page_title: Edge (wrestler)
section_title: WWE Champion (2005–2006)
hierarchical_section_title: Edge (wrestler) / Professional wrestling career / World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE / WWE Champion (2005–2006)
caption_attribution_description: Edge as WWE Champion
context_page_description: Adam Joseph Copeland is a Canadian professional wrestler and actor. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Edge, and is currently inactive due to injury.
  Copeland was trained by professional wrestlers Sweet Daddy Siki and Ron Hutchison. Throughout the 1990s, he wrestled in various United States independent promotions. During his time in these promotions, he competed in singles and tag team competition, the latter with longtime best friend Jason Reso. In 1997, Copeland signed a developmental deal with the WWF and was rebranded as the storyline brother of Christian, Reso's WWF persona. He made his televised debut the following June under the ring name Edge. In July 1999, he won the WWF Intercontinental Championship at a house show in Toronto, marking his first title reign with the company. Edge and Christian, billed as brothers and later childhood friends in WWF/WWE storylines, went on to win the WWF Tag Team Championship on seven occasions. During this time, they gained notoriety in the tag team division, partly due to their participation in Tables, Ladders, and Chairs matches.
context_section_description: At WrestleMania 21, Edge won the first ever Money in the Bank ladder match, gaining a contract that gave him a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship within one year. According to a podcast interview with Chris Jericho, Copeland said that he did not initially like the idea of the ladder match and even told WWE management not to include him on the WrestleMania 21 card altogether. However, he was talked into competing by the other participants like Jericho and Glenn Jacobs who said the match had the potential to be a big success. At Backlash, Edge defeated Chris Benoit in a Last Man Standing match to end the feud. Several weeks after, Edge was then paired with Lita, his real-life girlfriend at the time, in an angle in which she betrayed her storyline husband Kane, by costing him a number-one contender match for the World Heavyweight Championship on the May 16 episode of Raw. The next week, Edge received his World Heavyweight Championship match against Batista, which he lost. Edge started a feud with Kane leading to several matches between them including one at Vengeance, when Edge lost to Kane. After trading several victories on Raw, the feud ended in a stretcher match on the July 25 episode of Raw that Edge won, but shortly after, Kane performed a tombstone piledriver on Lita and later abducted her in an ambulance.
  On the July 11 episode of Raw, Edge's match with Kane was interrupted when Matt Hardy made a surprise appearance. Hardy referred to Edge by his real name and issued a threat to Lita as well. When Hardy was officially brought back to Raw, he and Edge continued their feud, including a match at SummerSlam where Edge defeated Hardy, causing Hardy to have excessive blood loss. A week later on Raw, after a match Hardy had with Rob Conway, Edge then appeared and overpowered Hardy. He then wedged Hardy's head between the steel steps and the ringpost, and then kicked the steel steps into Hardy's head. On the August 29 episode of Raw, Edge and Hardy fought in a Street Fight, which resulted in a no contest when Hardy performed a side effect on Edge off the entrance ramp into the sound speakers and other electrical equipment. They also fought in a Steel cage match at Unforgiven in September in which Hardy defeated Edge. The feud culminated in a Loser Leaves Raw ladder match on Raw Homecoming on October 3, which Edge won. After the match, Hardy left the Raw brand to go to the SmackDown! brand, while Edge suffered a legit torn pectoralis major muscle that kept him shelved for a couple of months. During his time off, he starred in his own talk show segment on Raw entitled The Cutting Edge, dubbing himself the "Rated-R Superstar". Edge used his talk show to start a feud with Ric Flair following Flair's well-publicized arrest in connection with a road rage incident. Edge eventually began using The Cutting Edge as a soapbox to run down Flair until, after weeks of public mockery, Flair eventually showed up and attacked Edge. Edge and Flair formally met at the New Year's Revolution event in January 2006 in a match for Flair's Intercontinental Championship, which resulted in Flair retaining after Edge was disqualified.
  Although Edge had lost his scheduled match at New Year's Revolution, that would not be his only match that evening as the main event saw John Cena, the reigning WWE Champion, defend his title in an Elimination Chamber match. After a bloody Cena won the match, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon revealed that Edge was cashing in his Money in the Bank contract to face Cena for the championship immediately. After two spears, Edge quickly defeated Cena to win the WWE Championship, marking his first world title win. The following night on Raw, Edge decided to celebrate his victory by having "hot, unbridled sex" in the middle of the ring. He and Lita engaged in foreplay until they were interrupted by Flair, who called Edge a disgrace and "that he was horrible in the sack". Flair, however, ended up on the receiving end of a con-chair-to on the announcers' table until Cena came out to Flair's aid and performed an FU on Lita. The 
caption: Edge, pictured with his custom "Rated-R" Spinner belt, at Unforgiven during his second WWE Championship reign
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