10 Times Randy Orton Was Actually As Good As WWE Says He Is
1. The Rise And Fall Of Rated RKO
In 2011, Edge announced his retirement from professional wrestling due to the risk of paralysis. In 2020, Edge made his miraculous comeback in the Royal Rumble, nine years after he believed it was all over for him. There was a moment during it where Orton and Edge hinted at their former tag team Rated RKO, delighting fans with the callback.
The night after, the dreams of a reunion were shattered and Orton revealed his true nature, breaking down Edge completely. Over the next few weeks on Raw, Orton would do the best acting of his career, convincing himself that he was breaking Edge apart for his own good, even assaulting Beth Phoenix when she wouldn’t see it his way.
In April 2020, they had their match. Over a decade in a making, in an environment birthed from hell itself, they put everything on the line to destroy each other, a decade of hatred spilling out into one acidic brawl. They’d fight again at Backlash, and they’ll fight again in the future, but here was where the fight was most important.
Orton’s greatness isn’t just in his wrestling, but in his ability to captivate audiences, to invest them into angles that stop them from thinking about booking or backstage drama. His intensity is unlike any other in the main event scene, he makes you care about what happens next, and this feud with Edge is the main argument to his greatness there is.