Forgotten Favorites 04.23.09: Raw 2007 - Edge vs. Randy Orton

Posted by Jim Grimm on 04.23.2009

Former World Tag Team Champions collided on Raw the night after Backlash '07. Witness the self-destruction of Rated RKO.

Welcome back, wrestling fans. My apologies for disappearing on everybody last week, but I have made my triumphant return and look forward to continuing dropping more wrestling knowledge on the world.

If anyone's forgotten, here's my reason for living:

The evil master of wrestling history, who rules from his titanic towers of evil, takes great joy in robbing his followers of cherished memories. He has even gone so far as to wave his billion-dollar wand on more than one occasion in an attempt to completely erase particular pockets of time. Well, we, the people, have refused to stand for such injustices, and as a result, I have been called upon to right the wrongs of time.

This week I'm going to bend the rules a little bit. But since I'm the one who makes the rules, I guess I'm allowed to bend them from time to time. Usually I focus on a match that has not been featured on any WWE-produced career retrospectives. However, this week we've got a match that I just can't pass up. I think it still fits the requirement for a Forgotten Favorite as far as WWE's recognition of it goes (as well as how the match might have benefited from PPV billing), so I don't feel completely out of line by choosing this match.

But enough of the small talk. Let's get to some great wrestling.


Raw - April 30, 2007
Edge vs. Randy Orton

HOW IT WENT DOWN

There was an irritating and embarrassing cold sore on the face of Monday Night Raw throughout 2006. It was called D-Generation X.

Not long after WrestleMania 22, Triple H and life partner Shawn Michaels joined forces once more under the green and black banner of D-Generation X. Their goal was simple: make Vince McMahon's life miserable and ruin five young careers before they even started. After a summer of PG-rated dick jokes (which I'm sure would've delighted me had I been 12) and Spirit Squad burials, it seemed DX couldn't possibly do any more wrong.

Then there was October 2, 2006. Not long after HHH suggested Chris Masters title his book on nutrition, "How to Lose 50 Pounds in 4 Months," he and HBK interfered in Raw's Steel Cage main event, costing Edge his shot at John Cena's WWE Title. Just like a Taz Facebook post, DX had finally crossed the line.

The following week on Raw, Edge used the Cutting Edge as a platform to extend an invitation to Randy Orton. Knowing what kind of history Orton had with both HHH and HBK, Edge proposed that he and Orton unite to take a stand against the Burial Machine, a proposition that Orton was clearly interested in. It was on this night that Rated RKO was born.

And so the path of destruction began. Side by side, Edge and Randy Orton became the top dogs on Raw. They defeated DX at Cyber Sunday (with a little help from Special Referee Eric Bischoff), and a week later they won the World Tag Team Titles from Ric Flair and Roddy Piper. They clashed with DX again in a traditional Survivor Series match (not Edge or Orton's finest hour), and again at New Year's Revolution in a No DQ tag (not any of the four men's finest hour). This NYR match was the one that threw a wrench into the (assumed) WrestleMania plans of the time, where HHH was injured and thus forced out of his (assumed) main event slot against John Cena.

With HHH on the shelf, the common enemy of D-Generation X had been defeated. Edge and Orton remained allies, but with the Road To WrestleMania getting underway, each man was getting antsy for a shot at the main event at the Granddaddy of Them All. The strongest tag teams and friendships have been split apart by the WWE Championship, and Rated RKO wasn't going to be an exception. Orton and Edge were able to make it to the final four survivors of the Royal Rumble match, but miscommunication resulted in both of their eliminations. The miscommunication continued on Raw the next night when Orton and Edge lost their World Tag Titles to John Cena and Shawn Michaels. The following week Shawn Michaels defeated Orton and Edge in a Triple Threat to decide the number one contender for Mania. By this point, things were not going well within Rated RKO.

With the possibility of a WM main event out of the picture, Edge and Orton were satisfied to explore another route to a title shot in the form of the Money In The Bank Ladder match. However, that match belonged to the famed star of sequels to sequels, and it was Ken Kennedy who was named Mr. Money In The Bank. After WM, Orton and Edge wasted no time in throwing their names into the bid for a WWE Title shot, and they would eventually be signed to a Fatal Fourway at Backlash, competing with Shawn Michaels and champion John Cena.

Orton, Edge, Michaels, and Cena were once again the main focus of Raw programming. Two weeks before Backlash, Cena defeated Orton and Edge in a Handicap match following Edge's accidental Spear to Orton. With tension between Orton and Edge at an all time high, a match between the two was signed for the following week on Raw. However, due to Michaels and Cena going for over an hour in a hell of a WrestleMania rematch, there was no time for the Rated RKO blowoff on that night. Backlash came and went the following Sunday, and Cena was able to successfully defend the WWE Championship with a pinfall over Orton.

