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What's the story?
11-time world champion and WWE Hall of Famer Edge has singled out former Intercontinental Champion Luke Harper for praise on the modern day main roster.
"The Rated R Superstar" went so far as to say that Harper is the type of guy who should have faced The Undertaker at WrestleMania.
In case you didn't know...
Edge is one of the modern day icons of professional wrestling. Having made his WWE debut way back in 1998, he went on to win everything there was to win in the company.
Edge won 11 world championships (seven World Heavyweight, four WWE) along with five Intercontinental Championships, 14 tag championships (a company record) and more, including the Royal Rumble, King of the Ring and Money in the Bank briefcase.
Luke Harper has not experienced the kind of success that the now-retired Edge did, and is often referred to as the most underutilised talent in the entire company. Harper made his main roster debut alongside the Wyatt Family in 2013, and has since won Intercontinental and SmackDown Tag Team gold.
The heart of the matter
Edge's comments on Luke Harper came recently on an episode of the E&C Pod of Awesomeness, Edge's podcast with his old friend Christian. SmackDown Live General Manager Daniel Bryan was the duo's guest, and The Ultimate Opportunist was quick to sing the praises of Harper.
"I am such a huge Harper fan, I think he is so under-utilised... I think he could do so much, when I first saw him I was like, there's a guy who works 'Taker at 'Mania"
High praise indeed. Edge went further, complimenting Harper's presentation of his character alongside his in-ring ability, singling out his ladder match with Dolph Ziggler in 2014 as perfect proof of his abilities.
"...they would see that dude and say 'oh yeah, he's off, and believe what he is presenting but then he wrestles like that (the ladder match with Dolph Ziggler) and you're like, what the hell happened?!"
What's next?
It remains to be seen whether this ringing endorsement helps Luke Harper or not, as the man is practically missing in action in SmackDown as 2017 rumbles on.
Just a few short months ago it seemed as though Harper was going to be thrust into a WWE Championship triple threat at WrestleMania -- now he is teaming with Sin Cara on house shows.
Author's take
I side with the masses who believe that Luke Harper is far and away the most underutilised performer in all of WWE. It seems as though the creative team has no idea what to do with Harper, but that must surely be the fault of the creative team, not the performer.
It is easy to try and imagine what Harper could do in NJPW, but instead, the likelihood is the wrestling world will be repeating these things in 12 months time.
