The fact that a book by a then-16-time WWF titleholder was released far too early in his career may say more about modern-day booking than it does the author, but this 2004 autobiography looks woefully incomplete today.
At the front end that’s the simple issue that Edge falls the wrongside of the “Jericho divide” regarding modern wrestlers route into the business. While the likes of Jericho and Mick Foley toured the world and had tales of working international and domestic territories, Edge is from the generation of a brief small-time independent career before going into the WWF developmental system.
As a result, while his account of growing up a fan with best friend Jay Reso (who’d one day be his WrestleMania-winning tag partner Christian) are charming, there’s little of interest on his pre-WWF days save some hair-raising tales of working the “death tours” in remote and frozen Canada.A
On the back end, the book ends during his enforced year-plus layoff with a neck injury. That leaves a WWF spell when Edge had plenty of matches, but there’s little gossip or backstage insight: you won’t learn much other than that Christian and he enjoyed doing comedy skits, and that they talked over some crazy spots before the TLC matches.
Unfortunately what happened in Edge’s life after the book would have been far more interesting: the affair with Amy Dumas, the resulting shoot-style angle with Matt Hardy, the first WWE title run, the hardcore battles with Mick Foley, the ascension to genuine main event status, headlining WrestleMania and finally having his career end in an instant in a doctor’s surgery and his adjustment to life outside of the business.
This is of course no criticism of the book as it stood at the time of publication, and it’s certainly well-written and readable enough. It’s also perfectly understandable why, at a time when WWE’s book division was doing well, a popular midcarder should be profiled. But reading the book in 2014, even given it’s available for a solitary cent, remains a frustratingly incomplete experience.
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