Copeland initially rose through the ranks as one half of the tag teamEdge and Christian, alongside his real-life best friend and storyline brother Christian. He is noted for being one of the most decorated tag team champions in wrestling history, winning a record 12 tag team titles in WWE.[3]
Early career
Throughout the 1990s Copeland wrestled for many independentpromotions 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 the successful tag team Sex and Violence with Joe Legend. During 1997, Sex and Violence became part of a larger stable known as Thug Life, made up of Legend, Hardcastle, childhood friend Christian Cage, Bloody Bill Skullion, and Rhino Richards. In his indy career, he won the SSW Tag Title and the ICW Street Fight Tag Title twice with Cage, in addition to his reign as ICW/MWCW Midwest Unified Tag Title holder alongside Joe.
The duo of Copeland and Reso was known as Hard Impact before changing their name to The Suicide Blondes. In 1996, the duo worked in Japan under the name the Canadian Rockers[4]. Copeland also once wrestled under the name Damon Striker (although Edge writes it as Damien Stryker in his book)[5] on an edition of WCW Pro against Meng and Kevin Sullivan. In his autobiography, Copeland claims that he wrestled for WCW only once and solely for the money, and that it was his worst gimmick to date. According to Copeland, he and Terry Richards are the only people that remember that he wrestled for WCW at all.
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment
In 1998 Copeland was signed by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), and made his WWF television debut on the June 22, 1998 episode of RAW is WAR as Edge, a loner character who entered the arena through the crowd for his matches. His first character persona was that he would walk around the city streets aimlessly and beat up defenseless bystanders. His first televised match was against Jose Estrada, Jr. and ended prematurely, by countout, when Edge performed a somersault senton from the ring to the outside, legitimately injuring Estrada's neck.[6]
In his first pay-per-view match with the company, SummerSlam 1998, he served as Sable's mystery tag team partner against Jacqueline and Marc Mero, and actually bodyslammed Sable onto Mero in a pinning position to pick up the win.
1999-2000
Edge was then placed into a feud against the vampire wrestler Gangrel. During the feud Gangrel introduced Christian, Edge's storyline brother as his ally. Eventually, Gangrel and Christian convinced Edge to join them and the three of them formed a faction known as The Brood. The Brood as a whole was later abducted by and converted into The Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness. In May of 1999 the Brood broke away from The Ministry after Christian was attacked by Ken Shamrock and forced by him to reveal the location of the captive Stephanie McMahon. The Undertaker chose to have Christian punished for his trespass, but Edge and Gangrel stood by him and turned against The Undertaker. This was historic in the effect that no one else actually defected from the Ministry before or after that: it dissolved with all the other members intact.
Following this victory, Edge and Christian found success as a heel duo, shifting their gimmick from borderline goth to a comedic pair of "cool dudes", winning the WWF Tag Team Title six more times for a total of seven. During this time their trademark became the "five second pose" where they would perform a pose in the ring for five seconds "for the benefit of those with flash photography" to mock, insult, or otherwise amuse the fans. 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.
Edge would go on to solidify himself as a burgeoning singles star by winning the 2001 King of the Ring tournament. Christian turned on Edge shortly afterward, and the two feuded over Edge's Intercontinental Championship, which he lost to him and won right back. Edge lost the Intercontinental Title to Test and shortly afterward won the then WCW United States Championship from Kurt Angle. Edge defeated Test at Survivor Series 2001 to unify the Intercontinental Championship with the U.S. Championship.
Throughout the winter months of 2001 Edge feuded with William Regal for the Intercontinental Title after being defeated by Regal for it. Edge came up short in the feud. When WrestleMania X8 came around Edge found himself in a match with Booker T that was the result of Edge beating out Booker for a fictitious Japaneseshampoo endorsement.
Shortly after defeating Booker T at WrestleMania, Edge was drafted to the SmackDown! brand in the first WWE Draft Lottery. Upon arriving there he began a feud against Kurt Angle, which culminated in Edge shaving Kurt's head following a hair vs. hair match at Judgment Day. It was also in this feud where Edge started the "you suck" chants everytime Kurt Angle entered a WWE ring, usually in tune with Angle's entrance music. When Rey Mysterio made his SmackDown! debut, he and Edge formed a team and captured the WWE Tag Team Championship. He also received matches for the WWE Championship against title holders Brock Lesnar and The Big Show.
