The husband-and-wife duo of Edge and Beth Phoenix will battle rival couple The Miz and Maryse for the first time ever on Saturday night in St. Louis at the 2022 WWE Royal Rumble event. Speaking exclusively to M&F Reps Live, the iconic duo spilled all to M&F’s Zack Zeigler and Mike Myers ahead of this hotly anticipated clash of the couples.
Edge (48) and Phoenix (41) explained how they are feeling in phenomenal shape ahead of their bitter showdown with Miz & Mrs, and why they feel extremely lucky to be sharing both wedding and wrestling rings.
“I go back four years, and if you had told me I’d [still] be wrestling, period, that would have kind of blown my mind, let alone wrestling,” said Edge. “And now teaming up with my wife in our characters, for the first time ever, brushing up together on screen, no way. I woulda said, ‘Hey, you’re nuts!’ But here we are and we’re also, speaking for Beth here, we’re having a blast.”
Of course, Edge has every reason to savor the moment. 4 years ago, he was finally beginning to settle into his new way of life after being forced to retire in 2011 due to serious issues with his neck. As a civilian, Adam Copeland carved out a respectable acting career, appearing in a number of projects such as Haven and Vikings, but when doctors cleared him to wrestle once again, the “You Think You Know Me” superstar made a shocking return at the 2020 Royal Rumble.
His wife, Beth Phoenix (Elizabeth Copeland) is rightly credited as being a trailblazer in WWE after shunning the diva like stereotypes that were rife during the 2000s, instead favoring a stronger representation of what women can do in the ring. For their efforts, both wrestlers lifted world titles and have been inducted into WWE’s Hall of Fame. “Our kids are now of an age, they are 5 and 8, so they can appreciate and understand more of Mom and Dad’s careers,” said Phoenix about one of the motivating factors that keeps them wanting to mix it up in the squared circle. “This will be their first experience at a wrestling show.”
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With Edge now wrestling a lighter schedule than during his run in the Attitude Era, and “The Glamazon” largely out of action since 2012, the duo shared with M&F Reps Live how they prepare for big events like their upcoming Royal Rumble showdown. “It’s the recovery aspect,” says Edge. “You know, at 48 years old, it takes a lot longer to recover than it did at 28 and I still wanna do this at a level where I make it hard for people to follow me, and that’s the goal. But, because I’m trying to live up to that, it makes getting into the gym paramount. There’s no ‘ah, I can take today off’. I can’t. I just can’t. Even if that just means stretching and cardio for that day, that has to happen and I think, really, the biggest shift for me is when it turned from motivation, and using something to motivate me, to turning [it] into discipline and that was a huge shift in mindset to be able to pull this thing off. And we gotta wear spandex! You know, so there’s a lot of different things — OK, I gotta look the part, but I also gotta be able to move the part.”
With that said, Edge has certainly clocked up the ring hours since his return. Last year in the Rumble match itself, Edge lasted 58-minutes en route to victory. “I keep trying to tell him we don’t get paid by the minute,” laughs Phoenix, who scaled back her NXT commentating duties to help juggle family life once Edge’s schedule on SmackDown went back into full gear. “I never close any doors in wrestling, because I don’t want to be called out as a hypocrite later when its like ‘you’ve retired like, five times!’ So, I feel great, I don’t have any injuries that prevent me from wrestling, I don’t know what the future brings but I do know that this moment … all I can worry about is this moment in time, and if this is my last match, what a way to go out than beside my husband, in front of my kids, you know, in a stadium, and the Royal Rumble is my favorite pay-per-view so it’s got a fairy tale written all over it”
For more on Edge and Beth Phoenix’s long-term plans, attitudes towards fitness, and how they juggle family life with WWE superstardom, check out M&F Reps Live. The WWE Royal Rumble 2022 airs Saturday, Jan.29 live on Peacock in the U.S. and on WWE Network Internationally.
