Without the Lita situation does Edge have the career he had?

[seabs]

I know it's wild speculation on my part but the Rated R Superstar persona was seemingly incredibly influenced by his real life affair with Lita, now say that never happens does Edge have the career he did?

I believe he'd have been a successful maineventer as he was a phenomenal talent but I can't help but feel it wouldn't have kickstarted for him long term as well as it did in reality, the Rated R gimmick which later evolved into the ultimate oppourtunist really cemented him as a main player. Without that I can't see him sticking in the main event.

So does he reach the top as consistently as he did without the real heat he attracted due to this affair?

 

[Lockard 23]

Of course he would. Just as Matt Hardy didn't maintain the momentum from the sympathy (because he didn't have what it took to be a main event player), I see Edge maintaining his main event spot without the heat he got from the affair simply because he did have the talent to be a top player. He was already being prepped as a future main eventer before the Lita thing and was one long after Lita left the company in 2006. He was the huge breakout star between he and his partner Christian (Christian was already being used as far back as 2003 mainly to put others over and win the IC Title on occasion to make sure that belt still meant something) and remember that before the Lita affair broke out around February or March, Edge already had his 'crazy' storyline going around, where he was desperate to get a world title shot and win the big one. That started at Taboo Tuesday 2004 when Michaels got voted over Edge and then Edge made the official heel turn by costing an already injured Michaels the world title.

I don't know that he would have had quite the heat at first, but his career in the main event would have been pretty much the same in the long run, in my view.

 

[Leo C]

Yes, I believe so. That may have made it quicker but he still had everything to make it work.

 

[taily96]

I think he would have had just as good of a career but the lita situation helped establish him as a major heel