Wrestling fans were delighted to learn this week that after two years of forced retirement, Daniel Bryan had been medically cleared to return to wrestling in a WWE ring.
The news also left fans wondering if the last former world champion to retire prematurely, Edge, would ever make the same kind of comeback.
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The 11-time world champion assured fans on his podcast this week that, sadly, it’s never going to happen.
“I got inundated, man. I got the ‘well, he’s back, so you can come back, right?’ I was like ‘oh my god, we’re going to go into this again.’ … I will once again and for the last time say this: I greatly appreciate that people would like to see me have one more match, or come back, or Daniel Bryan got cleared so why can’t you. I will never be cleared,” Edge said on the latest episode of the E&C Podcast of Awesomeness.
“Mine is a completely different injury. He had neck issues but it wasn’t his neck issues that retired him initially, it was the concussion issues. I never had concussion issues. What I have is cervical spinal stenosis. Look it up. I have stupid neck, just look it up. You can look up ‘stupid neck’ and it will probably be a picture of my neck. Just do me a favor, look it up, and you then you will realize that the WWE will never medically clear me to compete again. And I appreciate it but that’s all there is to that.”
The Canadian wrestler debuted for the WWE back in 1996 and went on to hold the most championships of any wrestler in WWE history with seven reigns as World Heavyweight Champion, four reigns as WWE Champion, five Intercontinental Championship runs, 14 tag team championship reigns, a King of the Ring tournament win, a Royal Rumble win and the first-ever winner of the Money in the Bank contract.
As a result of his spinal stenosis, as well as multiple neck injuries and required surgeries, Edge was forced to hand up his booths the night after WrestleMania XXVII in 2007, ending his final reign as World Heavyweight Champion by defeating Alberto Del Rio during that event. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame the night after, and has gone to make multiple sporadic appearances on WWE television and the WWE Network over the years.
Since his retirement, Edge went on to marry fellow former wrestler Beth Phoenix. The happy couple have two children together.
