Stanman's Wrestling AfterThoughts - Edgeucation
Submitted by Stanman on Friday, November 22, 2002 at 9:46 PM EST





Hello and welcome to yet another glorious edition of Stanman's Wrestling AfterThoughts, the column where I state my opinions about the world that is the WWE. You know, it is quite funny that many people take what they read on the internet so seriously.

With that being said, I would like to talk about a wrestler who has been the talk of the 'net lately.

That someone is Edge..


Ammunition For The AfterThought: Edgeucation

Edge. The man who many people say brings out the best in other wrestlers. The man many people say will be a huge star one day. I for one, do not believe the hype this man is getting.

The reason I say this is because of the response my last column received. Many readers ROASTED me for my comments on Edge. I stated that he was missing a certain something to get to the main event level despite being pushed hard many times during his time with the WWE.

The man won the King Of The Ring crown two years ago and vowed not to "Billy Gunn" his victory in his infamous speech the RAW after the pay-per-view. The reason why I believe he was the chosen one to win the tourney was he was the only over 'home-grown' talent the WWE had in the tournament. And of course, the WWE refused to put any non-WWE wrestler over in any way at that time, so Edge was shoved down our throats. This was in the midst of the Invasion, when there was a golden opportunity for the WWE to elevate a FRESH talent. It would have made the Invasion much more credible if one of the Alliance members had won it. The WWE failed to cash in on that chance..

But that was then. Nowadays, people praise Edge's matches as if there were no tomorrow. When you take a look at his opponents, you have got the Kurt Angles and the Eddie Guerreros wrestling him. Yet, Edge gets the praise of pulling out good matches. But then, when you have him going up against a wrestler who can't make him look good (i.e. The Big Show) then he does not look all that good. As evident by this week's Smackdown.

A main event wrestler is one who can pull out good matches no matter who he is up against. Take a look at the Rock or Kurt Angle. Both of whom, can make what looks to be a sub par match and turn it into a main event. And to prove that point, just feel the energy level of the crowd during their matches. As for Edge, I have noticed that crowds are quite silent when he wrestles and only pop when he hits a spear or a trademark move.

Edge is a good talent, don't get me wrong. But there are gaps. Those gaps are why he is not at the level of Kurt Angle, The Rock, or Triple H. He is missing that certain something.

And mind you, this is my opinion. I just had to get that off my chest due to the response about the comments I made about him in my last column.


Gathering Intelligence: End Of 2002 Champions

Last week I asked, 'Who do you think will be the WWE champions at the end of 2002?'

By champions, I mean who do you think will be the world title holders for RAW and Smackdown respectively.

From the votes tallied by email, the SWAT readers chose Triple H as the RAW end of year champion. Not a bad guess seeing that he is the only person that can carry the belt. Not to say that Booker T or Kane can't carry it but the mistreatment of those wresters is just ludicrous. And Shawn Michaels does NOT do anything for the belt whatsoever. I am still amazed that he won the thing. But that's another story..

As for Smackdown, Brock Lesnar is the winner for this voting. It's ridiculous how someone like the Big Show can defeat Lesnar for the WWE championship. It baffles the mind.

I would like to note that Kurt Angle was a close second place behind Lesnar. The man is the best performer in the WWE bar none, yet some overweight slug has the world title. Once again, it boggles the mind.

As of right now, Shawn Michaels and the Big Show are your champions for RAW and Smackdown respectively. Who would have guessed that? Not me.

This week's intelligence question is:

What are your thoughts on Edge?

I would like to expand my thoughts about him next week with your replies. I'm really getting into this debate about him and I hope you, the readers, can add some fuel to my fire.


Mission: Accomplished

Phew. There you have it. I just wanted to rant a little bit on the man known as Edge. He has the utmost respect from me as a wrestler and I hope he can do well enough so that I can eat my words. But he is going to have to step it up if he wants to be a WWE champion.

I will definitely cover more on that next time. And I need YOUR thoughts on him so that I can see what the Edge heads and non-Edge heads see (or not see) in him. So answer the intelligence question!

Till next time, thanks a million for reading.

-Stanman
StanmanLOP@yahoo.com









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