“Love him or hate him, you cannot deny the impact Edge has had on WWE. He is responsible for some of the most infamous moments in sports entertainment history. Utilizing his incredible athleticism and ferocious determination, he has risen through the ranks, winning the Tag Team Championship, the King of the Ring, the Intercontinental Championship and ultimately, the World Heavyweight Championship.”
This is the blurb for Edge: A Decade of Decadence, the three-disc DVD release that chronicled Edge’s greatest matches, with between-bout links provided (in character) by the man himself. Fast-forward two years and the man gets himself a proper profile DVD replete with documentary biography of his career. Unfortunately, due to a career-ending injury, the retrospective look back has added poignancy for those who have been watching since his WWE debut.
From the “Era of Awesomeness” through to being the “Rated ‘R’ Superstar”, we can all take pride in watching a guy who helped revolutionise tag-team wrestling become the Ultimate Opportunist as we get to relive The Story of Edge.
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 406mins (6hrs 46mins)
Discs: 3
Disc 1 – Chapters
- It’s All Over
- A Childhood Obsession
- The Winning Essay
- Paying to Wrestle
- Worth the Struggles
- Nothing Happens Overnight
- The Silent Mysterious One
- Best Friends United
- A Variety Package
- Spring Boarding into Singles
- Teaming with his Idol
- A Grounding Halt
- A Lifestyle Change
- A Fire Inside Explodes
- Personal Drama Exposed
- Shocking the World
- An Even Bigger Chip on His Shoulder
- Off and Running
- Enjoying the Time Off
- Seizing Each Moment
- Uncle Adam
- My Favourite Moment
- Energized and Reinvigorated
- The Master Manipulator
- Something Didn’t Feel Right
- A Champion Retires
- Next Challenge
- Appreciation Night
- Days Gone By
Extras
- The Ninja Star
- P.T.A.
- Working in WCW
- Credgeley
- “Real Emotion” – Raw (8th August, 2005)
Disc 2 – Chapters
- Adam Impact v Christian Cage – (South Indian Lake 1995)
- 4-Team Elimination Match for the WWE Tag Team Championship: Edge & Christian v The Hardy Boyz v T & A v Too Cool – King of the Ring (25th June, 2000)
- No Disqualification Match: Edge v Eddie Guerrero – SmackDown (26th September, 2002)
- Intercontinental Championship Match: Edge v Randy Orton – Raw (19th July, 2004)
- Loser Leaves Raw Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Edge v Matt Hardy – Raw (3rd October, 2005)
- Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match for the WWE Championship: Edge v John Cena – Unforgiven (17th September, 2006)
Disc 3 – Chapters
- Street Fight: Edge v Shawn Michaels – Raw (22nd January, 2007)
- World Heavyweight Championship Match: Edge v Undertaker – WrestleMania XXIV (30th March, 2008)
- Pick Your Poison Match: Edge v Christian – Raw (17th May, 2010)
- Fatal 4-Way TLC Match for the World Heavyweight Championship: Edge v Kane v Rey Mysterio v Alberto Del Rio – TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs (19th December, 2010)
- World Heavyweight Championship Elimination Chamber Match: Edge v Rey Mysterio v Big Show v Kane v Drew McIntyre v Wade Barrett – Elimination Chamber (20th February, 2011)
- World Heavyweight Championship Match: Edge v Alberto Del Rio – WrestleMania (XXVII 3rd April, 2011)
Running to the now-standard formula for a WWE profile release, we have a documentary of the subject on the first disc and a series of selected matches for the remainder of the set.
With this one, the documentary part is a fantastic piece of work that begins with Edge arriving (post-retirement) heading towards a radio interview. An interview that we cut back to across the running time. The choice of talking heads are pretty much on the money as well, with the reviewer getting a bit of a kick in seeing Rhino featured prominently.
Three glaring omissions are Jeff Hardy and The Dudleys (for obvious TNA-related reasons), but we do get some comments from Matt Hardy on both the era-defining Ladder Matches that made the teams and the true-life-becomes-storyline love-triangle of Matt, Edge and Lita. It was particularly refreshing to see that all three parties appear to have made peace with the situation as a whole and also to see Edge be especially humble in regards to his role in the saga.
Edge is an affable subject throughout the first disc, offering candid insight into various sections of his career, including the night in Toronto (his home town) where he defended the Intercontinental Championship as a face against Batista and Chris Jericho, both of whom were heels… and he got booed out of the building.
We also hear his feelings on teaming with Hogan, a genuine hero of his growing up (the “Edge was at Wrestlemania VI” footage is dragged out again), teaming with his life-long friend Christian and what it took to step up and be a bona-fide headline act after being shunned for his betrayal of Matt alongside Lita.
Extras
The extras (not including the matches on discs 2 and 3) are nice bits of fluff pieces that while you can tell why they were cut from the DVD, are entertaining enough.
Overview
This is easily one of the best profile releases WWE have put out and Edge is such a great subject (both as a person and an in-ring talent) that it would’ve been almost impossible to mess up.
You also get a sense that Edge is genuinely content with his lot in life post-retirement and when he shows you around where he lives now, it’s no real surprise why. Loved by virtually everyone (peers, fans, etc), he has a job with WWE for life, is still young enough to enjoy his retirement and has made enough money to last him for the rest of his life. If he had to go out like he did, then this is his just reward for over a decade of great matches.
Little things that are brought up, like how tough his training was, his long journey to the top, how no-one, not even Edge himself knew who the character was meant to be when he debuted and the candid discussion on Lita (who also features as a talking head) all give this release depth and meaning, despite other things being glossed over.
Credit is also given to him for making the Money in the Bank concept a success, but there are some surprising comments from Edge about how he didn’t even want to be in the match at all, feeling that he had established himself enough that he didn’t need to be involved in another ladder-based stunt show… although when he was told of the whole concept AND who would be involved, he changed his mind rather quickly.
The matches on show are all pretty good, although glaring omissions like his King of the Ring win against Kurt Angle or any matches from the TLC era against The Hardys and/or The Dudleys do mar it. It can’t even be because there are matches against these opponents on his previous release as the HBK Street Fight (which is stunning) is on both.
The top three matches (in my opinion) are -:
v HBK in the Street Fight
v Undertaker at WrestleMania XXIV
v Matt Hardy in a Loser Leaves Raw match
This is a definite must-buy and a fitting tribute to one of WWE’s start-from-the-bottom success stories.
THANK YOU, EDGE!
Blu-Ray owners get the following extras -:
- “One Foot in the Grave” Tour
- Achilles’ Heel
- Squared Circle Essay Contest 2011
- Edge’s Dogs
- WWE Championship Match: Edge v Jeff Hardy – Royal Rumble (25th January, 2009)
- Edge Announces His Retirement – Raw (11th April, 2011)
- Edge Appreciation Night: After the Show (13th September, 2011)
Points: 9.5/10
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