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Edge’s return to WWE went from idyllic to catastrophic in 24 hours thanks to Randy Orton. But a chance for retribution will come when they go one-on-one on The Grandest Stage of Them All in what figures to be a barbaric Last Man Standing Match.
The Royal Rumble played host to a storybook comeback for Edge, who shocked the world when he entered 21st in the eponymous match. Receiving a raucous reception, the WWE Hall of Famer racked up three eliminations and lasted nearly 24 minutes before being the second-to-last man eliminated in his first competition in nine years after retiring due to a neck injury.
Glowing in the palpable electricity from the crowd the next night on Raw, The Ultimate Opportunist declared he was back to end his career on his own terms. He was met by Orton — whom he eliminated from the Rumble — and The Viper proposed a possible reunion of their Tag Team Championship-winning duo known as Rated-RKO.
But Orton suddenly dropped him with a vicious RKO, following through with a steel chair Con-Chair-To that was especially heinous even by Orton’s standards, and left everyone in attendance disgusted and shocked.
When Edge’s wife, fellow Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix, provided a medical update the next month on Raw, she too was interrupted by Orton. The Viper finally explained his vicious attack, insisting that he was merely saving his former tag team partner from further injury and deriding Phoenix as an “enabler.”
Responding with a slap when Orton maintained that he loved Edge more than she ever could, Phoenix too received an RKO.
The Apex Predator finally received a dose of his own medicine when he was taken out with an RKO by an incensed Edge the next week. Orton escaped further damage, but not before The Rated-R Superstar sent him a message by channeling his rage into a steel chair-assisted RKO and two Con-Chair-Tos to MVP — and he later followed that by extending his challenge with a Last Man Standing stipulation, which Orton accepted on the March 23 edition of Raw.
Edge’s first singles bout since 2011 comes under circumstances that are beyond personal, but will Orton prove that it was a mistake all along?
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