101 Shocking Wrestling Plans You Won't Believe Almost Happened
92. The New New Midnight Express
The WWF's braintrust had some wretched ideas for promising young star Edge before he debuted. He was almost packaged as a mute wrestler because higher-ups didn't have confidence in his mic skills, then they pivoted to consider a poet who'd wax lyrical in rhyme during promos. Make up your minds!
Once he was whipped into shape as a 'moody goth' as part of The Brood, Edge came into his own as a tag-team star alongside childhood pal Christian, but the federation had another tag partner in mind for him: Val Venis. Only...Venis wouldn't be playing the porn star character he himself debuted as.
Nah, they'd be a rework of The Midnight Express.
Edge would've been ‘Adorable Adam’, and Val would've been dubbed ‘Sensual Sean’ in 1998. That was on tentative booking sheets as a possible plot earlier in the year, but then things changed. Vignettes started hyping Venis up shortly after WrestleMania XIV, but the New Midnight Express gimmick went to Bob Holly and Bart Gunn in February instead.
Privately, Edge and Val must've been breathing a sigh of relief. Everyone knew that Jim Cornette's creaking NWA faction was a lame duck, so being associated with that would've been a death knell for both men. They'd be much better off coming in individually without the stench of the Alliance holding them back.
In summary, Edge went from deaf mute > poet doing a poor impression of The Genius > New Midnight Express tag-team > electric rookie who'd shortly land under Gangrel's watch in The Brood. We know which gimmick we'd pick.