Edge and Christian

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Edge and Christian
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Edge (left) and Christian
Tag team
Members Edge
Christian
Name(s) High Impact
Suicide Blondes
Edge and Christian
Heights 193 cm (6 ft 4 in) - Edge
185 cm (6 ft 2 in) - Christian
Combined weight 217 kg (478 lbs)
Hometown Kitchener, Ontario
Billed from Toronto, Canada
Debuted 1998
Disbanded 2001
Promotions SSW
WWF

Edge and Christian (E&C) is a former tag team of on-screen brothers made of real life best friends Adam Joseph Copeland (Edge) and William Jason Reso (Christian), who wrestled in the World Wrestling Federation. They were a highly successful tag team, winning the WWF World Tag Team Championship on seven occasions and were part of one of the most competitive tag team scenes in WWE history.

Contents

[edit] History

Formerly known as "High Impact" and later "The Suicide Blondes" while on the independent circuit, in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) the team was billed as Edge & Christian and re-imagined as brothers instead of just close friends. The duo held titles in numerous wrestling promotions before signing with the WWF.

Edge made his WWF television debut on Raw on June 22, 1998, in a match against Jose Estrada, Jr.. He was a mysterious "loner" character, who would emerge from the crowd before his matches. Eventually he started a feud with Gangrel. At the In Your House: Breakdown event in 1998, during a match pitting Edge against Owen Hart, an unknown person, looking similar to Edge, came out to the ring distracting him enough to allow Hart to get the win. It was later revealed that this person was Christian, Edge's (kayfabe) brother, and he was aligned with Gangrel as his vampire follower. After some confrontations between the two brothers (both of whom appeared to be gothic and vampire-like), Edge was convinced to 'rejoin' with Christian & Gangrel, and the three of them formed a stable known as the Brood.

Edge and Christian during their time as members of the Brood
Enlarge
Edge and Christian during their time as members of the Brood

The Brood briefly joined The Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness, but left after Christian was (kayfabe) thrown out of the group for revealing Stephanie McMahon's whereabouts to Ken Shamrock following an attack. Following a short fued with the Ministry, Gangrel turned on Edge and demanded that Christian do the same. He refused and both he and Edge broke with Gangrel turning them face. From there, the gothic storyline enjoyed limited success, beginning their eventual tag team feud with The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy).

After a run as faces, most notable for their tendency to enter the ring through the audience, similarly to Edge's pre-Brood gimmick, Edge and Christian redefined themselves as a heel duo of surfer/teen idols. The two engaged in various comedic antics including making fun of their opponents, using strange exclusive phrases, and dressing in outlandish costumes. Other trademarks of theirs included the "five-second pose" where, "for the benefit of those with flash photography", they would stand still in odd positions in the middle of the ring so fans could take pictures, and the "con-chair-to" simultaneous chair shot.

They eventually started to team with Kurt Angle, forming Team ECK, a group that was later joined by Rhyno when he came in from Extreme Championship Wrestling in early 2001 to make Team RECK. Edge and Christian repeatedly captured the WWF Tag Team Championship while feuding with other tag teams The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz. The Dudleyz, Hardyz, and E&C were an instrumental part of one of the most competitive tag team divisions in WWE history and, as a whole, helped innovate the Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match. In the WrestleMania X-Seven TLC match, each team had someone interfere on their behalf, but it was Rhyno who proved to be most effective, as Edge and Christian won that match.

Friction arose between the team (as well as the entire RECK faction) after Edge won the annual King of the Ring tournament (all four members had made it to the finals) in 2001. As a result, on the September 3 edition of RAW is WAR in their hometown of Toronto, Christian appeared to be jealous of his brother and insisted on carrying Edge's trophy to the ring. During the night his true colors were revealed when he assaulted Edge with a "One-Man Conchairto" and joining The Alliance. The former partners went on to feud over the Intercontinental Championship for several months, causing the team to split.

[edit] Post-split

In late 2004 and early 2005 both men were playing heels in the company, many storylines brought the pair together on-screen and in the ring as Christian and Edge were loosely united as a tag team on several occasions, including as two of Eric Bischoff's crusaders against ECW during it's return for One Night Stand.

They once again went their separate ways when Edge stayed on the RAW brand and Christian was drafted to SmackDown!. Shortly after the draft, Christian left WWE to pursue a career in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling where he competes under his original ring name of Christian Cage.

On January 8, 2006 Edge defeated John Cena at New Year's Revolution to win the WWE Championship, his first world title. Just over a month later, on February 12, Christian Cage won his first world title, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, defeating Jeff Jarrett at Against All Odds. However, neither held gold at the same time, as Edge's first reign ended on January 22, 2006, Christian Cage's reign ended on June 18, 2006, and Edge's second reign beginning on July 3, 2006 and ending September 17, 2006. Christian Cage has yet to have a second reign.

