How Edge's Brood Nostalgia In WWE Stopped THIS AEW Surprise

Edge's bloodbath and return to vampirism resulted in AEW putting a stop to a big Dynamite surprise.

Edge brood
AEW/WWE

The final stages of the build to Edge's WWE SummerSlam 2021 match with Seth Rollins saw the veteran lean into his nostalgic past as a member of The Brood, channelling the vampiric stable by soaking Rollins in a bloodbath on the go-home SmackDown.

Then, at the pay-per-view itself, Edge walked out clad in Brood-esque shades and a trenchcoat decorated with the relevant iconography and sayings, with the old theme soundtracking part of his walk to the ring.

It was a lot of fun - but resulted in a surprise Gangrel appearance being pulled from this week's episode of AEW Dynamite.

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Speaking on his latest Fangin N Bangin podcast, The Brood's alpha vampire revealed how he heard of Edge's bloodbath on last Friday's SmackDown when his Twitter notifications started blowing up. When the person he was travelling with said it was cool, Gangrel stayed quiet, not explaining his lack of reaction.

In his own words, here's what happened next:-

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"I make a couple phone calls and people tell me 'no, don't worry about nothing, it's cool.' So Saturday comes along again in SummerSlam, and then Edge comes out with the badass Brood jacket, drink from the cup, you know... tribute to that. The Brood cross on the back, the fire, the flames, and everybody's going 'oh, that's so awesome, we wish you where there!'. I was trending on Friday night from the SmackDown and on Saturday I think it did too, in some kind of way, I'm not sure. But again, people I was working with at this show were like 'you're quiet, I'm excited,' and I'm like 'no, no, I'm really cool, it's very happy,' but I'm holding in this thing. I'm holding in something, you know? So I get home and I'm worried Sunday. I'm supposed to catch a flight today (Tuesday), I was supposed to be on a plane to Milwaukee. Yesterday, as I'm running around tying up my last errands saying 'oh, man, we're so sorry, we're going to go in a different direction because of the WWE media stuff.'"

That "thing" he was holding in turned out to be that Dynamite surprise. Despite this, Gangrel had nothing but good things to say about Edge's Brood presentation:-

"With all that being said, now I'm going to say that entrance... everything Edge did was f*cking awesome! It was great, you know. The reason I wasn't so excited about it is because I knew I was offered another great opportunity and the timing just sucked. AEW contacted me and wanted me to come in and do Dynamite. They were putting the entrance together, they were going to do the fire, they were getting the pyro stuff, they were putting the music together. They were getting it all together so at the same time I was trending and really happy for Edge inside, I was no-selling it because I was like super worried going 'oh no, please don't let this ruin things,' and then it just kept blowing up and getting bigger and bigger and bigger on the Twitter thing."

He went on, saying he knew SummerSlam was "the final nail in the coffin" of his AEW appearance before lavishing WWE and Edge with further praise:-

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"When SummerSlam hit, I knew that was the final nail in the coffin. It was cool because I was like 'wow, I never thought like the Gangrel - which was my entrance originally and then it became The Bood's entrance - what it would look like in 2021. Like it looked flipping awesome! It was cool. His coat and everything, it came up, came down, and hit his music, it was just tremendously done and when I got the phone call that they were going in a different direction... it's not their fault, man. It was just timing, and I was so grateful and so happy to be part of that."

Gangrel has made one AEW appearance to date, featuring as part of Matt Hardy and Sammy Guevara's Elite Deletion at Full Gear 2020.

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Channel Manager
Channel Manager

Andy has been with WhatCulture for eight years and is currently WhatCulture's Wrestling Channel Manager. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.