Edge is moving to my town!
Jun 3, 2010 7:31:41 GMT -5
Post by Pun on Jun 3, 2010 7:31:41 GMT -5
HOLY SHIT!
For a guy who could slap you silly with a flick of the wrist, Edge sure can sound like an Asheville hippie.
The 6-foot-5-inch, 250-pound professional wrestling star loves hiking, mountain biking, dogs…and, well, spearing people, but we'll get to that in a minute. But first, let's talk about how Edge, aka Adam Copeland, one of the stars of the World Wrestling Entertainment, came to live in our lovely mountain oasis.
“The last show here, I was standing out on the (Civic Center) balcony, on the side, looking around at the mountains,” Edge told me in a recent phone interview. “I've always liked this town. We walked around the downtown and really got feel for what it's like — an old-fashioned downtown, not a superduper Walmart kind of downtown. We liked the art, and it seemed like it was pretty cool culturally — and we love the mountains and the seasons.”
Edge and his girlfriend, Charissa (he declined to give me her last name), loved it so much they bought a home in southern Buncombe County. He's a native of Toronto who had been living in Tampa, Fla., but got tired of the heat and the big-city life.
“This'll end up being home base; we're on the road so much,” Edge said. “We came up over the holidays, and we were here for the big snowfall. We'll be here for the summer, and as of next summer we'll be here full-time.”
As one of the WWE “Raw” main players, Edge is on the road as much as 250 days a year, performing at 220 shows. At age 36 and with several significant injuries under his belt, including two ruptured neck vertebrae and a torn Achilles tendon, he's got an eye on retirement.
Sure, you can call wrestling “fake” if you want to — and for the record, I'm not (hey, the dude could squash me like a bug) — but these guys take a serious pounding, frequently falling hard and getting slammed to the mat countless times.
Edge started wresting at age 17 and joined the WWE in 1998. Mentally, Edge said, he's “better than ever,” but …
“I'm coming up on my 20th year, and I've definitely had some injuries that have shortened my career,” Edge said. “That's part of the reason I bought up here — we want to retire and listen to the wind in the trees, and we want to do it fairly soon. I may have two more years. With each injury, it's harder and harder to come back.”
Known as the “Rated-R Superstar,” Edge has won and lost a spandex pantload of titles, including WWE Champion, World Heavyweight Champion, World Tag Team Champion, WWE Tag Team Champion and Unified Tag Team Champion. He also won the first Money in the Bank Ladder Match.
Those “ladder matches” are especially brutal, because they involve the wrestlers ascending a ladder in the ring, trying to grasp the suspended championship title overhead. Falling from that ladder in spectacular fashion is part of the game.
As is Edge's signature move, “the spear.”
“Basically, I run at somebody and tackle them,” Edge said.
Funny — when I do that at work, they call it “sexual harassment.” But I digress.
Weaverville resident Jay Askins said he plans to take his 7-year-old son, James, to Friday night's WWE event at the Asheville Civic Center. Although Jay Askins was never a huge wrestling fan, his boy is “die-hard into it” and even has an Edge action figure.
“I get a kick out of watching him get a kick out of it,” Askins said, adding that he does like Edge because “he seems to be very down-to-earth, as far as someone in that line of work.”
And Askins does think it's cool that Edge located in Asheville, which he notes is already “a bit of a hub” for several celebrities, including movie star and model Andie MacDowell, singer Gladys Knight and television actor Harry Anderson.
Edge likes it here so much, this will be his full-time home — once he winds up his grudges with enemy Chris Jericho and whoever else gets in his way.
It's an interesting career path for a guy who grew up playing hockey in Canada and studying radio broadcasting in college. Around town, expect him to be a little more low-key and fairly approachable — as long as you're polite.
In fact, he's sounding very Asheville already, enamored with Yesterday's Tree furniture store and the area's many restaurants and little bakeries.
“We've got four dogs, so any place that's got dogs in the store, we're there,” he said. “That's one thing I've noticed — everybody's got a dog here.”
He and his girlfriend have a yellow Lab, an Australian shepherd they rescued, a husky puppy and a teacup poodle. Yep, the Rated-R Superstar has a teacup poodle.
