Edge was a student of former wrestlers Ron Hutchinson and Sweet Daddy Siki, both of the Hart family. During the 1990s he wrestled on the North American independent circuit, teaming up with Christian, his brother according to the storyline.

In 1996 he signed a developmental contract with the World Wrestling Federation and debuted in June, remaining there continuously until retiring in April 2011 due to spinal stenosis. He returned to active competition, nine years later, at the 2020 Royal Rumble pay-per-view.

He is one of the most titled wrestlers of all time, having won a total of thirty-one titles. Edge was an eleven-time world champion, fourteen-time tag team champion, five-time Intercontinental champion and one-time United States champion, making him the twelfth wrestler to complete the Grand Slam.

He also won the 2001 King of the Ring tournament, the Money in the Bank, and the Royal Rumble making him the only wrestler in the history of the federation to achieve such feats. In 2012, a year after his retirement, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Christian.

In August 2007 he was suspended for thirty days by WWE: the wrestler was reported as a customer of Signature Pharmacy, a company under investigation for selling medicines and performance-enhancing substances without regular prescription. Since, at the time of suspension, he was injured, he was fined a sum equal to thirty days' salary.

He admitted that he had already used steroids during an interview granted to a US television program dating back to January 2005: on this occasion, he claimed that the assumption of the hormones took place following a delicate fusion operation of some neck vertebrae and that, immediately after the period in which he had to take them, he stopped using them as he experienced a marked reduction in agility.