WWE: The 10 People Who Have Benefitted the Most from Edge's Retirement

Tomorrow will mark five weeks since Edge shockingly retired from WWE due to injury. In that time, the landscape of the company has dramatically changed. Edge's sudden retirement vacated a world championship and forced an early draft in WWE. In the weeks that have followed, we have seen drastic changes to programming that we have not seen in quite some time. We will never truly know what was supposed to already happen and what was spurned on by Edge's retirement.

There is no question that for every sudden and sad impact on a roster, there has always been a benefit to others as the show continues on. For instance, Eddie Guerrero's shocking death led to Chavo Guerrero's push and Rey Mysterio's world championship reign.

Here are ten of the men who have been helped out in a way by Edge ending his career.

No. 10: Alberto Del Rio

Edge did a lot for Alberto Del Rio's push in the last weeks and months of his career. Del Rio was supposed to face Edge in a ladder match at Extreme Rules and some believe that it was Del Rio's time. Instead, Edge retired and Christian replaced him, with Christian winning the match. I look at this situation similar to how Chris Benoit's death let Johnny Nitro win the ECW Championship over CM Punk and evolve into John Morrison.

Del Rio will be a world champion soon, which is why a lot people were angry with Del Rio being drafted to RAW. All of the progress that Del Rio had made on SmackDown now seems null and void with the likes of John Cena and The Miz on RAW. However, going to RAW does a lot for Del Rio. Del Rio still garners the heat from being the guy who "took Edge out," even if that isn't entirely true.

Putting him on a live show on Monday nights gives him the added exposure that he needs. Also, without Edge, Del Rio can now move onto other top faces to battle with. We have heard murmurs of a Del Rio/Cena match for SummerSlam. Whether this is true or not, there are big plans for Del Rio on RAW—otherwise he would have never gone anywhere.

No. 9: Zack Ryder

The Long Island Iced Z has had a huge Internet following that has been building up for months. Regardless of what happened to Edge, it would not have changed much for Ryder. However, Edge was aligned with Ryder and Curt Hawkins during the time of La Familia. Even if it is a farewell tour, Ryder has won matches on consecutive weeks on Superstars and appears on RAW more often than he had in previous months.

He may not be vaulted into main event status, but Ryder seems to be cashing in some favors from his former faction leader. Let's face it: Ryder would still be one of the Major Brothers if they had not been repackaged as the Edgeheads for Edge's sake. Now that Edge is gone, a lot of his friends are being patted on the back. Ryder is no exception.

No. 8: R-Truth

It may be true that R-Truth was going to be turning heel anyway, but that's not what I am talking about here. I don't believe that he was very close to Edge either, but that's not what I am talking about either. The point in this choice is that Truth has been given the spot toward the main event and his heel turn has helped to verify that. Regardless of an injury to John Morrison, R-Truth needed to be able to feud with other faces in order to test the theory of R-Truth as a heel.

Enter Rey Mysterio, who moves to RAW during the trade. We can all recall how much of a mistake that move was at first, but it is already paying better dividends this time around. With Morrison now injured, Truth moved on to Rey to further a feud. Mysterio can establish Truth as a heel, just like Rey has done with so many others before. Edge's retirement brought a formidable face for R-Truth to work with in Rey Mysterio.

No. 7: Curt Hawkins

I touched on Hawkins earlier in terms of how he was linked to Edge. With that being said, it was anybody's guess that Curt Hawkins was a SmackDown superstar prior to the draft. He was moved to RAW and one of the storylines from the draft that I spoke on was about reuniting Hawkins and Ryder. This was made into a reality when Hawkins made himself known during Ryder's match on Superstars against Vladimir Kozlov.

It may not be an earth-shattering move that will change the WWE's entire landscape, but it certainly is the best chance for both men—especially Hawkins—to avoid the forthcoming cuts. They still may not make it through, but Hawkins can at least go out with his friend, Zack Ryder.