2003-2004
In February 2003, Edge suffered a legit neck injury and had to undergo surgery with Dr. Lloyd Youngblood. Recovery kept him sidelined for close to a year [7]. He was scheduled to return to the ring in February 2004, but he suffered a legitimate broken hand just before his planned return, forcing him to stay out of the ring for an additional month. He was placed on the RAW brand in the draft lottery after WrestleMania XX and returned to in-ring action shortly after that event. On the April 19, 2004 edition of RAW he and Chris Benoit won the World Tag Team Championship. They continued a close partnership even after losing the title, but it was disbanded when Edge won the Intercontinental Championship at Vengeance 2004 from Randy Orton. He then began to turnheel by cheating to keep the title and getting confrontational with ally Chris Jericho. Following a (legit) groin injury in a non-televised match, RAWGeneral ManagerEric Bischoff stripped Edge of the Intercontinental Championship.
When Edge returned, his character became that of a crazed heel with severe anger management problems centered around his obsession for the World Heavyweight Championship. Edge, Benoit, and Shawn Michaels received a chance to receive a title shot for Triple H's World Heavyweight Championship at Taboo Tuesday 2004. Shawn Michaels won the audience vote to receive the title shot, giving Edge and Benoit a Tag Title shot. During the match, Edge abandoned his partner (although Benoit managed to win the title on his own) and instead interfered in the main event, costing Michaels the championship.
In December, both Edge and Benoit competed in a #1 contender's battle royal, but eliminated each other simultaneously at the conclusion of the match, resulting in a draw. Due to this, the World Heavyweight Champion Triple H was forced to defend the title in a triple threat match. In the match, Benoit locked on the Crippler Crossface on Edge, who shifted his weight putting Benoit's shoulders on the mat for a pin. This match also ended in a draw for Benoit and Edge, as Benoit made Edge submit at the same time the referee counted a pinfall for Edge. As a result, the World Heavyweight Title was vacated the next week on RAW.
It was around this time that Edge came under heavy criticism, especially from the Internet wrestling community, due to the affair he had with Amy Dumas, who was known on-screen as Lita. Lita had been the girlfriend of Edge's close real-life friend, Matt Hardy, who Matt had been dating for six years. Hardy had been out of action for several months with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and shortly after he recovered, Lita suffered the same injury and was put out of action. It was during this time that Edge, despite being married, began an affair with Lita while she was still in a relationship with Hardy. Shortly after the incident became public knowledge, WWE released Hardy. After Hardy returned, the real-life situation was translated into a storyline.[8]
Nevertheless, or perhaps because of this, Edge was paired with Lita in an angle where she turned on her storyline husband Kane. On the July 11 edition of RAW, Edge's match with Kane was interrupted when Matt Hardy made a surprising appearance. The situation was a worked shoot, with Hardy referring to Edge as "Adam" and issuing a threat to Lita as well. When Hardy was officially brought back to RAW, he and Edge continued their feud, including a match at SummerSlam 2005 where Edge defeated Hardy, causing Hardy to have "excessive blood loss." They also competed in a Street Fight, which resulted in a no-contest when Hardy performed a Side Effect on Edge off the entrance ramp into the sound speakers and other electrical equipment. They also fought in a Steel cage match at Unforgiven 2005 that Matt won after a leg drop on Edge from the top of the cage. The feud culminated in a "Loser Leaves RAW Ladder Match" at WWE Homecoming which Edge won, causing Hardy to move to SmackDown!.
Shortly after the Homecoming victory, Edge suffered a (legit) torn pectoral muscle that kept him shelved for several weeks.[9] During his time off, he starred in his own talk show segment on RAW entitled The Cutting Edge and dubbed himself the "Rated-R Superstar". Edge used his talk show to start a feud with Ric Flair following Flair's well-publicized arrest in connection with a road rage incident. Edge began using The Cutting Edge as a soapbox to run down Flair until, after weeks of public mockery, Flair eventually showed up and attacked Edge.
Edge and Flair formally met at New Year's Revolution 2006 in a match where Edge was disqualified. Later that night, following the main event Elimination Chamber match, Vince McMahon appeared on stage and declared that John Cena would defend the WWE Championship he'd just retained "one more time." An already bloodied and fatigued Cena was forced into a match against Edge, who decided to cash in his Money in the Bank contract. Edge defeated Cena in less than two minutes after two spears to become WWE Champion for the first time, as well as a Triple Crown Champion.
