If I hear one more person say Vince doesn't like Christian I'm gonna scream. I'm sure a guy Vince has so little faith in wouldn't be in charge of being the established name on the show meant for grooming the next generation of superstars. Since coming back he's won 90% of his matches and has been the strongest booked champion in the company. Yeah, sounds like Vince really has it in for the guy.
And you talk about character evolution comparing Edge to Christian. If I recall Christian left WWE in 2005. Around the time he left Edge was still mid-carding, same as him. They didn't start to give Edge his major push until shortly after Christian left. You ever think had he stayed the same thing would have eventually happened to him?
WWE isn't stupid. They saw what Christian became in TNA. Although they can't directly transfer his main event standing over to WWE, he's been booked amazingly since his return. I'm sure given a little more time and a brand change we'll see Christian moving his way up the card.
I love him, I really do. But I'm sorry guys... Edge isn't that spectacular in the ring.
What are you talking about, chief? If Vince had a jones for him, he'd be more than the ECW champ, dude missed two PPVs before he got a slot in a ten man tag @ SS. Best booked champ? Yeah right, good enough to be left off of two straight PPVs. Everyone who Vince wants to push gets out of ECW eventually, Morrison, Punk, Mark Henry, Swagger, even Matt Hardy all left ECW for better things. Christian has been back about a year and he's been stuck in lack luster feuds with Regal, Dreamer and a bunch of no-names. Yeah, he's won most of his matches, but they were against guys lower on the totem pole than him. If Vince had any plans for him he wouldn't be toiling on a show where the championship isn't even penned into PPV cards anymore. The bottom line is like the ECW title itself, Christian is an afterthought in Vince's mind.
Vince also doesn't care what Christian did in TNA, being TNA champ is the equivalent to being ECW champ. Both positions draw no money. Christian left the company because he was told he would never go higher on the card than he already was. Vince brought him back strictly because he was short on talent. He was a familiar face with a name fans recognize and could work the WWE style with no problems.
You still didn't address character evolution. He was the same guy in TNA that he was in WWE and came back the same guy. The only thing he's done is flop from heel to face. Not much change, every worker does that at some point in their careers. And it doesn't matter if he left in 2005, nothing changed for his character in TNA and had he stayed with the E it probably wouldn't have changed either as they had no real plans for the guy to begin with.
I like Christian, I really do, but you can't sell me on that he's better than Edge. Christian hasn't had ONE match better than anything Edge had with Taker, especially the TLC and HIAC matches, the Edge-Hardy matches and so on. He's had some nice, solid matches on ECW but to say he's had better, more memorable matches than Edge is far from the truth. Just pitch one match that's as good or has had the length of an Edge mainevent. You can't because he hasn't had one. If he were as good as you insist he'd be on PPVs every month, he wouldn't be feuding with the Tommy Dreamers and William Regals of the world, he'd be involved in a solid upper card feud on one of the A shows. Vince doesn't give two shits what the guy did in TNA, he hired him soley because he's what I said he was, a very solid hand with good mic skills.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but the proof is in the putting, Edge has had all the success, heat and PPV headlines to answer the question who's better, and once he returns to the awaiting program with him and Jericho it will solidify that. Christian meanwhile will fall into the mid-card mix once ECW dissolves because he's just a role player, that's what Vince has always had him pegged as and that's exactly what Vince re-hired him as.
Very nice debate, thou!