No. 6: Mark Henry

I had forgotten how much I love a heel from Mark Henry. Outside of The Nation of Domination, the only real profound highlights that I recall from a heel Mark Henry was being thrown into a WrestleMania match with The Undertaker. SmackDown brought Mark Henry over via the draft in a move that not many of us believed to be much at first. As the night wore on, we saw Henry attack both John Cena and Christian, establishing himself as a bad man once more.

Henry just seems to be happier and smile more when he is bad, which is a little odd. Even still, I have to say that any doubts for why Mark Henry is still in WWE are now silenced with his behavior since going to SmackDown. I would love to see Mark Henry challenge for the World Heavyweight Championship and I might even root for him to win it. If you had suggested the same thing to me months ago, I would laugh at you...and probably kick you in the knee.

No. 5: Kofi Kingston

I'm not quite sure what to make of Kofi Kingston anymore. I know that some of his best days happened on RAW, where he was drafted to. He was also in the middle of a funky losing streak and tied down into proceedings with The Corre. This wouldn't have been bad if it wasn't for the fact that The Corre was beating Kofi, as well as each other.

Back on Monday nights, Kofi became United States Champion at Extreme Rules and now will be on top of the mid-card once more. A change needs to come with Kofi's actual gimmick for him to grow even further, but at least Kofi has been given the boost back to the gold and is back on the show that made him a name in this company.

No. 4: Sheamus

Sheamus was also in need of a change of scenery. The Celtic Warrior had held the WWE Championship on two separate occasions, but was constantly in limbo with his actual place on RAW. Did he own the mid-card as United States Champion? Were they really trying to say that being a King of the Ring was a curse?

Now on SmackDown, even without his United States Championship, Sheamus is one of the top heels on SmackDown. Even when he was in the main events on RAW, there was some uncertainty of his actual place on the brand. At least on the new show, they can make Sheamus a monster again and put him on the other brand. Sheamus now sits alongside of newly-turned heels like Mark Henry and the inevitable turn of The Great Khali as top contenders against Randy Orton's World Heavyweight Championship.

No. 3: Chavo Guerrero

Chavo Guerrero had fallen on hard times. He might as well have been a road agent for the things he was being used for. While he would have occasional dark matches, Chavo would mostly be around for the purpose of wheeling around Vickie Guerrero's wheelchair or dressing up like Jack Swagger's eagle mascot.

Even before Edge retired, Chavo was put onto NXT Redemption as a pro for Darren Young. Once Edge retired, it was a chance to see Chavo back on SmackDown once again. When Sin Cara came over to SmackDown, it was mainly to not let the international star get lost in the shuffle of RAW and give him talent that could make him look good. Chavo Guerrero is on the top of that list of talent. A match between Sin Cara and Chavo has already been teased, and should there be a Cruiserweight Championship in WWE again, this matchup would be good enough for the division to have great pay-per-view quality matches.

No. 2: Christian

Obviously, Christian has benefited from Edge's retirement. We can never truly know if Christian would have ever been a world champion in a world where Edge was still around. Regardless, the history books will always say that Christian was a world champion in WWE after he took Edge's spot in a ladder match and took his title as well.

The reign would only last five days and Christian's ability to draw money has come into question. Even still, Christian has gone to a place that he may have never gotten to if not for his childhood friend hanging up his boots. It may also take his character going forward to a place that it would never have climbed to.

No. 1: Randy Orton

Without Edge, his former tag team partner, Randy Orton now owns SmackDown. Orton will rule Friday nights like nobody else ever has. Never has there been one man to completely dominate on SmackDown in the way that Orton has the potential to.

There was basically an entire draft simply to move Orton over to SmackDown and replace Edge at the top of the brand. Orton then wasted little time in grabbing the World Heavyweight Championship. It will be very difficult to believe that anyone will take the championship from The Viper. It is even more unbelievable that anyone would be able to stand atop the brand other than Randy Orton.