After losing the World Heavyweight Championship just two days after he won it, Christian hopes to keep the “emotional wave” going. Though his best friend, Edge, has retired, he will nonetheless be a part of it.
“It was two guys that grew up as fans and broke into the business together. We’ve both gone up and down different paths, and things like that. We were both able to realize a dream. Yeah, it was real emotional. The flipside of that is that unfortunately Edge has to retire, and the landscape has all changed,” Christian told SLAM! Wrestling, referring to roster changes and post-WrestleMania fallout.
“I’ve just got to go out and do what I do every night, and that’s go out and perform. I think one of the things that the people, the fans, know about me is that every time I step in the ring, I give everything I have to entertain everyone that’s spent their hard-earned dollars on a ticket for a WWE event. I think that’s apparent. I think that’s what people know about me, that every night I leave it in the ring. I’m just going to carry that emotion away with me and bring it to my matches and all those sorts of things. The rest should take care of itself.”
Christian, does however, refute the notion that he was ever in Edge’s shadow.
“[Edge] got everything he worked for, and he deserved it. He’s one of the best,” he said. “That being said, everyone takes different paths, and mine was a longer way, for whatever reason. But I never got down on myself, never tried to compare myself — ‘Oh, he’s doing this, and I’m doing this.’ I never looked at it that way, and you can’t look at things that way. You have to look at your situation, and ‘how do I make the best of my situation every single night?’ That’s what I looked to do. I never looked at being second banana to anybody, I never felt that way, ever. If other people did, that’s the way they looked at it, but I never did.”
“Captain Christian” believes that leaving WWE for TNA Wrestling in 2005 was greatly beneficial to his career.
“It was just one of those things that I needed for myself at that time. I was just worn down from the road schedule, from being on the road for eight years. I just needed to be home and recharge the batteries for a couple of years, do some things with family and friends,” he said, continuing.
“When I left WWE, I always knew that I wanted to come back when the time was right. I felt that I did that. Since I’ve come back, especially coming back from the injury that I had, I feel that I’ve done some of the best work of my career. It’s probably the most exciting time of my career up to this point.”
Christian also discusses his “peeps,” how he dealt with suffering a torn pectoral muscle last year, the rising stars of SmackDown, and more. The article is available here.
