E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness – Beth Phoenix’s Return to the Ring, Christian’s “The Lock” Gimmick, What They Did With Their First WWE Pay Check, More!

Edge opens today’s show by congratulating Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake on his WWE Hall of Fame induction. He notes that a lot of fans have been complaining online that Christian should have been inducted instead, but he doesn’t think it’s fair to criticize Brutus for that. He says that anyone who gets inducted worked hard, and Christian will certainly be inducted at some point.

Christian says not being inducted really doesn’t bother him and he doesn’t lose any sleep over it. He jokes that there are new inductees every year and eventually they’re going to run out of people so he’ll get in then.

Edge congratulates his wife, Beth Phoenix, on her first match in 7 years which took place on RAW this week. He thought having a match on RAW before WrestleMania was probably a good thing for her as it allowed her to shake off some rust and it introduced her to a new generation of fans. He says he never got nervous before any of his matches but he had butterflies in his stomach leading up to Beth’s match on Monday.

By coincidence Beth arrives home during the recording of this podcast and jumps into the conversation. She says her return to the ring was a lot of fun. She certainly felt some rust at first but she had been working with Natalya leading up to this so that helped prepare her for her return. It was fun for her to get in the ring with new talents and show some of the more physical aspects of her game.

She had a lot of fun working with The IIconics. She’s been disappointed with how little they’ve been used on Smackdown recently. She points out that they are great characters and they did a lot for her on Monday and she really appreciated that.

Beth says she didn’t really think an in-ring return was in the cards for her when she returned to do some commentary last year. During the build to Evolution, Natalya and her pitched an idea for a female Hart Foundation team but the timing wasn’t right. All the stars aligned this time and she’s looking forward to Sunday.

She says Natalya really stuck her head out for her creatively so she didn’t want to let her down. When she found out about her in-ring return she went to the Performance Centre and started training, just to make sure she could still perform the way she wanted in the ring.

She didn’t expect to have a match on RAW leading up to WrestleMania, and only found out a bout it a day or two before. She was a bit apprehensive about it at first, and didn’t even have any new gear ready. There was a lot of stuff running through her head but she accepted it and embraced the opportunity.

She says she loves the mentality backstage right now, and the atmosphere in the Women’s locker room. It’s a very fun, positive environment.

Edge and Christian decide to do a Q&A segment.

The first listener writes into the show and asks them to pick 5 talents right now to build a new promotion around. Edge says he’d take The Usos and The Revival for tag teams, Drew McIntyre as a strong heel, and Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey and Charlotte in the women’s division. Christian agrees with all those picks but would like to have either A.J. Styles, Seth Rollins, or Kenny Omega as well.

The next listener asks them to describe the weirdest angle that was pitched to them that didn’t happen. Christian says for a while he was being pitched an idea of a character called “The Lock” which would be an impersonation of The Rock and was a “lock” to win every match. He’s thankful that didn’t happen.

Another listener asks Christian to name his favourite entrance music. Christian says the “Christian! Christian! At last you’re on your own” theme is probably his favourite. He hated that music at first and it made his skin crawl but then he realized he was a heel and he knew it would be perfect. It’s a memorable theme and people still sing it to him to this day.

The next listener asks them to name their dream opponent for a fantasy comeback match. Christian says he’d love to face A.J. Styles. Edge says he’d love to have four more matches at each of the big 4 PPVs, one with Rollins, Reigns, Styles, and Aleister Black.

A listener writes in and asks them who they think has the potential to be a big main roster star from NXT right now. Christian points out that Adam Cole is a great speaker and that will help him considerably on the main roster. Edge notes that Velveteen Dream has ridiculous upside, but he thinks the future is bright for a lot of those guys and girls if they’re given a chance to succeed on the main roster.

Another listener writes into the show and asks them if Edge had to clear his famous spear off the ladder to Jeff Hardy with anyone backstage before executing the move. Edge says he doesn’t really recall having to clear anything for those TLC matches back in the day. Their mandate was to create something special, but to keep it safe.

He jokes that maybe the things they did during those matches made WWE realize that they needed to become more involved moving forward with how the matches were being laid out.

Another listener asks them what they did with their first WWE paycheque. Edge says he simply put his in the bank. Christian says he was dealing with a collection agency at the time because he owed money on a student loan. He called the agency, gave them a piece of his mind, and paid off the loan in full.

That sums up today’s episode of E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!