Adam Copeland: Encyclopedia II - Adam Copeland - Career

Adam Copeland - Career

Throughout the 1990s he wrestled for many independent promotions in Ontario as well in the Great Lakes region of the United States under the name Sexton Hardcastle. As Sexton Hardcastle he was managed by Johnny Bradford and Judd the Studd and would go on to become a part of Sex and Violence with Joe Legend, a successful tag team in the Detroit area. During 1997 Sex and Violence were a part of a bigger gang, known as THUG Life -- Legend, Hardcastle, Christian Cage, Bloody Bill Skullion and Rhino Richards. In his indy career, he also won the SSW Tag title, the ICW Street Fight Tag title and the ICW/MWCW Midwest Unified Tag title, all with long time friend, Christian Cage they were known as the Suicide Blondes. He was signed by the WWF in 1998.

Edge was first introduced in the WWF as an enigmatic character, and was placed into a feud against Gangrel. However, he started teaming up with Gangrel along with on-screen brother and aforementioned real life best friend Christian to form a faction known as "The Brood". The group joined The Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness.

Adam Copeland - The Brood and The New Brood

The Brood broke away from the Ministry in May of 1999 when Christian told Ken Shamrock Stephanie McMahon's whereabouts after having been attacked by Ken Shamrock. The Undertaker chose to have Christian punished, but Edge and Gangrel turned against Undertaker. They began a feud with Matt & Jeff, the Hardy Boyz, which would result in some classic encounters. Soon however, Edge and Christian broke away from Gangrel, who then formed The New Brood with the Hardyz and continued the feud with Edge & Christian. Even after the New Brood split Edge & Christian continued to feud with the Hardy Boyz.

Adam Copeland - Tag Team Champions

They competed in the now-classic ladder match at the 1999 No Mercy against the Hardy Boyz, which was for the "managerial services" of Terri Runnels and $100,000, but Edge & Christian came up short. At WrestleMania 2000 they defeated the Hardyz and the Dudley Boyz to win their first Tag Team Title in a now infamous Triangle Ladder Match which saw the birth of the Tables Ladders and Chairs match. Following this victory, Edge and Christian found success as a heel comic duo of surfer dudes/teenyboppers, winning the WWF Tag Team Titles 7 more times. During this time their trademark was the five second pose where they would do a pose five seconds for cameras to irritate the fans (one such pose had them and Kurt Angle dressing up as a bluegrass band at a PPV event in Kentucky)) They also competed as a team in the first three TLC (Tables, Ladders & Chairs) matches, winning the first two over The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz, at SummerSlam 2000 and then again at WrestleMania X-Seven.

Adam Copeland - Singles star

Copeland would go on to solidified himself as a burgoning singles star, after winning the 2001 King of the Ring tournament. Christian turned on Edge shortly afterward, and the two feuded over Edge's Intercontinental Championship, which Christian won and lost back to Edge. Edge defeated Test at Survivor Series in November 2001 to unify the Intercontinental Championship with the WCW United States Championship he previously won.

Throughout the winter months of 2001 Copeland feuded with William Regal for the Intercontinetal Title after Regal beat him for it. In this feud Edge came up short. When WrestleMania came around Edge found himself in what is considered by many wrestling experts to be his worst angle, a match with Booker T. that was the result of Edge beating out Booker on a fictious Japanese shampoo endorsement.

After his feud with Booker T. was quietly pushed aside Copeland was drafted to Smackdown! where he began a feud against Angle. The feud culminated in a hair vs. hair match that Edge ended up winning. When Rey Misterio Jr. joined Smackdown! the two formed a pairing and won the Tag Team Titles on Smackdown!

In February 2003, Copeland suffered a neck injury that required surgery that kept him sidelined for close to a year. He wrote a column on WWE.com while he rehabilitated. He was scheduled to return to the ring in February 2004, but suffered a wrist injury just before his expected return. He was placed on the RAW brand in the draft lottery after WrestleMania XX, and returned to in-ring action as a face shortly after that event. On April 19, 2004, he and Chris Benoit won the World Tag-Team Championship. He continued to back Benoit and be there whenever Benoit needed him, even after they lost the titles. The partnership was disbanded when Edge won the Intercontinental Championship.

