Edge officially returned to the ring at WWE Royal Rumble 2019, marking his first match in nearly nine years after he was forced to retire due to a neck injury.
Rumblings of Edge potentially being cleared to return began at SummerSlam 2019 when he delivered a Spear to Elias. For the next several months, Edge denied that he had been cleared despite rumors online throughout the fall and winter. After his return, reports came out that AEW had reached out to Edge about signing him. Edge reportedly told WWE that AEW offered him $3 million per year.
On WWE 24, Edge confirmed that he did speak with "another company" before signing on to return in WWE. He didn't mention by AEW by name or go into detail about his discussions with the promotion.
"SummerSlam happened and another company within the industry contacted me and said they were interested and wanted to know if I could wrestle. At this point, I didn't know if I could. Before I did anything, I decided I needed to find out," he said. "Some discussions were had. The one thing I told them through all of this was, 'When you give me your offer, I need to go talk to Vince.' He's done right by me my entire career. He gave me my chance. He trusted me to be able to pull off a lot of things, be a pillar for his shows, be a general. That goes a long way for me. I reached out to Vince and said, 'I need to talk to you this weekend. It needs to be face to face, not through texts or phone calls.' I went, sat down with him, and told him everything. It wasn't trying to get a bidding war going or anything like that. WWE didn't even know if this was possible. I didn't know if this was possible. He said, 'Well, this needs to happen here.'"
WWE sent Edge for further testing with Dr. Joseph Maroon to get him officially cleared. Edge passed his impact tests and was given the green light to return. After getting the good word, Edge texted his wife Beth Phoenix, "I'm cleared."
Edge is set to take on Randy Orton in a Last Man Standing Match at WrestleMania 36.
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