Hawkins & Ryder On The Origin Of the Edgehead Gimmick, What Show it Was Based On, Having to Pitch it to Edge

Bryan Myers and Matt Cordona, the former Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder, spoke with Chris Jericho on his podcast and discussed the origin of their Edgeheads gimmick. The two initially came into WWE as the Major Brothers in early 2007, but they didn’t make a mark until the end of the year when they helped Edge in his triple threat match against Batista and Undertaker at Armageddon. After that they were dubbed the “Edgeheads” as devotees to Edge and a run with the WWE Tag Team Championships.

Talking with Jericho, Myers and Cordona discussed where the gimmick came about and how it was based off HBO’s Entourage, as well has having to pitch it to Edge himself. Highlights and the full podcast are below:

Hawkins on if the idea of the Edgeheads was Edge’s: “No so, it’s actually — he didn’t at all. And we barely knew him at this point. So like I said, we kind of got set up almost for failure looking back on it. Like, there was supposed to be some kind of division on ECW of tag teams that never happened, and we were just green babyface tag team doing nothing. Back then in developmental, there would be these days where the writers would come down and you kind of have to put on a fake performance for them. You have these matches and the crowd is them of 10 just watching you, you know, you do a full entrance, a promo. Same with your opponents, and then you have a six-minute match or whatever. So we were at TV, like I said, we were full-time OVW and live TVs and live events. And we see Michael Hayes, and we’re like, ‘Hey, you guys are coming this week, but like we’re already on the road here. What should we do?’ He was like, ‘Well, show me something different, okay?’ And we were just like — we kind of took that as, ‘Alright, f**k you.’ And we conjured up this thing.”

Myers on where the idea came from: “We were watching a lot of Entourage at the time. So we kind of stole it from Entourage, where we wanted to be — since we looked like him anyway and we truly admired him and marked out for him anyway — we were like, ‘What if we were Edge’s entourage and we were like his, you know, his lackeys and blah blah blah?’

“So we raided the merch drawer of all the Edge stuff. And that week we came out to the music, cut the promo. And I think, unexpected to everybody, of all those writers that came in, that really got all the wheels spinning. And then back to friggin’ Michael Hayes, so he was like, impressed with it all. And he’s like, ‘Well, you can’t just be with Edge, I need like a storyline or something.’ So then we had to like, we were like, ‘Okay.’ And then we just had to sit back and conjure up this plan of how we can be with Edge.”

Ryder on how the storyline came about: “There was a PPV coming up where Edge would be in a triple threat match against Batista and Undertaker for the title. And then we had this idea like, ‘Well, what if we’re like under the ring and one of us comes up as Edge and like, Batista takes one out. Then another one comes up, and Taker takes him out thinking its Edge, and then Edge finally reveals himself and wins.

Hawkins on pitching the idea to Edge: “We literally know him in a hello and goodbye kind of relationship right now. Maybe a conversation once or twice. I mean, that is it. And I literally went up to him and said, ‘Hi, sir, Mr. Copeland. My partner and I have this idea, would you mind if I–‘ and he gave me his email. And I wrote like a very concise email. And luckily, the graces of the wrestling gods, he actually read it which I can’t believe, and liked it enough to talk to Michael. And I remember before we did the real — I don’t even know if Matt remembers this. The real deciding factor was if we really looked like him. So he brought a bunch of extra gear, and we kind of like hid in an office at a TV [taping] and tried it all on. And we were waiting for Michael to come and see it and I remember Funaki saw us by accident. And he goes, ‘Ohhhh, you guys!’ And I was like, ‘Okay, I think we’re good if Funaki digs it, or he’s believing it.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Talk is Jericho with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.