"From Composition to Corner Post" - Wrestling A Calling for Charistmatic Star

By Dave Stubbs


It was the most important composition Adam Copeland would write, an essay titled Why I Want To Be A Pro Wrestler and it set him on the road to stardom a decade ago.


Copeland, a native of Orangeville, Ont., entered a newspaper contest co-sponsered by Ron Hutchison, a renowned wrestling instructor at Sully's Gym in Toronto.


In 1990, he had sat in the SkyDome transfixed by Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania VI. The 16-year-old Copelan heard his calling, and entered the fateful contest.


It came down to two candidates, Copeland and a young woman from London, Ont. But when she failed to show for the interview, Copeland won training worth $6000 and set off on the road toward a lucrative career as Edge, a fan favourite with World Wrestling Entertainment.


Hutchison and the legendary Sweet Daddy Siki lobbed Copeland's scrawny 6-foot-4 frame from pillar to ring post. But the lessons were learned well, and Copeland did his graduate studies on the small town independent circuit, which he remembers for his diet of canned tuna and a show in a Tennessee barn for a crowd of six.


He bulked up and worked the road with childhood friend, college roommate and fellow Sully's alumnus Jason Reso, first hitting the WWE ring solo in the spring of 1998 as a brooding dark spirit.


Reso soon joined the WWE with the moniker Christian, and before long they were paired, cast as brothers. For a time they were a monstrously popular tag-team until a show in Toronto 15 months ago, when Christian turned heel, none too subtly, and dulled Edge with a steel chair.


Until they work out their fraternal differences, or the WWE writers rewrite the angle, they work apart, Edge on RAW and Christian on the Smackdown! squad.


Today, Copeland is a charismatic star who's paid his dues, a man whose star is clearly on the rise.


And how many young fans are writing essays about him now?