By James Caldwell, PWTorch.com assistant editor

WWE World Hvt. champion Edge says it takes wrestlers a while to adjust to the physical toll of taking bumps in the ring, but they build up a resistance. It also causes wrestlers to feel the pain when they stop and the resistance slowly fades.

"Hitting the mat makes you foggy at first, it scrambles you, and it takes a while before you're able to get up and continue a match properly after being thrown," Edge told The Guardian in the U.K. "But at some point, your body adapts and you just gets used to it."

Edge, currently age 35, has undergone major surgeries in his wrestling career, including "scary" neck surgery. He says there's no way he'll allow himself to become a Mickey Rourke-type character wrestling well past his expiration date in the ring.

"Will I still be wrestling at 50, like Mickey Rourke's character in The Wrestler?" Edge asked rhetorically. "Noooooo. I'll stop before it gets embarrassing."

Edge says he considered whether to continue his career after his neck surgery in 2004. He was prescribed human growth hormone to help heal the injury, but he was forced to consider whether that was worth it.

"I've torn both pecs and both knees, but those injuries were just annoying," Edge said. "Breaking my neck was the real shock. Having screws put in there makes you think."

Caldwell's Analysis: One of the concerns I believe many wrestlers have about taking time off from being in the ring is losing the "equity" they've built up over time by taking enough bumps and bruises to have amazing resistance. Taking time off has its benefits of healing nagging injuries, which Mr. Kennedy talked about earlier this week, but taking that first major bump after taking time off could be very painful because the resistance has lessened and the body has taken an amazing amount of punishment without proper healing.

Link: Edge profiled in The Guardian. (Thanks to Torch reader Robert Taylor.)

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