On the night Edge ended his nine-year retirement at the Royal Rumble he had a memorable interaction with his former Rated-RKO teammate Randy Orton. The two had a brief alliance before The Ultimate Opportunist eliminated the Apex Predator from the match. The next night on RAW Orton interrupted Edge's speech and offered to reunite Rated-RKO.
Predictably, Orton double-crossed Edge and attacked him before leaving the ring. The scene is now set for Edge's first feud of his second WWE stint to be against one of his greatest peers.
Orton and Edge are two of the most successful superstars in WWE history and were the two biggest heels of the mid-to-late 2000s. They even battled for the Intercontinental Championship at Vengeance 2004, which Edge won. A month later, however, Orton defeated Chris Benoit at SummerSlam to become the youngest world champion in WWE history.
2006 would be the year the Rated-R Superstar finally broke out and became a main eventer. He infamously cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on John Cena to win his first WWE Championship, then earned the respect of fans with a brutal hardcore match victory against Mick Foley at WrestleMania 22. By July, Edge had recaptured the WWE title over Rob Van Dam and John Cena on RAW. This lead to Edge's classic feud with Cena in '06, culminating with their epic TLC match at Unforgiven in Toronto. Cena would recapture the title that night, and go on to hold the belt for 380 days.
Two weeks later, D-Generation X cost Edge the chance to win the WWE championship again in a steel cage match with Cena. This prompted the Rated-R Superstar to invite Randy Orton to his talk-show The Cutting Edge proposing an alliance. The Ultimate Opportunist cited Orton's history with Triple H as a reason why he hasn't been a world champion in two years. The two shook hands and Rated-RKO was born.
D-Generation X's second incarnation during the Summer of 2006 had its fair share of gags and comedy, but that was while they were feuding against the McMahons, Big Show and the Spirit Squad. Two decorated Hall of Famers like Triple H and Shawn Michaels needed more legitimate opponents to follow their goofy feuds, and Rated-RKO was a perfect foil.
Their first Pay-Per-View match on Cyber Sunday allowed audiences to vote for the referee. The winner turned out to be Eric Bischoff who was last seen getting dumped into a garbage truck by Mr. McMahon. In the match, Bischoff screwed DX and awarded Rated-RKO a huge victory.
The dastardly heel duo became tag-team champions on the November 13th edition of RAW against the unlikeliest of tag-teams: Ric Flair and Rowdy Roddy Piper. While it obviously wasn't Edge's first tag-team championship, it was the first tag-team title for Orton. The duo followed this up in a classic five-on-five Survivor Series match alongside Mike Knox, Gregory Helms and Johnny Nitro. They pulled off a clean sweep against heavy hitters DX, The Hardyz and CM Punk.
DX and Rated-RKO's feud intensified when the heel team attacked and bloodied Ric Flair on RAW, the idol and friend of both Helmsley and Michaels. This set up a big showdown at New Year's Revolution with the Tag-Team titles on the line. In that match, Triple H tore his quad and thus prematurely end Rated-RKO's feud with DX.
The cracks started to show in Rated-RKO once Triple H was out of the picture and their full attention was on HBK. On the road to WrestleMania 23 both Edge and Orton's egos started to clash with one another. They worked together to make in the final four of that year's Royal Rumble before Michaels' eliminated them both. The next night on RAW John Cena and HBK defeated Rated-RKO to become the tag-team champions. Things kept getting worse the next week in a Triple-Threat match between Edge, Orton and HBK where Michaels would triumph over both again in victory.
At WrestleMania 23, both competed in the Money in the Bank ladder match where Edge was infamously knocked out of the match by a diving leg drop off a ladder by Jeff Hardy. A major theme for the next month on RAW would be Edge and Orton's alliance deteriorating and leading to their ultimate breakup. Both competed against Cena and Michaels for the WWE Championship in what's universally considered the greatest Fatal Four Way match in WWE history at Backlash which Cena won in a dramatic finish.
Their official blow-off match against each other occurred the next night in Nashville, Tennessee. Their match is considered one of the most underrated contests in RAW history, a rare Heel vs. Heel match that worked extremely well with Edge taking the victory. And with that, Rated-RKO was officially done.
Edge and Randy Orton's singles careers would both sky-rocket following their break-up. Edge stole Mr. Kennedy's Money in the Bank briefcase and went to Smackdown to cash in on The Undertaker, becoming World Heavyweight Champion. Orton's three-year wait for another title ended when he captured the WWE championship (twice) at the No Mercy Pay-Per-View. Although an injury forced Edge to vacate his title that summer, he came back with a vengeance and reclaimed the title at Armageddon. Both Orton and Edge would enter WrestleMania XXIV as World Champions and neither looked back.
For a small window, Rated-RKO was a tag-team supergroup that took RAW by storm. It was a launching pad for two budding main event stars that led to both becoming the two biggest Heels in the WWE for the next five years. 13 years since their break-up, Rated-RKO will clash against one another at the beginning of Edge's remarkable comeback.