Don’t pretend to think you know Edge. You didn’t grow up with the Rated-R Superstar and his single-parent mother in some cramped apartment in Orangeville (a tiny Ontario town that Edge recalls offered residents two choices: “work in a factory in town, or if you’re really lucky, land a job in Toronto”). You likely identified with his classmates at Princess Elizabeth Public School, carrying a hockey stick and aspiring to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Edge, meanwhile, dreamed of rocking out on a Les Paul guitar and following in the platformed footsteps of KISS. (He didn’t, but it hasn’t stopped him from amassing an impressive collection of signed, custom-made guitars over the years.)

If you really knew Edge, you would have noticed the “black cloud” that hung over the eight-year-old boy after a car accident claimed the life of his most-admired uncle. You would have also seen that cloud give way to the yellow and red-clad form of Hulk Hogan, whose mantra of saying prayers and taking vitamins spoke directly to Edge from the TV. Perhaps then you would have sat eleventh-row ringside with him in Toronto’s SkyDome; it was there he watched Hogan face Ultimate Warrior in the “Ultimate Challenge” at WrestleMania VI, and vowed he would also headline a WrestleMania someday.

Edge’s pals in high school knew he was destined for greatness, even writing in his yearbook “Most Likely to Win the WWE World Championship.” Yet they couldn’t predict he’d receive free wrestling training after winning an essay contest in the Toronto Star. Only his trainers, Sweet Daddy Siki and Ron Hutchison, and those training with him in Sully’s Gym, could truly appreciate juggling multiple odd-jobs while wrestling on the independent circuit. But unless they were riding shotgun, they couldn’t begin to comprehend Edge’s “winter death tours” across frozen north Canadian lakes, or eating only canned tuna for days at a stretch, simply to wrestle in poorly attended venues.

Much due-paying and a recommendation from fellow Canadian Bret “Hit Man” Hart ultimately helped Edge make his WWE debut in June 1998, though few believed he would last. So he made his opponents believe, even if it meant taking chairs to the head, falling off ladders and crashing through tables. He’s suffered a torn ACL, ruptured labra, a broken neck, a fractured skull, metal rods in his teeth and countless stitches over the years, but not without giving as good as he’s received. Ask any man-or woman-who has gone toe-to-toe with him; they’ll tell you why he’s called the Rated-R Superstar.

After his wife, Vickie Guerrero, made the move from SmackDown General Manager to Raw GM, things began to crumble for The Rated-R Superstar. At Extreme Rules, he lost his World Heavyweight Championship to Jeff Hardy. (Moments later, CM Punk cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to take the title from Hardy.)

Then, live on Raw, Edge shocked the WWE Universe by asking Vickie for a divorce. Now, with The Ultimate Opportunist distanced from all those around him, he begins his quest for gold again all alone.

Soon after capturing the Unified Tag Team Championship with Chris Jericho, Edge was sidelined with a devastating Achilles tendon injury.

The Rated-R Superstar burst back onto the scene months later, winning the 2010 Royal Rumble to challenge World Heavyweight Champion Jericho at WrestleMania XXVI.

Edge regained possession of the World Heavyweight Championship. However, eight days after he successfully defended his World Title against Alberto Del Rio in epic fashion at WrestleMania XXVII, The Rated-R Superstar shocked the WWE Universe by announcing that he must retire due to injury. The 11-time World Champion – who held more titles than anyone else in WWE – walked away from the squared circle at the top of the mountain.

You think you know Edge? Think again.