Prior to NXT TakeOver: In Your House on Sunday night, WWE pre-taped the upcoming Edge vs. Randy Orton match at the WWE Backlash pay-per-view, which the promotion is pushing as “The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever.” Dave Meltzer explained on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio why WWE opted to go this route, and based on what he’s heard the match is pretty solid.
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“[The decision was made] to make sure that Edge and Orton has no kinks,” Meltzer explained. “The attempt was to do the absolute best match possible. And if there was any problems you can re-do it, re-edit it. They’ve got a week to clean it up and I was told the match was two very smart workers working very hard to have the smartest match they possibly could under the best circumstances. It was absolutely an attempt to do it [have the best match] and to give them the benefit of post-match editing.”
The match will mark the first time Edge has competed in a standard singles wrestling match since his return from his nine-year retirement. So far the only matches he’s been in have been the 2020 Men’s Royal Rumble and a Last Man Standing Match with Orton at WrestleMania 36.
“The Rated-R Superstar” gave an interview with ESPN on Monday where he admitted he didn’t buy WWE’s tagline for the match, though it doesn’t both him too much.
“If I were to look at it on paper and go right, first proper wrestling match back in nine and a half years and they want to bill it as the greatest wrestling match ever … I mean, that’s pretty pressure filled,” Edge said. “But I can’t look at it that way, I really can’t. I just have to understand that it’s promotion and it’s hype. I always go out with a mindset to try and have the best match that I’ve ever had. So I don’t look at it in terms of a contest — will it measure up to Steamboat vs. Savage or will it measure up to Shawn [Michaels] and [The Undertaker]. All I can do is measure up against myself, and especially at this juncture in my career, I’m just happy to be out there.
“This shouldn’t even be happening. Let alone for the company, and let’s call it straight, Vince, to think that he can bill this the ‘Greatest Match Ever.’ Would I have preferred they not billed it as that? Absolutely. But I also know there are times where heels get dug in the sand and there’s no changing it,” he added.
