Edge Is Not Getting the Face Pop He Deserves

[Magnum DA]

The guy comes back from a long injury, and at the 2010 Rumble, the crowd pops for his return, only to be lukewarm to him when he and Cena are left.

Then the next night, Edge comes out and people are STILL lukewarm about his arrival. Then he garners some sympathetic face heat after spearing Sheamus.

Part of me wishes that the crowds would understand his real life situation, and not boo him for the character they remember. Unless they plan on him going heel after Wrestlemania, this is not that hot of a start for face Edge...

[Wii M Punk]

The caveman beard = heatz

[Jiren]

Most crowds are like that now

If it was NY, Chicago, Canada or UK he would get a big reaction

[Mighty Mouth]

Feb 3, 2010 9:49:41 GMT -5 Magnum DA said:

Part of me wishes that the crowds would understand his real life situation, and not boo him for the character they remember.

While I like Edge as a baby face the E hasn't given the Universe any reason to cheer him. He came out at the Rumble (mega pop) and eliminated the biggest face in the company. Besides why should we care about his real life situation? Once the storyline kicks in with Jericho I believe that he will get the face pops.

[Blindkarevik]

I think it was more that the crowd was confused as to how to react to him. The Rumble match itself is every man for himself, so regardless of who he attacks during it, it doesn't indicate a face/heel turn.

It has been so long since he has been a face, regardless of injury, the crowd could've just decided to treat him as a heel as he's always returned as one.

Plus, he had a few points in his promo that seemed heelish, like his "I've made a career of beating John Cena for the title," statement. Once he finally attacked Sheamus, the crowd finally realized, "Oh okay, you're a face. Yay to all that stuff you said earlier!"

[Brother Ike: Thread Killer]

well he'll get them overtime by cutting promos on heels. They could have played a bunch sympathetic videos hyping his return but that would have taken away the surprise some.

[Magnum DA]

Feb 3, 2010 9:54:07 GMT -5 Mighty Mouth said:

Feb 3, 2010 9:49:41 GMT -5 Magnum DA said:

Part of me wishes that the crowds would understand his real life situation, and not boo him for the character they remember.

While I like Edge as a baby face the E hasn't given the Universe any reason to cheer him. He came out at the Rumble (mega pop) and eliminated the biggest face in the company. Besides why should we care about his real life situation? Once the storyline kicks in with Jericho I believe that he will get the face pops.

So why does a Triple H get a big sympathetic face build for the 2002 Rumble, coming off being a heel and having a bad injury?

See, this is what I am talking about. Little nuances like this can ruin story lines: WHY was Cena the final guy in that ring with Edge? You shoot yourself in the foot when you put Cena in the ring with a guy who is trying his best to get a lot of sympathy face heat.

What should they have done instead? Batista eliminates Cena, beats down Edge, Edge makes a comeback and eliminates Batista to the delight of the crowd.

[Azrael from Outerspace]

Feb 3, 2010 9:58:58 GMT -5 Magnum DA said:

Feb 3, 2010 9:54:07 GMT -5 Mighty Mouth said:

While I like Edge as a baby face the E hasn't given the Universe any reason to cheer him. He came out at the Rumble (mega pop) and eliminated the biggest face in the company. Besides why should we care about his real life situation? Once the storyline kicks in with Jericho I believe that he will get the face pops.

So why does a Triple H get a big sympathetic face build for the 2002 Rumble, coming off being a heel and having a bad injury? See, this is what I am talking about. Little nuances like this can ruin story lines. WHY was Cena the final guy in that ring with Edge? You shoot yourself in the foot when you put Cena in the ring with a guy who is trying his best to get a lot of sympathy face heat.

What should they have done instead? Batista eliminates Cena, beats down Edge, Edge makes a comeback and eliminates Batista to the delight of the crowd.

Really it should have been Jericho vs Edge at the end but it really was perfect having Edge eliminate Cena because of the past.

