10 Wrestling Matches Which Quickened Edge's Retirement

The tears of the man himself were only matched by those coming from the eyes of the fans. On the April 11, 2011 episode of Monday Night Raw, Adam 'Edge' Copeland stood in the middle of the ring and announced to everyone that he was retiring from professional wrestling. It was clear that he did so unwillingly, but doctors had given the man an ultimatum.

Threatened with the risk of being being confined to a wheelchair should be continue taking bumps, Copeland elected to walk away while he still could. There's no doubt it was a smart decision, his neck was in bits following many years of working a punishing in-ring style.

By his own admission, Edge had paid the price for agreeing to take many of the bumps he had absorbed in big-money matches during his near-20 year career in the grappling industry. At the time, they were very much worth it, but they'd eventually - perhaps inevitably - come back to bite him in big fashion.

Diagnosed with cervical spinal stenosis, Edge wrestled his last ever match against Alberto Del Rio at WrestleMania XXVII. He'd been part of some of the most dangerous matches in history, and many of those featured the bumps which would leave his neck irreparably damaged.

In 2009, Edge went down with an injury to his Achilles tendon during a routine house show match against Jeff Hardy. The issue came in the midst of a WWE Tag-Team Title reign with Chris Jericho, and due to the injury Jericho ousted his fellow Canadian and replaced him with Big Show. Once he returned from the sidelines, Edge turned face and feuded with Y2J.

Coming back at the Royal Rumble, the 'Rated-R Superstar' had a different, softer look. Injuries were clearly taking their toll, so it was probably ill-advised that Edge worked a Steel Cage effort with Jericho at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view. Such matches are notable for being incredibly physical, and Edge seemed eager to impress by going all out.

Risky moves like a springboard version of Jericho's Codebreaker looked painful, and Edge didn't seem to have much speed to his performance. It's clear he was trying his best, but years of punishing matches were starting to take their toll. Taking more punishment only exacerbated his injury problems.