In an interview conducted after New Year's Revolution on WWE.com, Edge announced that he and Lita would have "hot, torrid sex" in the middle of the ring on RAW the next night to celebrate his victory. On RAW, Edge held up to that promise by engaging in foreplay with Lita until they were interrupted by Ric Flair, who called Edge a disgrace and "dead in the bed." However, Flair ended up on the receiving end of a con-chair-to on the announcers' table until John Cena came out to rescue Flair (and delivering an F-U to a half-naked Lita much to the surprise of Edge). The "Live Sex Celebration" segment earned RAW a 5.2 rating [10] and Edge would later call himself the "most-watched WWE Champion in the last 5 years" due to the high ratings. The segment earned RAW its highest ratings in over a year.[11]
Three weeks later, at the 2006 Royal Rumble, Edge lost the WWE Championship back to Cena. He then lost a return match on a special Thursday edition of RAW held on February 16, 2006. Edge blamed special guest refereeMick Foley for his loss, claiming biased officiating and attacked him. At Saturday Night's Main Event, Foley got revenge on Edge by assaulting him with a Con-chair-to. They feuded until WrestleMania 22 in April where Edge defeated Foley in a Hardcore match by spearing him through a flaming table. The victory brought Edge's WrestleMania record to 5-0, the second best undefeated streak at WrestleMania (second only to The Undertaker's being 14-0 at that point in time).
Edge then challenged John Cena for his title in a Triple Threat match including Triple H at Backlash 2006, where Cena pinned Triple H to retain the title. After Backlash, Edge continued his feud with Mick Foley as they entered a Triple Threat Hardcore Match. However, Foley immediately attacked friend Tommy Dreamer with Edge's assistance. Edge and Foley then proclaimed that, because of their brutal match at WrestleMania, they were the true Hardcore Champions. At One Night Stand 2006, Edge, Foley, and Lita defeated Dreamer, Terry Funk, and Beulah McGillicutty in an "Extreme Rules" tag team match.
During the ECW feud, Edge also won the #1 contendership for the WWE Title against The Big Show on RAW. While #1 contender, Edge interfered in a WWE Title match between champion John Cena and challenger Rob Van Dam, helping Van Dam win the title. However, Edge was unable to win the title at Vengeance 2006. Two weeks later on RAW, Edge pinned Rob Van Dam in a Triple Threat No Disqualification Match, after blindsiding John Cena with the title belt, to become WWE Champion for the second time. The match marked the first time the WWE Championship changed hands on RAW since October 8, 2001. This re-ignited his feud with John Cena, and Edge lost by disqualification at SNME in order to retain his title. As a result of these tactics, Cena snapped and FUed him through the Spanish announcers' table. Subsequently, a match was made for SummerSlam 2006 with the stipulation that if Edge was disqualified, he would not only lose the match, but also his title. At SummerSlam, Edge retained his title by pinning Cena after he hit him in the back of the head with brass knuckles while Lita distracted the referee.
On the next night's RAW, Lita threw John Cena's customized "spinner" belt into the Long Island Sound at Edge's command, who declared it the end of the "Cena era" in his life. Following that, Edge unveiled the new "Rated R" version of the belt. Cena, however, interfered in Edge's match later that night, chased him down to the outside of the building, beat him down, and tossed him into the polluted Long Island Sound himself. The next week, Cena came out, procuring a "three year" contract to SmackDown! and promising to sign it if Edge could beat him one more time. Edge agreed, on the condition the match be a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match (TLC) held at Unforgiven 2006 in Edge's home town of Toronto. At the event, he lost the championship after Cena FUed him through two stacked tables from a ladder. Edge claimed that as a result of the blow, he was legitimately knocked out for the first time in his career [12].
On the October 2 episode of RAW, interference from D-Generation X (Shawn Michaels and Triple H) cost Edge his "final chance" at Cena's WWE Championship in a Steel cage match, though their interference was a response to the interference of Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch. On October 9, Edge used an edition of The Cutting Edge on RAW to join forces with Randy Orton to form Rated-RKO (although they wouldn't use this name until several weeks later) and began a feud against DX. Edge cited Orton's lack of success after being kicked out of Evolution by Triple H and DX's "stale" antics "taking up TV time" as reasons to join forces. The duo succeeded early in defeating DX at Cyber Sunday due to the vote-in guest referee Eric Bischoff favoring Rated-RKO. The pair then won the World Tag Team Championship from Ric Flair and Roddy Piper on the November 13RAW, making Edge hold a record of 11 World Tag Team Championship title reigns in his WWE career. The success halted at Survivor Series 2006 when Team Rated-RKO was defeated by Team DX in a clean sweep of 5-0.
2007
The feud with DX continued at New Year's Revolution 2007 where Edge and Orton were battered by DX to end the match in a no contest. However, Edge and Orton claimed victory on the grounds that Triple H legitimately tore his right quadriceps in the match. To Edge and Orton, this marked the end of DX. Shawn Michaels vowed to deal with Rated-RKO, and the next week on RAW he took out Randy Orton with a con-chair-to while Edge looked on from the entrance ramp. On the January 29, 2007 edition of RAW, Rated-RKO lost the World Tag Team Championship to Shawn Michaels and John Cena.
