10 Precise Moments Wrestling Fans Rejected Internet Darlings
9. Edge - WWE WrestleMania 36
Edge's return was a universally popular moment beloved by everybody who saw it. Which was nobody, because Kevin Dunn missed the spot, but you get the idea.
His warm interaction with Randy Orton mutated on Raw into one of the better WWE angles of its modern history. There was an emotion, gravitas and craft to the betrayal angle rarely felt in this frivolous landscape. WWE struck a rare emotion, and then intensified it to risible parody at the bleak, empty WrestleMania 36. The intensity in the match was laughable.
Heavy grunting, scowling faces, harsh bumps clanging against metallic objects: it was more an experimental industrial noise record than a violent pro wrestling match. Usually, a "war" describes a match that is very extreme. Here, it described the length, which was approximately five days. Edge once buried Billy Gunn for not being entertaining, which in hindsight was a bit bloody rich. Edge's return went from joyous to joyless in about three months.
Of course, Edge was received at WrestleMania 37 as one of the biggest and most popular stars in the industry - the pop he generated was deafening, and his performance in the Triple Threat main event was terrific - but there's a vast difference between the hardcore fan and the WWE lifer.
The WWE lifer reacts favourably to Edge, at least when he's playing babyface, and the hardcore fan buries him for cutting promos with a laughable pseudo-intellectual bent.