Four friends were traveling in the Canadian backwoods of Manitoba. The clock was approaching 4 a.m. and the temperature was approaching 50 below. The four men - struggling rookie wrestlers who liked to call themselves "Thug Life" - were used to cross-country adventures in the dead of winter. Destination: small arenas the size of shacks for just enough money to buy dinner the size of a pop tart.
But this was no ordinary trip. Their van hit a soft spot on a lake and fell through the ice. There were no telephones for miles, and they were in a desolate area through which traffic passed almost as infrequently as summer weather graces Canada in January.
"We eventually pulled together," said Jason Reso, one of the men in the van. "It took us an hour, but we eventually rocked the van out of there. I actually fell though the ice up to my waist. As soon as I fell though, I pulled myself out; my clothes basically froze to my body." Luckily, another van arrived, where the nearly frostbitten Reso took shelter. "I had to take my socks and my pants off and sit in the warm van."
"Looking back now, it's funny," said Adam Copeland, also a passenger on the van. "But when your van falls through ice as you're driving across the lake and you see this 300-pound guy just completely go nuts, then Jason falls through the ice ... and the guy's crying and praying. I won't mention his name -- but it was Rhino (now with Extreme Championship Wrestling). Just things like that you look back on."
Today, Adam Copeland and Jason Reso are Edge and Christian, a dynamic tag team in the ring and a revolutionary force in character. Their story is one Edge and Christian would prefer to tell while playing their "You Think You Know Me?" entrance theme on a kazoo, but it's a real-life tale as honest as frostbite. Like most young wrestlers in the beginning, the careers of both Copeland and Reso - best friends since grade school - seemed trapped under ice. Reso had to spend his student loan money to attend a wrestling school. Copeland once competed before six people in a barn in Tennessee. While touring Canada and parts of the United States, the friends had barely enough money for rent and one meal a day. And even when the two made the Federation roster, while Copeland was initially targeted as a future singles superstar, Reso felt stuck in a virtual no man's land. "I was looked at by fans as 'Edge and his sidekick, Christian,'" Reso said.
Since they were provided their first real opportunity to speak after about two years as mysterious gothic warriors with the faction known as the Brood, Edge and Christian have blossomed into two charismatic gag-me-with-a-spoon sports entertainers. They have driven other Federation superstars insane with Christian's kazoo.
They've mocked Elvis, degraded host cities' pro sports franchises, and alienated both the fans and the towns they live in before unveiling their infamous five-second pose - "for those with the benefit of flash photography."
"They were definitely late in their opportunity to speak," said David "Gangrel" Heath, who teamed with Reso and Copeland to form the Brood. "Jay always walked around blowing his chest up like he's five sizes bigger than he is. Adam was quick-witted, but not a wiseguy, and pretty humble. Jay spoke more than he should have spoke!"
The act represents a hybrid of the 1970s (Edge and Christian's huge Elton John-like sunglasses), '80s (the totally radical and awesome expressions that range from coolocity to heinosity to sucktatude) and '90s (the "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures" personas) with a 2000 twist. It's a motley mix that clicked instantly.
Federation Commissioner Mick Foley points to his first night as the commish, when he honored Edge and Christian's request for their own dressing room until surprising them with a mandatory match against the Undertaker and Kane. "From that first vignette, everything clicked," Foley said.
"Ever see that Warner Bros. cartoon when Wile E. Coyote and that dog punched into work to guard sheep?" inquired Foley. "The dog spent the whole day foiling the coyote's attempts at stealing the sheep. By 5 p.m., with the dog about to tear into the coyote, the whistle blew and the two punched out.
The coyote said, 'So long Sam.' The dog, 'So long Ralph.' That's me and Edge and Christian. It's all in a day's work until we punch out for the day."
"We're having a lot of fun with it, to get out there and have the people in the palm of your hands reacting either negatively or positively to what you're saying," Copeland said. "I consider us a 2000 version of Bill and Ted with a little bit of Alicia Silverstone from 'Clueless' thrown in."
Clueless is hardly the case in the ring, where their success has, well, reeked of awesomeness. Edge and Christian are three-time World Wrestling Federation Tag Team Champions, a feat accomplished by a handful of tag teams and two shy of the record held by the New Age Outlaws. The duo has participated in many memorable matches: WrestleMania's Triangle Ladder Match, SummerSlam's Tables, Ladders and Chairs Match, and arguably RAW's Match of the Year when they battled Matt and Jeff Hardy one night after September's Unforgiven. "They definitely have the chemistry and the talent," Heath said of Edge and Christian. "They grew up together, have known each other their whole lives and they're crazy enough to climb them ladders!"
The close bond between Copeland and Reso adds to their characters - when Christian made his debut, he was billed as Edge's brother -- because one knows what the other is thinking without having to say it. They can tell when the other is hurt, off his game or in a bad mood.
Like brothers they sometimes quarrel, unafraid to tell the other one off if necessary. And, like brothers, they're close enough to share silence comfortably during a three-hour drive. "We already know everything about each other, so there's not much else to know," Copeland said. "It's almost like a marriage in certain respects."
Both in the ring and in life the two friends have always complemented each other. "If one guy does something," adds Reso, "the other will play off that. We use that to our advantage."
There was never a question if Copeland and Reso could wrestle. The big question was if they could talk. Copeland traces the evolution of Edge and Christian to the week before WrestleMania, when they were finally given the opportunity to do guest commentary after nearly two years of silence. "I think maybe they realized, 'Wow! We've been shutting these guys up for two years. They have a lot to say!" Copeland said. "That's the way it felt. It felt like we had a lot to get off our chest and show that we could step up to the plate not only when it comes to wrestling but when it comes to being able to vocalize. It was at that point that they decided to run with it and maybe do a little transition from babyface to heel."
Shortly after winning their first Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania, the transition was complete.
A week before April's Backlash Pay-Per-View, Edge and Christian joined Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler at the announce table, and boasted that they would do a "run-in" (a wrestling expression) and cost the Road Dogg his Intercontinental Title Match against Chris Benoit.
"We wanted to express ourselves," Reso said. "We wanted to talk and have that kind of character who could speak and have people react. People always knew we could wrestle, but this gives them something else to care about. It makes each character go deeper. I think we reinvented ourselves and made our characters fresh again, just by doing that one (pre-WrestleMania) segment where we spoke. What we're doing now -- having fun and entertaining -- this is more me. "I'm my own identity that can stand on my own feet.
"I think it just shows you can tell when something catches on. I think that's why our personalities click so well and why we've been friends for so long, because we've got similar personalities."
The friendship goes back as far as grade school and growing up in tiny Orangeville, Ontario, Canada, roughly an hour north of Toronto. It extended through high school, when Copeland won an essay contest offered by the Toronto Sun. His piece, "Why I want to be a wrestler," earned him a scholarship at Sully's Gym, a famed wrestling school in Toronto that also trained current Federation Superstars Trish Stratus and Tiger Ali Singh.
For the two years that Copeland enjoyed his free lessons and developed his craft, Reso never had the money to afford it, and instead worked a part-time job while attending school. "Finally, when I went to college, I got a student loan, and I used the money from my student loan to pay for my wrestling training," said Reso. The two attended the same wrestling school, same college and lived in the same house before embarking on their wrestling careers.
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