Edge was clearly a bigger star than Christian, WWE legend thinks
Edge and Christian were among the most prominent WWE tag teams in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Jim Ross, a WWE commentator and talent relations executive at the time, recently gave his thoughts on the duo's separation.
In 2001, Edge and Christian became singles competitors after capturing seven tag titles together. While Edge won the 2001 King of the Ring Tournament and became a fan favorite, Christian turned heel and sometimes struggled for regular television time.
Speaking to his Grilling JR podcast host Conrad Thompson, Ross made it clear he thought Edge was the bigger star:
"Well, have you looked at him, Conrad? Can you tell them apart? Of course you can. I'm being an a**hole. He [Edge] had it." [1:17:45 – 1:17:52]
When Thompson said he did not view Edge or Christian as a bigger star than the other, Ross explained why he disagreed:
"Wow, that's interesting. Well, I do, I do. It's an opinion. His look, Adam had a big-time premium look. He was very well received by the audience, whether he was doing comedy or being a heel. He just had that intangible." [1:18:05 – 1:18:34]
Edge, real name Adam Copeland, won 11 world titles in WWE. Christian, aka Christian Cage, has also won several world titles, including the World Heavyweight Championship twice in World Wrestling Entertainment and TNA's IMPACT World Championship once. Both men now wrestle for AEW.
Jim Ross disliked WWE's booking of Edge
Kurt Angle defeated Christian in the 2001 King of the Ring Tournament semi-final before losing to Edge in the final. Later in the show, the Olympic gold medallist beat Shane McMahon in a memorable Street Fight.
Edge's King of the Ring triumph was supposed to be a big breakout moment for the Canadian. However, Jim Ross believes the victory was overshadowed due to Angle competing before and after the final on the same night:
"It was clumsy booking, shall we say? It wasn't creative. It was clumsy. But what we found out in all that critiquing is that we had a star in our hands, and that's what we needed to know. Is the audience going to accept Adam Copeland, aka Edge, as a bona fide star? And their attendance and their noise will tell us many of those answers." [1:17:00 – 1:17:29]
Ross also addressed why Edge and Christian's villainous WWE personas were "adversely affected" by their humorous segments.
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Please credit Grilling JR and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.