Onto the topic, this is the same Edge who told us all we would be wrong and grow up to be wrong. The Edge who snaked his way into every opportunity and screwed over everybody. I'm not surprised that on his first night back on a tv show they were confused. Personally tweener Edge is were to go for me. I don't want to see him buddy buddy with anybody. Just be the psycho bearded Edge we all love to hate and hate to love.

[Steveweiser]

A little pointer to the future...

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}You'll definitely know what Edge is after you see SmackDown on Friday night.

[Mighty Mouth]

Feb 3, 2010 9:58:58 GMT -5 Magnum DA said:

Feb 3, 2010 9:54:07 GMT -5 Mighty Mouth said:

While I like Edge as a baby face the E hasn't given the Universe any reason to cheer him. He came out at the Rumble (mega pop) and eliminated the biggest face in the company. Besides why should we care about his real life situation? Once the storyline kicks in with Jericho I believe that he will get the face pops.

So why does a Triple H get a big sympathetic face build for the 2002 Rumble, coming off being a heel and having a bad injury?

See, this is what I am talking about. Little nuances like this can ruin story lines: WHY was Cena the final guy in that ring with Edge? You shoot yourself in the foot when you put Cena in the ring with a guy who is trying his best to get a lot of sympathy face heat.

What should they have done instead? Batista eliminates Cena, beats down Edge, Edge makes a comeback and eliminates Batista to the delight of the crowd.

I agree with you here. They were showing the surgery videos early into his injury, seemingly assuring his return as a face. Obviously they didn't want to show those close to the Rumble for obvious reasons. Edge should have eliminated a heel to end the Rumble. I think it still remains to be seen whether Edge can pull of being a huge face anyway. It never really worked before, it will be interesting to see if he can do it this time. The booking is a big part of that success.

[Stone Trolled]

I really wish they would stop announcing "and please WELCOME BACK WRESTLER X" AND THEN play his music. Isn't the point of a theme song to generate that brand recognition on its own?

[Urethra Franklin]

It also would have made more sense for Edge to interrupt a Sheamus promo on Monday and not vice-versa. That being said, it's still early days on this one.

[4real]

I was frustrated by the reaction he got at first but the reaction he got from spearing Sheamus was very good. So hopefully WWE does more of that rather than say, water Edge's character down.

[Tiger Millionaire]

Well I can only say that the fans are wrooooooooooong!

[The Ipod Sting]

You always seem to get a stronger reaction from PPV crowds though, and the roof nearly came off when he came in at #29.

A lot of the arena on Raw won't have seen the PPV I'm sure, so what do they have to go on? Edge coming in right at the end of the Rumble and eliminating Cena.

We saw how pro-Cena that crowd was so it's no real surprise to me they didn't know how to treat Edge, especially, like someone said, when he was still making heel-ish comments.

I'd love to see them run a show in NY, Chicago, Philly, or Canada etc. sometime soon. I've been pretty disappointed with the Raw live crowds for the past few weeks.

[don]

I think that it is a testament to Edge that he is not getting face pops. The man stated on numerous occasions that he did not want to be a "cool heel." Rather, he wanted to be a despicable human being with absolutely no redeeming traits whatsoever. Fans should not think, "Well, he was a douche; but he got injured so YAAAAAAAAAAY, EDGE!!!!" Also, look at his return; it was no different than any of his heel returns where he would come back and land himself in a world title match. The "ultimate opportunist" is not just a catchy nickname. Also, I think a more interesting story would be Edge's road to redemption.

[Mesousa]

Yeah, the crowd must have to realize that EDGE HASN'T HAD A FACE TURN SINCE...hold on...

Dear Lord, when was he a face the last time?

[Dave at the Movies]

He has been a heel for like the past three-five years. What do you expect?

[Steveweiser]

He was last a babyface in 2004.

[Jason]

To be honest, I think it's stupid how they want us to forget all he's done, just because he showed up in the Rumble. He's still a manipulative, psycho bastard and he deserves to get treated like one.

I'm obviously referring the character, here.