Christian On Hitting Things Off With Edge & Their Relationship Outside Wrestling
Edge and Christian Cage have carved out noteworthy singles careers for themselves, but the duo will always be synonymous with one another for their work as a tag team in WWE, where they were introduced as kayfabe brothers in the late '90s. Nearly 26 years after they burst into the spotlight, Edge and Christian have remained the closest of friends, and still hang out every opportunity they get despite working for different promotions.
In a recent interview with "Swerve City Podcast," Christian explained how he and Edge have managed to "maintain the brotherhood" in an industry that has seen many longtime friends falling out — for a multitude of reasons.
"The reality is I just can't shake the guy," Christian said. "Believe me, I've tried [laughs] but he keeps coming back. We hit it off when I moved into a new town, in the sixth grade, and I was a really shy kid. I wouldn't even get out of the car to go to school. So, the teacher sent a couple of students and Adam [Copeland] was one of them. He talked to me and made me feel better, so when I went to school, we started talking, and we both realized that we loved wrestling. So, our initial bond was wrestling, and also this Ninja throwing star — we've told that story tons of times.
"Adam was also a very good artist, he'd draw these pictures of us as a tag team," Christian continued. "We'd set up mattresses in the sideyard — I don't condone doing this, but we'd wrestle with my brother and stuff and sit and talk about finding a wrestling training [school] and how we're gonna make this dream happen. And we did!"
'We didn't stay together longer than we needed to'
While they did accomplish their dreams, Christian revealed he and Edge would routinely "motivate and push each other" even during lean times when they were paid $10 to wrestle a match. As he further jogged his memory, he recalled a conversation where he and "The Rated-R Superstar" wondered if "Is this all worth it?" as they toiled away on the Canadian indie circuit with hopes of making it to the big leagues.
Ultimately, when they did get in the proverbial door, they began sowing the seeds for their inevitable breakup. "Our philosophy was always that we were going to branch off [into singles wrestlers]," Christian revealed. "We didn't want to become a stale act, we didn't want to be the guys who hung on to the team for too long."
To that end, Christian stressed that, unlike a lot of other teams that got split up, he and Edge never dealt with "jealousy issues" as they respected each other's journeys and remained committed to supporting one another — for life.
"We cheered for each other through all our victories, picked each other up during our defeats," Christian added. "It's just the way we've always been."
When asked if their relationship could have been soured by the presence of social media, Christian had a rather interesting answer. "It's funny, I constantly see people making comments like, 'Christian is better than Edge' or 'Edge is better than Christian' or whatever. It has never bothered me. Honestly, I think [social media] wouldn't have affected our relationship."
In conclusion, Christian referred to Edge as "more of a family member than a friend," revealing that Edge — who grew up with a single mom — would accompany him and his family on road trips. "He stayed over at my house on the weekends, and the door to my house was always open to him. Having that foundation also helped us [maintain a lifelong bond] and made us brothers more than friends."