12 Wrestling Stars Who Profited From Controversy

3. Edge

After returning from neck surgery that kept him on the shelf for over a year, Edge was a bit lost. He had been on the verge of breaking out as a star in 2002 and early 2003, but by the following year, the company had plenty of babyfaces. Eventually, Edge was turned heel for the first time since 2001, and he began to exhibit new characteristics that made him a more entertaining part of television. Still, he failed to crack WWE's upper echelon. All of that changed when news broke that Edge and Lita had had a real-life fling - cuckolding Lita's boyfriend Matt Hardy, who had been a longtime friend of Edge's. Hardy exposed the whole affair on his website, and soon Edge became the most hated man in the company. Subsequent, WWE began to invest heavily in him - already the first-ever Money in the Bank briefcase winner, he was paired with Lita on-screen, increasing his heat. Matt Hardy and Edge eventually turned their drama into a TV feud, and while Hardy picked up the win the blowoff match, it was Edge whose career skyrocketed. Still with Lita, he became a centerpiece of Raw, and in January of 2006, he cashed in his briefcase and defeated John Cena for the WWE Championship. The following night, Edge and Lita ushered in the reign with a "Live Sex Celebration" on Raw, drawing the highest segment ratings for the show in over a year. Edge had truly arrived, and over the course of the next five years, he would rack up another 10 world titles.
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Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013