To the surprise of no one, “The Rated-R Superstar” has a great deal of respect for “The Heartbreak Kid.”

During a recent episode of his podcast with Christian, E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness, WWE Hall Of Famer Adam “Edge” Copeland reflected back on how much of an impact working with fellow WWE Hall Of Famer Shawn Michaels had on his early days as a singles Superstar in WWE.

As Edge explained, his interaction with HBK began at the WWE Taboo Tuesday pay-per-view when he first turned heel in 2004, costing Michaels a shot at Triple H’s World Heavyweight Championship at the time. From there, Edge would go into his first formal program with Michaels that culminated with an excellent match at the WWE Royal Rumble 2005 pay-per-view.

“I think that was coming off of the Cyber Sunday or Taboo Tuesday, or whatever that pay per view was where fans voted on who would face Triple H in the world title match,” said Edge, when addressing the origins of his feud with HBK. “I think that is where the whole angle started. That was when I was first starting to turn heel and was purely focused on that world title. Everything for the character, and Shawn Michaels was the first guy that I worked against with the incarnation of the character. I think we worked a Royal Rumble opener and had a lot of fun and then we had a Street Fight on Raw–I want to say it was in Rhode Island.”

Edge continued, “I obviously always enjoyed working against Shawn. We had a lot of house show matches throughout the years that were kind of thrown together. I remember one in Laredo, Texas, which is a hot arena, about a 8-10,000 seat arena, and I remember we just went out there and put out 35 minutes and had a lot of fun by going out there and having Shawn Michaels and I just wing it. It was always a lot of fun.”

According to Edge, for all he knows, his program with Michaels was one where WWE challenged the legendary in-ring performer to get over an emerging singles Superstar.

“I don’t know how much creative was put together with our angle with the exception of me being an angry guy pursuing the title, who felt he should be world champion, and I think that Shawn was given the challenge from creative to get this kid over, because if it doesn’t happen with you then it’s probably not going to happen,” said Edge. “Now I know that it was the challenge that he was given if this could work or not, so I guess he helped me prove that I could so thank you Shawn Michaels!”

Check out the complete episode of E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness where Edge discusses his WWE history with Shawn Michaels at Art19.com. H/T to Doric Sam and WrestlingInc.com for transcribing the above Edge quotes.