Give the devil his due

The match

Edge and Seth Rollins will meet inside Hell in a Cell at the Crown Jewel event on Thurs., Oct. 21, 2021, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The story

I originally thought this story was about a man’s journey to regaining what he once lost (through no fault of his own), and a great evil blocking his path and tempting him to become the evil he once used to attain that thing he had lost. It was a story, then, of consequence.

Because he gave in to that temptation, in the name of vengeance, and it nearly cost him everything.

But then, that’s not really how it played out.

Edge was the heavyweight champion when he was forced to retire way back in 2011, vacating the title he had just retained at WrestleMania. The belief was he would never wrestle again due to lingering neck issues.

So when he came back in 2020, it was a monumental achievement, a commentary on perseverance, on strength, on the will to scratch and claw your way to success, no matter how you may define it. He quickly set about the task of winning the title once more.

Seth Rollins was the great evil getting in the way of that, tempting Edge back down the road to ruin. And he took him there, too, as Edge was all too willing to cut a deal with the shadow side.

This wasn’t without risk, though. Not just because of how fragile his neck still is, but because his opponent is a mirror of the man himself. Rollins, then, would see the weakness and be all too willing to exploit it. He would delight in it, even.

There came a point in their second match in which Edge, seemingly coming to grips with what he’d done, how far into the darkness he had traveled, realized what it was going to cost him and accepted his fate. Rollins, as mentioned, eagerly delivered what appeared to be the coup de grâce.

But it wasn’t.

Edge came around again, his neck much stronger than previously thought. Rollins, with his impossibly big ego and equally impressive insecurity, used Edge’s family to poke and prod and kick the downed man.

This gave Edge a path to righteous vengeance, carte blanche. He chose Hell in a Cell, a fitting place to give the devil his due.

As it turns out, that’s all this is about.

It’s not a redemption story after all. Edge wasn’t accepting his fate willingly to atone for straying from the right path. He was simply a man beaten at his own game with no other choice. His ultimate resistance of that fate didn’t teach him any larger lesson either.

It just gave him another chance to dance.

He made it clear there. This is not a redemption story. This is the Rated-R Superstar doing what he does, at one with the evil that exists within. There will be no forgiveness. The devil has come to collect his pound of flesh.

It’s time for Rollins to pay the piper.