[edit] In wrestling

  • Double team maneuvers
  • Common associates
  • Quotes
  • "For the benefit of those of you with flash photography..."
  • "Chumpstain!"
  • "Dude! We are so totally the fightingest tag team ever!"
  • "This totally reeks of awesomeness!"
  • "Sodas rule!"
  • "Reekazoid!"
  • "Streamers rule."
  • "It was totally chair-o-licious."
  • "We will once again be in the good graces of the Facgime."
  • "Gods of the TitanTron, roll the footage."
  • "We refer to the TLC match as Totally Lacking Coolness."
  • "You see, we're not moving from this spot, until we're served with a big bowl of justice soup."
The second week of Edge's first WWE Championship reign, saw Edge and Christian end up saying the same thing. Edge (January 17, 2006 WWE Monday Night RAW) and Christian (TNA iMPACT!, aired January 22) both came out to do promos. Both ended up being interrupted, news to which Edge and Christian both replied that in case the interruptor didn't notice, the people were saying that they suck.
  • "In case you haven't noticed, these people are saying that you suck!" -Edge to Kurt Angle
  • "In case you can't hear 'em, they're saying that you suck!" -Christian Cage to Jeff Jarrett

[edit] E&C Lingo

Edge and Christian's cocky personas included many comedic promos in which they utilized several "trademark" terms including:

  • reek of awesomeness
    • A small pun on the word "awesome", this was their line to describe something that they considered to be at the height of coolness.
  • totally rad
    • This was a line E&C used to describe something very good or very cool to them. This wasn't their original saying, it was taken from the early 90's so as to go into their surfer/teen idol image.
  • magnitutions/magnitutious
    • Edge and Christian coined each version of this word based on the word "magnitude", which means "importance". Whenever Edge and Christian used this word, they were describing something that was of great importance/very important.
  • stinktatude
    • This word, a pun on the words "stink" and "attitude", was used by Edge and Christian to describe something that stinks, usually referring to opponents they considered far inferior to themselves or as having foul attitudes.
  • double gold
    • This phrase was used by Edge and Christian as the simple way to say two simultaneously-held (double) straps of championship gold, as they sought out opportunities to hold other championships along with their Tag Team Titles, in their quest for greatness.
  • big, crazy ass sunglasses
    • Edge and Christian used this phrase to describe something that they considered to be extremely cool or the coolest thing of all. This was also used to describe any pair of shades they considered the biggest, craziest sunglasses they've ever seen. This was most likely coined from the many pairs of goofy oversized sunglasses that Christian usually wore to the ring during their teen idol gimmick. Edge also wore sunglasses to the ring (which may have also contributed to this) and is the only one of the two that continues to do so from time to time.
  • chumpstain
    • The word is obviously a pun on the word "chump"; they used this word as an insult to anyone they feuded with or considered a chump or a loser. Edge went on to use this word a couple of times following their split as a team, one instance being as a piece of his vignette for the 2003 Royal Rumble in which he said, "I even got rid of that chumpstain partner Christian." He used the phrase again on Smackdown vs. Raw Season Mode, in an interview before his first round match in the Gold Rush tournament in 2005, and most recently in an interview after beating DX at Cyber Sunday.
  • fightingest
    • This phrase represented the fact that Edge and Christian were willing to compete and to defend their Tag Team titles whenever necessary. They sometimes called themselves "the fightingest tag team champions of all time". This is in fact the only phrase from their tag team era that has been used outside it, as Brock Lesnar and several other world champions have gone on to describe themselves as the "fightingest champion of all time". However, neither Edge nor Christian Cage re-coined the phrase in their first world title reigns in 2006.
  • ramapercussions
    • An amalgam of the words "ramafications" and "repercussions," the term "ramapercussions" refers to the aftermath and/or consequences of an incident.

[edit] Championships and accomplishments

  • 2-times Match of the Year

[edit] Notes

  • Both men are multiple time WWE Intercontinental Champions, Edge five times and Christian three. Edge also won the WCW United States Championship and WWE Tag Team Championship with Rey Mysterio, while Christian also won the now-defunct WWE European, Hardcore and Light Heavyweight championships. Because of this, there are only 3 titles in the WWE that neither man has ever held - the World Heavyweight Championship (which both men have won equivalents of), Cruiserweight (however Christian has won the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship, which is equivalent to it and the two titles were unified following the invasion. the last holder of the title was X-Pac) & obviously, the Women's Championship (although both have been in on-screen relationships in which the girl has won the Women's Championship).
  • Both men won their first world titles in 2006, Edge becoming WWE Champion on January 9 and Christian becoming NWA World Heavyweight Champion on February 12. However, because of Edge losing the WWE Title before Christian won the NWA Title, they have never both been World Heavyweight Champions at the same time.
    • Both men have acknowledged one another's world title victories. Christian cited Edge as "[his] brother" at Final Resolution 2006, which took place a week after Edge's WWE Championship win, while Edge sent Christian a text message saying "congratulations" for winning the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
  • The success that Edge & Christian have accomplished since their split adds to the legacy of their tag team, since it is very rare that both members of an accomplished tag team would start successful singles lives after the team's split. It is more common to see examples of teams where one partner's career skyrockets after their split while the other goes nowhere (such as The Hart Foundation or The Rockers), or where both men's post-split success is limited if any, which often leads to the team's revival (much like Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch or The Hardy's).
  • On May 22, 1999 in Chicago, Illinois, Edge and Christian lost a tag team match against Jeff Jarrett and Owen Hart. This would turn out to be their "unfortunate honor" (as said by Mr. Kennedy about a similar event he faced years later) of wrestling Owen in the last match of his life.

[edit] Trivia

  • Edge and Christian are exactly one month apart in age (with Edge the older of the two), making it impossible for the two men to be actual, full biological brothers.
  • The words "Edge" and "Christian" are often associated with one another through their use in Christianity, which, thanks to Jason Reso's ring name already having Christian in it, may have been an inspiration for Adam Copeland's ring name becoming Edge. This is somewhat supported by the fact that both men have been wearing cross necklaces on TV since the beginning of their WWE careers, when they feuded and then went on to align together as the Brood alongside Gangrel.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../e/d/g/Edge_and_Christian_300e.html"