10 Wrestling Matches Which Quickened Edge's Retirement
6. Edge Vs. Chris Benoit (Backlash 2005)
In a departure from straight up ladder matches, Edge faced Chris Benoit in a Last Man Standing bout at WWE's Backlash 2005 pay-per-view. Not surprisingly, a ladder would become involved in the melee, even though it wasn't entirely necessary to win the match. It seems that old habits die hard when it comes to what performers know best.
That decision would come back to bite Edge during the fray, as he experienced the horror of taking a German suplex from atop the ladder. This followed a series of the same move performed in regular fashion, which can't have been good for the man's neck. Things had earlier come to a head in 2003, when Edge was forced to undergo surgery on his neck and subsequently missed around a year of action.
It seemed like that fact was forgotten by the time Backlash '05 rolled around, because the same risk-taking that had landed Edge in trouble was on show once more. It made for a stirring atmosphere and an intense match for sure, but it's also fair to say that crunching bumps like that destroyed Edge's fragile neck further.