In early February, Edge beat Rob Van Dam to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match, but suffered a legitimate broken jaw in the process. He remained on TV but avoided physical confrontations until WrestleMania 23. Meanwhile, his tag partner Orton also qualified for the MITB match at WrestleMania 23, which led to dissent between them. He failed to win at WrestleMania after Jeff Hardy removed them both from the match by performing a nearly 20 foot leg drop off a ladder onto Edge. He then entered a feud, along with former partner Randy Orton, with John Cena and Shawn Michaels. All four men were aiming for the WWE Championship, and at Backlash they competed in a Fatal Four Way match in which Cena successfully defended his title.
On the May 7, 2007 edition of RAW, Edge defeated Mr. Kennedy to win his Money in the Bank title opportunity, making Edge a two-time Money in the Bank holder (as well as the first and only wrestler to win the contract in a defense rather than the Money in the Bank match itself). One day later, on the May 8, 2007 taping of SmackDown! (aired on May 11) in Pittsburgh, Edge cashed in his newly won contract. After a brutal Steel cage match between The Undertaker and Batista and a savage assault to the Undertaker by Mark Henry, Edge took advantage and defeated Undertaker with a Spear to win his first World Heavyweight Championship. As a result of this victory, Edge became a part of the SmackDown! brand.[13]
Edge then began a feud with Batista and successfully defended his championship against Batista at Judgment Day, in a Steel Cage Match at One Night Stand, and a third and final time at a last chance match in Vengeance.
Edge's current WWE entrance music is Metalingus by Alter Bridge. During 2001-2003 it was Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy) by Rob Zombie and before that he used two pieces of WWF produced production music entitled You Think You Know Me and On the Edge. Since You Think You Know Me, all of his theme music has been preceded by the eponymous phrase from that song, including the Burn In My Light/Metalingus combination used for Rated-RKO.
Championships and accomplishments
Insane Championship Wrestling
ICW/MWCW Mid-West Unified Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Psycho Joe Sampson
ICW Streetfight Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Christian Cage
Tag Team of the Year award in 2000 - with Christian
Match of the Year in 2002 - with Rey Mysterio vs. Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit (No Mercy 2002)
1Won during the WCW Invasion storyline. 2Won the 2007 Money in the Bank contract when he defeated the current Money in the Bank holder, Mr. Kennedy on RAW.
As a teenager, Copeland attended WrestleMania VI sitting in the eleventh row at ringside. He was cheering on WWF Champion Hulk Hogan against The Ultimate Warrior, and he credits this match with making him realize he wanted to be a wrestler.[1]. Twelve years later Copeland would return to SkyDome as a competitor at WrestleMania X8. During his high school years, Copeland was voted "Most Likely to Win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship".[1]
Copeland has been married two times. He was originally married to Alanah Morely in November2001, the sister of Val Venis, but they divorced after three years. He then married Lisa Ortiz in October2004, but they divorced within months as he had a real life affair with fellow wrestler Amy Dumas (also known as Lita).
His autobiography, titled Adam Copeland On Edge, was published on November 4, 2004. Foley also wrote the foreword to this book.
Copeland does not smoke. He claims he had his first cigarette when he was sixteen, hated it, and hasn't smoked since.[16]
Copeland has several tattoos. He has a tattoo of a sun on his left upper biceps, a star on his right upper biceps with several smaller stars below it, two skulls wearing bandanas below said star tattoo, along with a tattoo of what appears to be a cross on his left forearm.
Other media
In 2000, he made a cameo appearance in the movie Highlander: Endgame, credited as "Road Bandit". During the appearance, actor Adrian Paul remarks "Looks like you've lost your edge, lad" after defeating him in a sword fight.
On March 10, 2002, Copeland appeared on The Weakest Link alongside other WWE Superstars. He was voted out in the first round, and the eventual winner was Kane[17].
Copeland, as Edge, has appeared in every video game of the WWE SmackDown! series.
Copeland appeared as Edge on Mind of Mencia as a commentator for The Royal Religious Rumble. He punched out an actor playing L. Ron Hubbard to stop Scientology from ruling the world and then speared another actor playing Tom Cruise.
^Copeland, Adam (November 2004). Adam Copeland on Edge. WWE Books. p. 75. I wrestled as Damien Stryker (my worst moniker to date) against Meng and Kevin Sullivan.
