSlam '98 as Sable's Mystery Tag Team partner against Jaqueline and Marc Mero. He was eventually brought into the Brood, Gangrel's faction with his brother Christian.
1999
Edge was then placed into a feud against Gangrel. However, he started teaming up with Gangrel along with on-screen brother and aforementioned real life best friend Christian to form a faction known as "The Brood". The group joined The Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness.
The Brood broke away from the Ministry in May of 1999 when Christian told Ken Shamrock Stephanie McMahon's whereabouts after having been attacked by Ken Shamrock. The Undertaker chose to have Christian punished, but Edge and Gangrel turned against Undertaker. They began a feud with Matt & Jeff, the Hardy Boyz, which would result in some classic encounters. Soon however, Edge and Christian broke away from Gangrel, who then formed The New Brood with the Hardyz and continued the feud with Edge & Christian. Even after the New Brood split Edge & Christian continued to feud with the Hardy Boyz.
Image:Christianedge.jpg Edge and Christian then competed in the now-classic tag team ladder match at the 1999 No Mercy against the Hardy Boyz, which was for the "managerial services" of Terri Runnels and $100,000, however Edge & Christian came up short.
2000
At WrestleMania 2000, Edge and Christian defeated the Hardyz and the Dudley Boyz to win their first WWF World Tag Team Title in an infamous Triangle Ladder Match which saw the birth of the Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match.
Following this victory, Edge and Christian found success as a heel comic duo of surfer dudes/teenyboppers, winning the WWF Tag Team Titles seven more times. During this time their trademark was the five second pose where they would perform a pose for five seconds "for the benefit of those with flash photography" to irritate the fans (one such pose had them and Kurt Angle dressing up as a bluegrass band at a pay-per-view event in Kentucky)) They also competed as a team in the first three Tables, Ladders, and Chairs matches, winning the first two over The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz, at SummerSlam 2000 and then again at WrestleMania X-Seven.
2001-2002
Copeland would go on to solidified himself as a burgoning singles star, after winning the 2001 King of the Ring tournament, and began using the song "Never Gonna Stop" by Rob Zombie as his entrance music. Christian turned on Edge shortly afterward, and the two feuded over Edge's Intercontinental Championship, which Christian won and lost back to Edge. Edge lost the Intercontental Title to Test and shortly afterward won the WCW United States Championship from Kurt Angle. Edge defeated Test at Survivor Series 2001 to unify the Intercontinental Championship with the WCW United States Championship he previously won.
Throughout the winter months of 2001 Copeland feuded with William Regal for the Intercontinental Title after Regal beat him for it. In this feud Edge came up short. When WrestleMania X8 came around Edge found himself in a match with Booker T that was the result of Edge beating out Booker on a fictitious Japanese shampoo endorsement.
After his feud with Booker T was quietly pushed aside Copeland was drafted to the SmackDown! brand in the first WWE Draft where he began a feud against Kurt Angle. The feud culminated in a hair vs. hair match that Edge ended up winning. When Rey Mysterio made his SmackDown! debut, the two formed a pairing and on an episode of SmackDown! won the WWE Tag Team Championship. The two were often referred to as "the future of Smackdown!".
2003-2004
In February 2003, Copeland suffered a neck injury that required surgery that kept him sidelined for close to a year. He wrote a column on WWE.com while he rehabilitated. He was scheduled to return to the ring in February 2004, but suffered a broken hand just before his expected return. He was placed on the RAW brand in the draft lottery after WrestleMania XX, and returned to in-ring action as a face shortly after that event. On April 19, 2004, he and Chris Benoit won the World Tag Team Championship. He continued to back Benoit and be there whenever Benoit needed him, even after they lost the titles. The partnership was disbanded when Edge won the Intercontinental Championship.
On July 11 at Vengeance 2004 Edge defeated Randy Orton to end Orton's nine-month Intercontinental title reign. He went on to use illegal tricks to retain his Intercontinental title and eventually feuded with then babyface Chris Jericho, thus having a slow heel turn. Eric Bischoff eventually stripped Edge of the title because of a groin-injury from a move where he was straddled in the top rope at a non-televised match.
