On Monday Night Raw a couple weeks ago, after Randy Orton challenged Edge to a straight up wrestling match, Charly Caruso, who was in the ring with the two of them, responded to it with this line: “If this does happen, it may just be the greatest wrestling match ever.”
It seemed like a bizarre thing to say, such an overexaggeration one could mistake it for a form of deadpan comedy.
Then she said it again on Monday Night Raw this week and it became clear it wasn’t a throwaway line so much as the entire focus of the promotion for the match. If there was any doubt about that, WWE erased it with the following image on its website:
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That’s going beyond saying it could be and simply promising it will be, which seems like an awfully strange way to promote a match that couldn’t possibly live up to that standard. That’s not a mark against Edge or Orton, they’re both fantastic wrestlers, but are we really expecting them to have the best match ever? Edge is 46 and just came back after a decade of forced retirement due to injury. Orton is 40 and, well, Orton. One could argue both of their best matches involved gimmicks, and this one is all about being a simple wrestling match.
Of course, this is WWE and promotional tactics like this aren’t all that surprising. Still, it stands out as a bit more ridiculous than most.