10 Wrestlers Who Risked Absolutely Everything
2. The Hardy Boyz & Edge & Christian
Originators of escalating high risk at the highest level, Edge, Christian and The Hardy Boyz weren't competing in terrifying scaffold matches or exploding barbed wire deathmatches in 1999 and 2000, but took tables, ladders chairs violence to an unseen level as WWE reached its commercial and critical peak.
A quadrilogy of classics kicked off at No Mercy 1999 with a doubles bout between the pairs, worked in a way they knew they needed to in order to get noticed by a Vince McMahon still obsessed with size, strength and established recognition over the athleticism and ambition of these young prospects.
The Dudley Boyz were added at WrestleMania 2000, tables and chairs were added in time for SummerSlam, and WrestleMania X-Seven concluded the run of classics. A SmackDown-exclusive including Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit served as an epilogue before the pairs gradually drifted apart from one another, but the gambles and gambits had largely paid off. Though the various singles careers at play would undulate, the legacies of each man were established forever.