WWE Raw, 2011

Edge:
You may to have to bear with me a little bit. I'm probably going to ramble and not make much sense, but please bear with me. A lot of people think that the WWE does not hurt. That what we do, maybe it's done with smoke and mirrors, and I wish that were true. But anybody in that locker room, anybody that has ever stepped foot in here, laced up a pair of boots-they know that's not the case.

Which brings me to what I am about to tell you. Eight years ago, I broke my neck. I had spinal fusion surgery which means they move your throat over, they put a plate in there, and screws, and it's really in-depth surgery. But because of that surgery I knew that I was...I was wrestling on borrowed time from that point on. So fast forward, and...the last, the last little while, I've been in a lot of pain. I...I've been losing feeling in my arms. So...I passed strength tests and all of those things, and I made it through WrestleMania. But the WWE wanted me to go get more tests. And thankfully I did, because the MRI showed that...that I have to retire. [The crowd is visibly shocked] I mean, trust me, it's not my choice. The doctors have told me that I got no choice. And they thankfully found out because I'm not gonna end up in a wheelchair now.

[The crowd starts cheering for him, chanting "Thank you, Edge."]

This is a little bit tougher than I thought it was gonna be. So, you know...thank you, guys.

I'll tell ya, this has been an emotional roller coaster of a week for me and I'm not going to lie. I felt sorry for myself. I...until I talked to Christian. And for those of you who don't know, Christian has been my best friend for 27 years. And you see I was angry, I was angry at myself, I was angry at my body. Because I felt like there's a lot of people in this company that depend on me, and I felt like I was letting them down. I felt like I was letting you guys down. But then, you know, I was upset too, because I did not feel like I was ending this on my terms. But he reminded me that, that I have competed my whole career on my terms.

I...you know, I'm still like all of you. I am a huge fan of the WWE. Every month, Christian and I would go down to the Maple Leaf Gardens and we would watch all of our favorites. We would watch The Legion of Doom, and we'd watch Demolition, and we'd watch, we'd watch Hulk Hogan, we'd watch all of them and just be enthralled. And then I went to WrestleMania VI and I watched Hulk Hogan against The Ultimate Warrior, and I said, "I'm doing this one day." And you know what? Fast forward a whole bunch of years, and I'm main eventing WrestleMania against The Undertaker. There's no way I would have ever dreamed that. There's no way if you told me when I was eleven years old that I would win more championships than anyone in the history of this company, no way I would've believed you. And if you would have told me that my last match would be at WrestleMania in one of the main events defending the World Heavyweight Championship, and that I'd be retiring as the World Heavyweight Champion. Man, I could not dream of a better way to go out. I really could not.

You know, I...I started in the WWE when I was 23. I mean, I have been doing this for 19 years, 14 of them with the WWE. My first match was May 10th, 1996 at Hamilton's Copps Coliseum. And...I was 23 years old, and I feel like I have grown up in front of all of you. I feel like I have made a whole lot of mistakes in front of you. I have learned from them, and I have become a man in front of you. I have come from being the silent guy running around the streets of New York with a trench coat that was way too small for him, to a pseudo-vampire in The Brood, to one of the funny goofy guys along with Christian, posing for the benefit of those with flash photography. I became one of the most despised guys in the history of the WWE. As a matter of fact, I got thrown in the Long Island Sound. I had a live sex celebration, thankfully with Lita and not Vickie Guerrero. And I would hope that through it all I have earned the respect of everyone in that locker room. And I hope that I have earned all of your respect. Because no matter what, no matter what, I came out here and tried to give you guys as much as I had every single night. And in turn you guys gave it right back to me.

So, I'm gonna miss all of this. All of it. I'm gonna miss that reaction when I hear my music and I come out on the ramp. It's like a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart from you guys, and it's amazing. I can't describe it. But, that being said I don't have to wear tights tomorrow and I am gonna go eat a whole lot of ice cream tonight. But if you asked me if I would do all of this again. All the way back from getting hired by J.R. If you asked me if I'd travel all the roads, log all the miles, hop on all the flights, all the sleepless nights, all the surgeries, all of the injuries, the metal rods in my teeth, all of it. If you asked me if I'd do it again…in a heartbeat. So, thank you, thank you very much.