The True Story Of How WWE Nearly F*cked Up Edge
He almost didn't debut as 'Edge'. He almost debuted as "Riot & Rage". If that reads as a tag team name lumbered on a singles wrestler, that's Vince Russo for you. Even when he was good, and he was very good for 1998 in 1998, the man was dumb.
Cornette was losing influence by 1998, too. Cornette generated the acclaim in 1997, but Russo brought the numbers in 1998, and it became the Vince Russo show as a result. Russo was an Edge advocate too, it should not go unmentioned, but it should not go unmentioned that Vince McMahon is fatalistic as a booker.
He will book an act like sh*t to then say, look, that you said was good? He's sh*t. This is a man who routinely books Money In The Bank briefcase holders to lose, all the time, under the impression that the prop is a shield, will work himself into thinking they are losers because they lose all of the time, even though it's a work and he books them to lose, which tarnishes their crowd reactions.
What if Riot & Rage f*cked up his debut looking like a complete and utter geek? The man changes in Vince McMahon's head after the botch. Edge is tall; Riot & Rage is lanky. Edge has long, lush rock star locks; Riot & Rage looks like Headbanger Thrasher's prepubescent little brother. Edge was brooding and mysterious; Riot & Rage is a pretentious sixth form poet. If Edge looks like a flattened, stretched-out Shannon Moore, he might have actually been completely f*cked.
And what then?
CONT'D...(5 of 6)