When Edge returned, his character was portrayed as a crazed heel with a severe anger management problem. He began using the song "Metalingus" by Alter Bridge as his entrance music. This was the first time Edge has turned heel since he and Christian started a fan hatred alliance. He, Benoit and Shawn Michaels received a chance to be voted in by fans for a title shot at Triple H's World Heavyweight Championship for Taboo Tuesday 2004. However, the decision was won by Shawn Michaels, leaving Edge and Benoit with a Tag Title shot. Edge abandoned his partner (although Benoit managed to win the titles on his own) and instead interfered in the main event, costing Michaels the championship.
Edge would eventually abandon his tag team partner Benoit yet again, allowing them to lose the titles. Edge then joined Triple H's team for Survivor Series 2004 while Benoit joined Randy Orton's.
2005
Edge won a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship again at New Year's Revolution 2005 in the Elimination Chamber. Edge and a returning Shawn Michaels would renew their rivalry in this match, with Michaels serving as special guest referee. In that match, Shawn Michaels hit Edge with the Sweet Chin Music.
Image:Backlash05.jpg At WrestleMania 21, Edge won a "Money-in-the-Bank" Ladder Match, a match for a contract in a briefcase that granted the bearer a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship. Per the stipulations of the contract, his title match contract was guaranteed for up to a year, up to and inclusive to WrestleMania 22 to be cashed in at any time within the time frame.
After winning this match, Edge referred to himself by the nickname "Mr. Money-in-the-Bank" and carried his briefcase wherever he went.
Around this time, Edge came under heavy criticism by wrestling fans due to his betrayal of a fellow wrestler and real life friend, Matt Hardy, by having an affair with Amy Dumas (Lita), Matt's girlfriend of six years. Lita had been out of action for several months with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Shortly after she recovered, Matt Hardy suffered the same injury and was out of action. It was during this time that Edge, despite being married, began an affair with Lita.
Nevertheless, Edge was paired with Lita in the TV storyline after she turned on her then on-air "husband" Kane.
At Vengeance 2005 on June 26, 2005, he would find himself losing to Kane, who wanted revenge for Edge's stealing Lita away from him.
On the July 11 edition of RAW, Edge's main event match with Kane was interrupted as Matt Hardy made a surprising appearance. The situation was suspected to be a worked shoot, with Hardy referring to Edge as "Adam" and issuing a threat to Lita as well. This episode raised suspicions of it all being a storyline, using the internet community to achieve heel heat to boost Edge's standing as a major player in WWE and all parties involved conspired to fool the fans to believe what may really be kayfabe all along and this affair may never have taken place at all. Hardy would interfere in Edge's match the following week on RAW.
On August 21, 2005, at SummerSlam 2005, Matt Hardy and Edge faced each other in an all-out brawl. The match wound up coming to a end when Edge dropped Hardy onto the top of a ring post, causing him to bleed and eventually leading to the referee ending the match on the grounds that Hardy couldn't continue. Edge was declared the winner, by TKO.
On August 29, 2005, Matt Hardy and Edge once again faced off on RAW in a vicious Street Fight. The match ended with Matt hitting Edge with the Side Effect and the two of them went flying off the stage onto electrical equipment. They were then carted off by medicial technicians to receive medical attention.
At the Unforgiven 2005 event, Edge faced Matt Hardy in a steel cage match. Edge lost the match by pinfall after Matt executed a devastating leg drop from the top of the steel cage onto a virtually unconscious Edge.
At WWE Homecoming, Edge defeated Matt Hardy in the Loser Leaves RAW match, seemingly ending their feud once and for all.
2006
Shortly after this victory, Edge suffered a torn pectoral muscle that kept him shelved for several weeks. During his layoff, he starred in his own show on RAW entitled The Cutting Edge. Edge then dubbed himself the "Rated-R Superstar."
