The first big career casualty of the Attitude Era and a more high-risk style of wrestling programming is Edge. The one thing that made him a main event superstar also proved to be his downfall. Since he came into the WWE in the late 1990s, Edge was put in high impact ladder matches. When the wrestlers say that these matches take years off your careers, theyre not spitting hyperbole. Of the first 11 official Tables, Ladders and Chairs matches, Edge appeared in seven of them (and that doesnt even count the original Triangle Ladder Match at Wrestlemania 2000). The toll those matches (and others) took on Edge was devastating. He suffered a separated shoulder in a steel cage match with Kurt Angle in 2002. He then had to take a year off after neck surgery in 2003. Edge tore his pectoral muscle in 2007 and had to forfeit the World Heavyweight Championship. He then tore his Achilles tendon in 2009 and missed multiple months. Finally, he was forced to retire from wrestling for good in 2011 as World Heavyweight Champion, as doctors feared that if he continued wrestling, he could risk permanent paralysis. In professional wrestling, where guys in their 40s and 50s can go out and still put a great match together, Edge was done at 38. Sadly, this may be the new norm in wrestling.