Not that I'm making fun of the guy. I definitely do not want to experience The Spear firsthand.
“I'm here now,” Edge told me. “I'll hunt you down!”
Time to go into hiding again.
The 6-foot-5-inch, 250-pound professional wrestling star loves hiking, mountain biking, dogs…and, well, spearing people, but we'll get to that in a minute. But first, let's talk about how Edge, aka Adam Copeland, one of the stars of the World Wrestling Entertainment, came to live in our lovely mountain oasis.
“The last show here, I was standing out on the (Civic Center) balcony, on the side, looking around at the mountains,” Edge told me in a recent phone interview. “I've always liked this town. We walked around the downtown and really got feel for what it's like — an old-fashioned downtown, not a superduper Walmart kind of downtown. We liked the art, and it seemed like it was pretty cool culturally — and we love the mountains and the seasons.”
Edge and his girlfriend, Charissa (he declined to give me her last name), loved it so much they bought a home in southern Buncombe County. He's a native of Toronto who had been living in Tampa, Fla., but got tired of the heat and the big-city life.
“This'll end up being home base; we're on the road so much,” Edge said. “We came up over the holidays, and we were here for the big snowfall. We'll be here for the summer, and as of next summer we'll be here full-time.”
As one of the WWE “Raw” main players, Edge is on the road as much as 250 days a year, performing at 220 shows. At age 36 and with several significant injuries under his belt, including two ruptured neck vertebrae and a torn Achilles tendon, he's got an eye on retirement.
Sure, you can call wrestling “fake” if you want to — and for the record, I'm not (hey, the dude could squash me like a bug) — but these guys take a serious pounding, frequently falling hard and getting slammed to the mat countless times.
Edge started wresting at age 17 and joined the WWE in 1998. Mentally, Edge said, he's “better than ever,” but …
“I'm coming up on my 20th year, and I've definitely had some injuries that have shortened my career,” Edge said. “That's part of the reason I bought up here — we want to retire and listen to the wind in the trees, and we want to do it fairly soon. I may have two more years. With each injury, it's harder and harder to come back.”
Known as the “Rated-R Superstar,” Edge has won and lost a spandex pantload of titles, including WWE Champion, World Heavyweight Champion, World Tag Team Champion, WWE Tag Team Champion and Unified Tag Team Champion. He also won the first Money in the Bank Ladder Match.
Those “ladder matches” are especially brutal, because they involve the wrestlers ascending a ladder in the ring, trying to grasp the suspended championship title overhead. Falling from that ladder in spectacular fashion is part of the game.
As is Edge's signature move, “the spear.”
“Basically, I run at somebody and tackle them,” Edge said.
Funny — when I do that at work, they call it “sexual harassment.” But I digress.
Weaverville resident Jay Askins said he plans to take his 7-year-old son, James, to Friday night's WWE event at the Asheville Civic Center. Although Jay Askins was never a huge wrestling fan, his boy is “die-hard into it” and even has an Edge action figure.
“I get a kick out of watching him get a kick out of it,” Askins said, adding that he does like Edge because “he seems to be very down-to-earth, as far as someone in that line of work.”
And Askins does think it's cool that Edge located in Asheville, which he notes is already “a bit of a hub” for several celebrities, including movie star and model Andie MacDowell, singer Gladys Knight and television actor Harry Anderson.
Edge likes it here so much, this will be his full-time home — once he winds up his grudges with enemy Chris Jericho and whoever else gets in his way.
It's an interesting career path for a guy who grew up playing hockey in Canada and studying radio broadcasting in college. Around town, expect him to be a little more low-key and fairly approachable — as long as you're polite.
In fact, he's sounding very Asheville already, enamored with Yesterday's Tree furniture store and the area's many restaurants and little bakeries.
“We've got four dogs, so any place that's got dogs in the store, we're there,” he said. “That's one thing I've noticed — everybody's got a dog here.”
He and his girlfriend have a yellow Lab, an Australian shepherd they rescued, a husky puppy and a teacup poodle. Yep, the Rated-R Superstar has a teacup poodle.
Not that I'm making fun of the guy. I definitely do not want to experience The Spear firsthand.
“I'm here now,” Edge told me. “I'll hunt you down!”
Time to go into hiding again.