The feud between Edge and Ric Flair heated up following Flair's well-publicized arrest in connection with a road rage incident. On the January 2, 2006 edition of RAW, Edge played what he claimed was footage of the incident, but was a humourous recreation starring Edge as Flair.
Image:WwechampionedgeNYR.jpg At New Year's Revolution 2006, he was disqualified in his match against Ric Flair. However, it would not be his last appearance at the event. Following the main event of that night, an Elimination Chamber match in which reigning WWE Champion John Cena successfully defended his title, Vince McMahon appeared on the stage, declaring that Cena would defend the WWE Championship against Edge, who decided to finally 'cash in' his Money in the Bank contract. After delivering two Spears, Edge defeated Cena to become WWE Champion, making Edge a Triple Crown Champion
In an interview conducted after New Year's Revolution that had aired on WWE.com, Edge claimed that he and Lita would have "hot, torrid sex" in the middle of the ring on RAW the very next night. On the following RAW, Edge and Lita seemingly held up to that promise by engaging in foreplay in a bed placed in the middle of the ring. They were interrupted by Ric Flair, who called Edge a "disgrace." However, Flair ended up on the receiving end of a one-man con-chair-to on the announcers' table. John Cena then came to the rescue to prevent Edge from hitting the con-chair-to again on Flair, leading to a brief brawl. Edge then fled from the ring, abandoning Lita, who was easy prey for Cena's FU. The Hot Sex segment earned RAW a 5.2 rating, which was the first time RAW had a 5.0 rating since February 2005.
At the 2006 Royal Rumble, Edge lost the WWE Championship by submission, when he tapped out to Cena's STF-U hold. He had held the WWE Championship for 3 weeks.
On the February 16, 2006 special Thursday night edition of RAW, Edge would lose a rematch to John Cena for the WWE Championship, which was officiated by special guest referee Mick Foley. Following the match, Edge and Lita accused Foley of making biased calls that led to Cena's win, then attacked him.
On February 20, Edge demanded a match vs. Foley at WrestleMania 22. Foley accepted the following week and asked that it be a hardcore match.
In the weeks preceding WrestleMania, Edge compared his unblemished WrestleMania record of four victories and zero losses to Foley's record of one victory, three losses and one draw. At WrestleMania 22 on April 2, Edge defeated Foley by pinfall after spearing Foley out of the ring and through a flaming table. In the process, Edge improved his WrestleMania undefeated streak to five.
On the April 17, 2006 edition of RAW Edge pinned Triple H in a handicap match after a Spear. He is going to be in the Triple Threat match along with Triple H and WWE Champion John Cena at BACKLASH for the WWE Championship.
Wrestling facts
Finishing and signature moves
- Spear
- Edgecution (Impaler DDT)
- Edgeucator (Inverted sharpshooter)
- One Man Con-Chair-To (Sandwich chairshot)
- Edge-O-Matic (Sitout rear mat slam)
- Downward Spiral (Reverse STO)
- Half nelson bulldog
- Missile dropkick
- Electric chair bomb
Managers
- Johnny Bradford
- Judd the Studd
- Terri Runnels
- Lita
Nicknames
- "Mr. King Of The Ring"
- "Mr. Money-in-the-Bank"
- "The Rated R Superstar"
Championships and accomplishments
- Other Championships
- 1-time ICW/MWCW Mid-West Unified Tag Team Champion
- 1-time SSW Tag Team Champion
- 2-time ICW Street Fight Tag Team Champion
- PWI Match of the Year 2000 and 2001 (with Christian vs. Hardy Boyz vs. Dudley Boyz)
- PWI Most Improved Award 2001
- PWI Comeback of the Year Award 2004
- PWI ranked him #8 of best 500 singles wrestlers in 2005
- PWI ranked him #7 of best 500 singles wrestlers in 2002
- 1-time WCW United States Champion
- 1-time WWE Champion
- 5-time WWE Intercontinental Champion
- 10-time WWE World Tag Team Champion (7-time with Christian, 2-time with Chris Benoit, 1-time with Hollywood Hulk Hogan)
- 1-time WWE Tag Team Champion (with Rey Mysterio)
- 2001 King of the Ring
- 2000 Tag Team of the Year (with Christian)
- 2002 Match of the Year (with Rey Mysterio Jr vs Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle)
Championship succession
Template:Start box
| colspan = 3 align = center | WWE Championship
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
John Cena
| width = 40% align = center | First
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
John Cena
|-
| colspan = 3 align = center | (WWE) World Tag Team Championship
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Dudley Boyz
| width = 40% align = center | First, with Christian
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Too Cool
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Too Cool
| width = 40% align = center | Second, with Christian
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Hardy Boyz
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Hardy Boyz