On July 11 at Vengeance 2004 Edge defeated Randy Orton to end Orton's nine-month Intercontinental title reign. He went on to use illegal tricks to retain his Intercontinental title and eventually feuded with then babyface Chris Jericho, thus turning heel. Eric Bischoff eventually stripped Edge of the title because of an injury Edge received at a non-televised wrestling match.

When Edge returned, his character was portrayed as a crazed heel with a severe anger management problem. He, Benoit and Shawn Michaels received a chance to be voted in by fans for a title shot at Triple H's World Heavyweight Championship for Taboo Tuesday 2004. However, the decision was won by Shawn Michaels, leaving Edge and Benoit with a Tag Title shot. Edge abandoned his partner (although Benoit managed to win the titles on his own) and instead interfered in the main event, costing Michaels the championship.

Edge would eventually abandon his tag team partner Benoit yet again, allowing them to lose the titles. Edge then joined Triple H's team for Survivor Series 2004 while Benoit joined Randy Orton's.

Edge later won a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship again at New Year's Revolution 2005 in the Elimination Chamber. Edge and a returning Shawn Michaels would renew their rivalry in this match, with Michaels serving as special guest referee.In that match, Shawn Michaels hit Edge with the Sweet Chin Music.

Adam Copeland - Mr. Money-in-the-Bank

At WrestleMania 21, Edge won a "Money-in-the-Bank" Ladder Match, a match for a contract in a briefcase that granted the bearer a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship. Per the stipulations of the contract, his title match contract was guaranteed for up to a year, up to and inclusive to WrestleMania 22 to be cashed in at any time within the time frame.

After winning this match, Edge referred to himself by the nickname "Mr. Money-in-the-Bank" and carried his World Heavyweight Championship match contract, which then became a WWE Championship contract when the titles changed shows as a result of Batista being traded to SmackDown! and John Cena coming to RAW in the 2005 Draft Lottery, in a briefcase wherever he went.

Edge then felt heat due to his betrayal of a fellow wrestler and real life friend, Matt Hardy, by having an affair with Amy Dumas (Lita), Matt's girlfriend of six years.

Nevertheless, Edge was paired with Lita in the TV storyline after she turned on Kane to help Edge win the Gold Rush Tournament on the May 16, 2005 edition of RAW. Edge then faced then-World Heavyweight Champion Batista the next week. Despite the interference of Christian and Tyson Tomko, Edge lost the match.

At the Vengeance PPV on June 26, 2005, he would find himself losing to Kane, who wanted revenge for Edge's stealing Lita away from him. On RAW, July 11, Edge's main event match with Kane was interrupted as Matt Hardy made a surprising appearance. The situation was suspected to be a worked shoot, with Hardy referring to Edge as "Adam" and issuing a threat to Lita as well. This episode raised suspicions of it all being an storyline, using the internet community to achieve heel heat to boost Edge's standing as a major player in WWE and all parties involved conspired to fool the fans to believe what may really be kayfabe all along and this affair may never have taken place at all. Hardy would interfere in Edge's match the following week on RAW.

On the August 1 episode of RAW, Vince McMahon officially announced the return of Matt Hardy, and scheduled a match between Hardy and Edge at SummerSlam 2005.

On August 21, 2005, at SummerSlam, Matt Hardy and Edge faced each other in a battle which was hardly considered a wrestling match but an all-out brawl. The match wound up coming to a premature end when Edge dropped Hardy onto the top of a ring post, causing him to bleed and eventually leading to the referee ending the match on the grounds that Hardy couldn't continue. Edge was declared the winner.

On August 29, 2005, Matt Hardy and Edge once again faced off on RAW in a vicious Street Fight. The match ended with Matt hitting Edge with the Side Effect and the two of them went flying off the stage onto electrical equipment. They were then carted off by medicial technicians to receive medical attention.

At the 2005 WWE Unforgiven event, Edge faced Matt Hardy in a steel cage match. Edge lost the match by pinfall after Matt executed a devastating legdrop from the top of the steel cage onto a virtually unconscious Edge.

