Edge and Christian open today’s show speaking about WWE’s Mixed Match Challenge. Christian likes this idea a lot and he thinks that this is the type of original content that can really help sell more subscriptions to the WWE Network. Edge says he loves the concept as well, and adds that he had a great time working in mixed tag matches during his career.
Edge informs that it’s been ten years since the Edgeheads (Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins) debuted in WWE, and he welcomes Curt Hawkins on the show to discuss his career in WWE.
Hawkins talks about establishing his “CreateAPro” Wrestling school with Pat Buck. Hawkins admits that opening this school was a very selfish choice for him at first because he was just looking for a place to work out and keep in shape while he was waiting on a call from WWE. He was employed by WWE at that time but they weren’t using him often, so he was just sitting at home.
He informs that he got started in WWE after receiving a call in 2007 to appear as a tag team on ECW with Ryder. They were both thrilled but things didn’t really get off to a great start. He recalls working a tag team match with two local talents in which he and Ryder were supposed to win and look strong, but they had to drag it out for eight minutes.
They didn’t really know how to do that so they cut the match short and picked up the pinfall victory in far less than eight minutes. When they got to the backstage area they were screamed at by Gerry Brisco because they didn’t fill their eight minute time slot and that threw off the timing of the entire show.
Speaking about the development of the Edgeheads, Hawkins informs that he and Ryder were in a creative lull and were concerned about getting fired. They didn’t know what to do to get on television and Michael Hayes urged them to “show me something different”. They were both legitimate fans of Edge, so they decided to try their ‘Edge superfan’ gimmick for him.
Hayes seemed impressed by their presentation that day but they knew that nothing would happen until they got Edge’s personal approval. Hawkins asked Edge for his email address so he could send him some videos of their idea and Edge seemed to like it right away.
Edge loved how much confidence those guys had to propose this plan to WWE creative, because they were basically nobodies at the time who were pitching an idea to be in the main event of the upcoming PPV in a 6-man tag match against legends like The Undertaker & Batista. Somehow their pitch worked, and they interfered in Edge’s next Championship match, setting up a partnership with the Champion moving forward.
Hawkins thinks Edge’s WrestleMania 24 match against Undertaker was one of the greatest WrestleMania matches of all time. As more years go by, he thinks that match will garner much more praise. Edge recalls sitting down with Undertaker to plan out this match and Undertaker had no idea who Ryder & Hawkins were at that time. Edge believes that through their excellent execution in that match and throughout the entire feud, they were both able to earn Undertaker’s trust and respect.
Edge admits that although he had a good run with The Edgeheads, he felt that it could have been more. For a good portion of a year Hawkins and Ryder were involved in basically all of his promo segments and his matches, but for some reason he has an underlying feeling that their partnership could have been more than it was.
Hawkins admits that it took a while for him and Ryder to gain the trust of the WWE locker room. For example, Shawn Michaels was absolutely terrified to work with them for a long period of time and Edge had to talk to Michaels to ensure him that they were easy to work with.
Hawkins informs that it was tough for him when he and Ryder split up and Ryder appeared to receive the bigger singles push. Christian sympathizes with Hawkins saying he had a similarly tough transition to singles wrestling when The Brood split up many years ago. He was very uncomfortable and had never even cut a promo at that point so he considers himself lucky that he and Edge were paired together to tag shortly after, and they both developed into successful singles performers from there.
WWE wasn’t really using Hawkins after he and Ryder split up and he didn’t want to sit home doing nothing. He reached out to WWE and insisted that he join FCW’s roster. He paid out of pocket to move to Florida and work in FCW and eventually worked his way back up to the main roster. Edge thinks that took a lot of guts and courage, and he praises Hawkins for that.
That sums up this week’s episode of E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!
