WWE Superstar Edge Talks Maple Leafs, Team-Specific T-Shirt and Return to Toronto
Ahead of his first match in Toronto in 11 years, the Orangeville, Ontario native talks about all things Maple Leafs and his return home for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Adam Copeland, better known in the WWE as 'Edge' learned from fellow Toronto-native and WWE Director of Operations Derek Casselman that the Toronto Maple Leafs wanted to do a crossover t-shirt ahead of his return to his hometown, he was a bit lost for words.
"Like a one-night-only shirt that you have to be there to get it? You've got to be kidding me," Edge reminisced in an interview with the Sports Illustrated Media Group.
Edge, who grew up in Orangeville, Ontario and is a lifelong Maple Leafs fan, was floored by the idea.
The WWE had done crossover merchandise before. In 2018, the Philadelphia Flyers and the wrestling promotion collaborated on a shirt for the Royal Rumble and the Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors had a specific shirt for the 2019 edition of Summerslam. But this was the first time a team was going to have their logo attached to an in-ring talent.
Edge drew up some ideas for the shirt and WWE's creative team came back with six designs. He selected three of them to take to the Maple Leafs, who made the final call.
For a young Copeland, who used to grow up watching the Maple Leafs in the '70s at his uncle's house in the basement on shag carpets, it was just another reminder of how fortunate he has been throughout his professional wrestling career.
"If you told five-year-old Adam who was sitting there watching Lanny McDonald and Darryl Sittler against the New York Islanders in the quarter-finals, there's no way in any way I glimpsed that there could one day be an Edge — well what was Edge at this point — but Edge, Leafs crossover t-shirt. Come on, you know it's ridiculous."
On Monday, Edge returns to wrestling in Toronto for the first time since he came back to the ring. A neck injury forced him into early retirement in 2011, but he stayed connected to the promotion.
When Toronto hosted Summerslam in 2019, Edge kicked off the show when he surprised the crowd by using his signature finishing move, the spear, on WWE superstar Elias. At that point, the wheels had already been in motion for his proper return to in-ring competition at the Royal Rumble in January 2020.
Two months later, the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. Lockdown were long, particularly in Canada where it took longer for restrictions to loosen, further delaying Edge's return to wrestling at Scotiabank Arena.
Edge, who resides in Asheville, North Carolina, along with his wife (WWE Hall-of-Famer Beth Phoenix) and his two kids, has not been to Toronto since the pandemic began. He had been eagerly awaiting his homecoming and took an idea to the head of creative, Triple H, about doing something the company had not done in a while:
Promoting a match far in advance for television.
"Why can't we promote a match three weeks out and treat it like a very special edition of Raw," Edge suggested. "Thankfully, that's what we're doing."
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6J_jGTd_e8[/embed]
Edge, will take on Damian Priest as part of the three-hour show.
Edge was one of many die-hard Maple Leafs fans whose family couldn't afford to attend games. His first pseudo-live Leafs experience was in 1993 when he went down to SkyDome for a Maple Leafs-Los Angeles Kings playoffs viewing party while the team was on the road.
Game 6 of that series, the missed high-sticking penalty from Wayne Gretzky on Doug Gilmour, is still a strong point of heartbreak for many lifelong fans of the Maple Leafs, including Edge.
"That was the biggie, that was huge, it was so deflating," Edge remembered. "You thought it would be par for the course, but we had a team. Doug Gilmour, Wendel Clark, that was pretty crushing."
In recent days, Toronto's inability to get past the first round, particularly over the last two years, also stung.
"I truly thought if we beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, we were going to the Final and I think we matched up better against the Colorado Avalanche than the Tampa Bay Lightning did," Edge said. "The possibilities with the current crop of young guys on the team it just feels like the sky's the limit.
"What is that one little ingredient, that one little piece of glue to stick it all together and it feels like that's all we're missing."
As a kid in Orangeville who cherished the goaltending position by stopping shots from his uncles on the driveway, I asked Edge about the state of Toronto current situation in net.
"It's interesting because I know a lot of people seem upset about it," Edge acknowledged. "My way of thinking is it feels like you have a pretty solid 1-2 punch there and that really hasn't been the case for a little while."
During the off-season, the Maple Leafs traded and acquired Matt Murray from the Ottawa Senators and signed Ilya Samsonov to a one-year contract. Last year's starting goaltender, Jack Campbell, signed a five-year, $25 million with the Edmonton Oilers. Toronto also traded backup goaltender Petr Mrazek to the Chicago Blackhawks along with a first-round pick for a second-round pick.
"I look at Matt Murray and I really don't understand people being up in arms," Edge continued. "No offense to the (Ottawa) Senators but he had the Senators in front of them and they were in a rebuild. I don't think that's a fair way to judge a goalie.
He's 28, He's won two Stanley Cups. He's played in 12 Stanley Cup final games. He's 8-4 with two shutouts. That's experience you can't manufacture. I say let's give them a chance and fight for No. 1 and see what happens. And that's usually when that competition breeds some really good results. So let's go for it. Let's see, because I think with the salary cap and where we were at it was kind of impossible. You had to do something. Why not try this? I think you just have to kind of give it a shot and see."
The first Maple Leafs player Edge ever met in person was Gary Roberts.
In 2003, Edge just had his first neck surgery and he was invited to the Leafs' dressing room. That's when he met Roberts, who successfully resumed his career after sitting out of the 1995-96 season with a neck injury.
"He and I reminisced about necks," Edge laughed.
Roberts not only returned to hockey but played an additional 11 seasons. He credited the change to a healthier lifestyle and the need to seek more advice and opinions on that allowed him to return and prolong his hockey career.
That stuck with the wrestler.
"That's what I feel happened with me, it was the work I put into the gym and the fuel I put into my body and it's become an absolute regimen," Edge said. "He was doing it back then, and for me, I could just get away with doing 250 wrestling days a year, and I could get into the gym sure, but there weren't meal companies where you could have all your meals with you in a cooler. But that's what I credit which is basically what he was doing then is kind of what I'm doing now."
Through all the pauses in his career, Edge has always maintained a positive disposition, which is why he can't understand a lot of the negativity he reads on social media whether it's about the Leafs or in the WWE.
"I think they're both equally toxic," Edge laughed. "I just don't understand looking for the bad in things and that just seems to be what Twitter is to me. I think it can still be used in a positive way, so I try. But for the most part, I just try to avoid it."
When Edge watches a Leafs game, it's in his man cave full of Leafs gear. He watches the Canadian feed and doesn't dare to open his phone to see what anyone else is talking about.
"I just feel like social media is a way for a lot of people to complain about something they've never done," Edge said. "I love watching hockey and not paying attention to what other people think and just forming my own conclusions."
Multiple neck issues forced Edge to retire from wrestling early in 2011. But it never changed his positive perspective on life. So it’s no surprise that despite the many disappointments, he remains an eternal optimist about his beloved Maple Leafs.
“You’ve got to go with it,” he said.