Edge Responds to Criticism Over His Match Against Randy Orton

Edge’s Last Man Standing match against Randy Orton at WrestleMania has gotten a lot of criticism online. The match, which at 36:35 was the second longest in WrestleMania history, felt incredibly grueling to watch for me (and apparently many others) and seemed like an endless loop of them punching each other and throwing each other into walls, then waiting for the referee to count to 9 over and over and over for almost 40 minutes. It also was not helped at all by Byron Saxton calling the entire match in his “serious quiet voice,” helping to create an overwhelmingly dull atmosphere for a match that already had no crowd noise.

Edge was interviewed on Corey Graves’ “After the Bell” podcast and responded to criticism that the match has gotten:

I’m very very proud of it. I’ve heard there’s feedback that it was too long…all of the feedback I’ve gotten personally to myself or to my social media feeds has been all positive. When I have Bret Hart call me and tell me that he loved it because it looked like a fight, well I don’t care what anybody else says from that point on, because his opinion to me has more weight than absolutely everyone anywhere. Nobody’s gonna top his opinion to me, and if he liked it, and he thought it was a fight, good, mission accomplished.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, it’s wrestling, right? It’s art. It’s subjective, whatever blows your hair back. Randy and I have broad shoulders and we can weather the weight of a minuscule militia of malcontents who will just want to complain about everything. Complain about the length of a wrestling match during a pandemic? Really? Come on. But they are also the same people that are gonna complain that Bill and Brock go for four minutes. I just think there is a segment of people that enjoy not enjoying things and dwell on negatives, but I focus on positives.

Transcript h/t: Cageside Seats