Undertaker-Edge 2008 Feud

[Tyfo]

Now that a few years have passed on this one, reflecting back this may be one of the great feuds of the 2000's (IMO at least). I just think it was so well done.

It's one of those angles that almost gets done perfectly. Starts with the build up to and match at WrestleMania and has a definitive finale at SummerSlam.

You had Edge "retiring" Taker at Extreme Rules, then the wedding of Edge and Vickie, which was shaken up by the Edge-Alicia Fox video being shown, causing the rift between Vickie and Edge, leading to Vickie rehiring the Undertaker and booking him and Edge in the Hell in a Cell match for SummerSlam. Then, that in turn causing Edge to snap and giving us a few fun weeks of Crazy Edge.

Of course, the ending was what I felt was an excellent Hell in a Cell match between them at SummerSlam.

It's one of those things that I wish they would model more feuds after. It spanned many months, but I never really felt like they ran it into the ground to the point of being sick of it like I do with most main event feuds. By the time SummerSlam was a week or two away, I was really anticipating the match and this was at a point where they had already pretty much exhausted the Undertaker vanish and return. But this one was really good and in the context of an ongoing feud.

[Chronos]

I'd say it started with Edge screwing Undertaker out of the World Heavyweight Championship at Survivor Series, and then the Edgeheads debuting at Armageddon the next month to help Edge steal the WHC from Batista and Taker. You're right about a definitive finale though, it doesn't get much more definitive than being thrown into hell, hahaha.

I agree in that this feud didn't feel like it was run into the ground, likely due to the time gaps they had during the feud (Armageddon to the buildup to WrestleMania, and again from Extreme Rules to SummerSlam). It wasn't like, say, Cena/Orton or something where they had matches every week.

I think another good thing about the feud was that Edge and Undertaker never really had a bad match against each other during it. It really goes a long way to help a feud when you can keep on having good matches for the duration of it, and Edge and Taker had great matches during it.

[Starshine]

Well if you want to get technical, their whole feud really started when Edge cashed in his MITB case on Taker in April/May of '07.

[MAGGLE]

Sept 21, 2011 5:32:08 GMT -5 Starshine said:

Well if you want to get technical, their whole feud really started when Edge cashed in his MITB case on Taker in April/May of '07.

exactly. Its my favorite feud of Smackdown because it goes back that long. In May 2007 Edge cashed in the MITB on Taker and he got taken out. Then at Survivor Series 2007 he screwed Taker again. Then at Armageddon he brilliantly escaped with the Edgeheads and won the title. He was trying to avoid the Undertaker from that time on. So Taker had to win the Rumble to challenge him and he lost. So he had to win the EC. Then at Mania Edge got beaten. At Backlash Taker won again. Then before Judgment Day the title was stripped of The Undertaker for using the Hells Gate. Then the title was vacant and they had to fight over it at Judgment Day. And then the real feud started which was pointed out by OP

[Nikki Heyman]

Sept 21, 2011 2:41:49 GMT -5 Chronos said:

I'd say it started with Edge screwing Undertaker out of the World Heavyweight Championship at Survivor Series, and then the Edgeheads debuting at Armageddon the next month to help Edge steal the WHC from Batista and Taker. You're right about a definitive finale though, it doesn't get much more definitive than being thrown into hell, hahaha.

a lot of the build to this finish was brilliant, too - Edge's sanity slippage when Vickie re-hired the Undertaker was a sight to behold.

[Bo Rida]

The best thing was that the Undertaker didn't even need to be there for much of it, he could stay as an almost mythological figure in the background while Foley and Edge delivered their fantastic promos.

One of the build up videos beforehand was one among the best WWE have ever done (which is saying something) but I can’t find the right one on youtube, I did find an interesting stop motion version of the HiaC match though.

[Heartbreaker]

I loved crazy Edge.