At WWE Homecoming, Edge defeated Matt Hardy in a Loser Leaves RAW, Money-in-the-Bank ladder match where the winner received the Money-in-the-Bank guaranteed title match while the loser was forced to leave RAW. Shortly after this victory, Copeland suffered a torn pectoral muscle that kept him shelved for several weeks. During his layoff, he starred in his own show on RAW entitled The Cutting Edge, allowing him to remain on air without actually wrestling while he recovered from his injury. Edge then dubbed himself the "Rated-R Superstar" and began shooting on various WWE performers, including Ric Flair, Sgt. Slaughter and Michael Hayes. He became the number 1 contender for the Intercontinental Title and tried to take it away from Ric Flair at New Year's Revolution 2006.

The feud between Edge and Flair heated up in December 2005, following Flair's well-publicized arrest in connection with a road rage incident in Charlotte, North Carolina. On the January 2, 2006 edition of RAW, Edge played what he claimed was footage of the incident.

However, it was clear that Edge had created the video (i.e., dressing up as the legendary wrestler, wearing a wig and sequined robe, and beating up a rookie wrestler who was playing the other motorist) to mock Flair. Flair got his revenge, running Edge back to the dressing room and putting a figure-four leglock on Lita.

At New Year's Revolution 2006, he suffered a DQ loss at the hands of Ric Flair after using his trademark briefcase as a weapon by bashing Flair in the head 3 times. However, it would not be his last appearance at the event.

Adam Copeland - WWE Champion

Following the main event of that night, an Elimination Chamber match in which reigning WWE Champion John Cena successfully defended his title against Shawn Michaels, Chris Masters, Kurt Angle, Carlito, and Kane, Vince McMahon appeared on the stage, declaring that Cena would defend the WWE Championship against Edge, who decided to finally 'cash in' his contract. Cena, who had already been through a brutal Elimination Chamber match with 5 other wrestlers, tried to mount a defense and even kicked out after being hit by a Spear from Edge. However, after delivering an even more devastating second Spear, Edge defeated Cena to become WWE Champion. This makes Edge a Triple Crown Champion, a Superstar who has won the Tag Team, Intercontinental, and WWE Championship at least once in their career.

Edge becoming Champion was, in reality, a last minute decision. Cena had been receiving mixed reactions at WWE events, sometimes they were just plain booing him, so the decision was made that Cena lose his title to Edge as a result of that. The plan going into WrestleMania 22, at least according to wrestling insiders, was that Cena would retain the title until that event, where he would then face Triple H. Now that Cena is Champion again, that potential match could still happen.

In an interview conducted after New Year's Revolution that had aired on WWE.com, Edge claimed that he and Lita would have "hot, torrid sex" in the middle of the ring on RAW the very next night. On the following RAW, Edge (who was still holding the spinner belt he won from Cena with a new nameplate) and Lita seemingly held up to that promise by engaging in foreplay in a bed placed in the middle of the ring. They were interrupted by Ric Flair, who called Edge a "disgrace" and attempted to get revenge for Edge assaulting him with the contract briefcase at New Year's Revolution. However, Flair ended up on the receiving end of a one-man con-chair-to on the announcers' table. John Cena then came to the rescue to prevent Edge from hitting the con-chair-to again on Flair, leading to a brief brawl. Edge then fled from the ring, abandoning Lita, who was easy prey for Cena's FU. The Hot Sex segment earned Raw a 5.2 rating, it was the first time Raw had a 5.0 rating since Batista's contract signing back in February 2005.

On January 16, Edge again attempted to have sex with Lita (she gave him a lap dance), but they were interrupted by World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle, who criticized Edge's decision to cash in his "Money in the Bank" contract when he did. However, Vince McMahon separated the two champions before they came to blows. Later that night, Edge defeated Flair in a brutal Tables, Ladders, and Chairs Match; during the match, Edge and Flair both crashed through tables. Edge knocked an exhausted Flair from the ladder to secure the victory. Afterward, Edge attempted to continue beating a semi-conscious Flair with a con-chair-to, but Cena ran in for the save.

At the Royal Rumble 2006, Edge lost the WWE Championship by submission, when he tapped out to Cena's STF-U hold.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Career", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki