While doing an interview with Sports Illustrated to promote Saturday’s WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view event, Edge talked about teaming with his wife, Beth Phoenix, against Maryse and The Miz for a mixed tag team match and more. Here are the highlights:
The match:
“We never thought this would be a possibility,” Copeland says. “I was forced to retire [in 2011]. A year later, Beth retired. Then we started having kids. Coming back to wrestling was never on the docket for me, let alone come back and be asked, ‘What do you think about teaming together for a month?’ We’re having so much fun. Riding together, flying together. That’s the only part of the job that can be unenjoyable at times, but when you have your best friend next to you, it’s a lot more fun.”
“It’s so unexpected. I had no inkling that it would ever happen, and we’re just having so much fun. I think that shows. We have two opponents like Mike and Maryse who are fully committed to being heels. That just makes everything so easy. I can’t wait. The Rumble is going to be so much fun.”
One more title run:
“I can’t say that Edge needs it,” Copeland says. “When I look at the character, and I look at everything I accomplished with the character, what does one more mean? I don’t know. Is it a cool, redemptive story? This guy had it pulled away from him, and now he’s fighting to get it back. It has a bit of a feel-good, Rocky vibe to it. But if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.
“I came back to do this again. Are my story lines compelling? Do people want to watch them? And am I competing at the same level or better than I was before? That is my focus. Mentally, I feel like I’m in a way better place in terms of telling stories than I was when I had to retire. That’s really all that matters to me—how good are the matches, how good are the stories.”