| width = 40% align = center | Third, with Christian
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Hardy Boyz
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Bull Buchanan and The Goodfather
| width = 40% align = center | Fourth, with Christian
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
The Rock and The Undertaker
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
The Rock and The Undertaker
| width = 40% align = center | Fifth, with Christian
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Dudley Boyz
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Hardy Boyz
| width = 40% align = center | Sixth, with Christian
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Dudley Boyz
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Dudley Boyz
| width = 40% align = center | Seventh, with Christian
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Kane and The Undertaker
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Billy & Chuck
| width = 40% align = center | Eighth, with Hollywood Hulk Hogan
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Lance Storm and Christian
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Ric Flair and Batista
| width = 40% align = center | Ninth, with Chris Benoit
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
La Résistance
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
La Résistance
| width = 40% align = center | Tenth, with Chris Benoit
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
La Résistance
|-
| colspan = 3 align = center | WWE Tag Team Championship
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit
| width = 40% align = center | First, with Rey Mysterio
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero
|-
| colspan = 3 align = center | WWE Intercontinental Championship
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Jeff Jarrett
| width = 40% align = center | First
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Jeff Jarrett
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Lance Storm
| width = 40% align = center | Second
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Christian
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Christian
| width = 40% align = center | Third
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Test
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Test
| width = 40% align = center | Fourth
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
William Regal
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Randy Orton
| width = 40% align = center | Fifth
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
stripped due to injury
|-
| colspan = 3 align = center | WCW U.S. Heavyweight Championship
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Kurt Angle
| width = 40% align = center | First
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
unified with WWF IC title
|-
| colspan = 3 align = center | King of the Ring winner
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Kurt Angle
| width = 40% align = center | First
(2001)
| width = 30% align = center | Followed by:
Brock Lesnar
|-
Template:End box
Personal life
Copeland was raised by his mother and became close to his uncle after his father left the family. During his high school years, he was voted, "Most Likely to win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship", something that he ultimately accomplished at WWE New Year's Revolution on January 8, 2006. As a teenager, he appeared at WrestleMania VI as part of the crowd, cheering for the then-WWF Champion Hulk Hogan in the "Ultimate Challenge" Main Event against Intercontinental Champion Ultimate Warrior. On March 17, 2002, Copeland would return to SkyDome for WrestleMania X8, participating and winning in his match against Booker T. On July 4, 2002, Copeland would team with Hogan to capture the World Tag Team Championship on an episode of SmackDown!
In 2000, Copeland made a cameo appearance appearance in the film Highlander: Endgame as a road bandit. His scene saw actor Adrian Paul remark "Looks like you've lost your edge, lad!" after defeating him.
Copeland's autobiography, entitled "Adam Copeland On Edge", was published on November 4, 2004.
Copeland was first married to wrestler Sean "Val Venis" Morley's sister Alannah, but divorced her 2004. He then met Lisa Ortiz (not to be confused with the voice actress of the same name) when he was having neck surgery and married her in October. He began an affair with fellow wrestler Amy "Lita" Dumas in December 2004. When the news of the affair broke, Copeland separated from his wife (who released a statement of her own in which she accused Copeland of having taken steroids) and sought a divorce. The current relationship between Dumas and Copeland is unknown.
Copeland had a tattoo of a shark flexing its arm that happened to look like a cartoon named "The Street Sharks" on his upper biceps. He later replaced it with a sun.