And so with their one-on-one match having been pushed back from the week prior, Edge and Orton were set to lock up on the night following Backlash. The E wasted no time in giving us this classic, as it was the very first segment to kick off Raw on the evening of April 30, 2007. It may not have been the WrestleMania atmosphere that many had expected of their blowoff, but fans were still in for a treat nonetheless.

WHY IT SHOULD BE REMEMBERED

First of all this is a quality wrestling match from bell to bell. From the larger-than-life personalities to the trademark moves to the crimson mask, Orton and Edge gave fans all of the essential components of a great wrestling match. Everything is well-paced and executed, varying between rest holds, high impact spots, and the guy's signature moves. There are a ton of awesome spots and yet you don't leave the match thinking it was overly spot-heavy. Chalk that up to Orton and Edge knowing when to execute certain moves, when to rest, and when to change it up. There's SuperOrton's flying bump onto the table and Edge eating a Dropkick when coming off the top rope. There's the Edge-O-Matic, Edgecution, and Spear, along with Orton's RKO attempt, Powerslam, and 3.0 Backbreaker. Separate all that with some well-placed kickouts and hot damn, you've got a hell of a match on your hands. And on this night, Randy Orton and Edge most certainly did.

On top of that there was the added ring psychology of a heel battling another heel, a unique route that isn't explored nearly enough by WWE these days. In their match, Edge and Orton are constantly trying to out-heel the other: when Edge removes the turnbuckle pad, Orton rolls him up with a handful of tights; when Edge uses the ropes for leverage during a pin attempt, Orton responds by doing the same moments later. The best heels aren't guys that the fans actually hate; they are the guys that fans love to boo, and there is a distinct difference. Wrestling fans, casual and IWC alike, enjoy watching the heels just as much as the faces. It's all about the entertainment value of the characters inside the ring. So while WWE Creative's John Q. Douche -- a guy with little to no knowledge of wrestling and its history -- may think, "Why would they want to watch two bad guys fight? Don't they not like those guys?", fortunately we fans know better. Edge and Orton got a strong reaction in their match because they are damned over personalities, and the heel vs. heel dynamic made the match that much more interesting. Other than an awesome IC Title match on Raw a few years back between Christian and Chris Jericho, I can't really recall any other epic heel vs. heel encounters in WWE. But considering a heel vs. heel feud or match would require a fresh creative direction and deviation from the norm, don't expect it to be occurring on WWE TV anytime soon.


Please, WWE! More heel vs. heel!

And while these two guys might have been trying to outheel one another, that doesn't mean this match was without some impressive face-pops. And interestingly enough, it was the guy with the weaker babyface history that was getting the majority of the cheers. "RAN-DY! RAN-DY!" chants emerge several times over the course of the match, and all of his high impact moves receive powerful ovations from the crowd. I wrote in an earlier column that, despite what's been said, Orton has all of the tools necessary to be a solid babyface wrestler, and this match proves it just as well as that 2005 match with Christian. However, to play devil's advocate, one could make the case that Orton's babyface heat was merely a by-product of Edge's mega-heel status and that fans cheered Orton only because they couldn't stand to cheer Edge. And I think that at this point in Orton's career that could be a reasonable argument, considering present-day Randy Orton is on a completely different level than he was just two years ago. Edge was undoubtedly more over than Orton in early '07, but at this point I think it's fair to say that Orton has caught up with him. But however you look at it, the fans got behind Randy Orton in this Raw encounter and it proves that they will cheer him. They just aren't crazy about when they're told to cheer him.


WHY IT ISN'T REMEMBERED

This match should have happened at WrestleMania 23. I wholeheartedly believe that if they worked the same kind of match (maybe extended by a few more minutes) at Mania that year, we'd have had another WrestleMania Moment we'd be revisiting for years to come. It's a big deal when tag partners split and have a blowoff match to part ways, and its an especially bigger deal when it's a super-tandem like Rated RKO. The fans were hot for the rising tension between the partners and they wanted to see things settled in a big fight environment. Heading into WrestleMania that year it seemed certain that Rated RKO would explode on the grandest stage of them all ... and yet, it didn't. Instead, Orton and Edge were the supporting cast in the build to the John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels match for the WWE Title. They jobbed out to both WM main events in tag team affairs, losing the World Tag Team Titles to HBK and Cena just a couple of weeks before losing to Batista and Undertaker on SmackDown. Miscommunication between Rated RKO continued, and a match between the two guys seemed imminent ... and then they were thrown into Money In The Bank. Instead of showcasing the self-destruction of the company's most over heel tandem at the biggest show of the year, WWE decided to throw Orton and Edge in a match with six other guys. Smart move, right?


WWE missed out on cashing in on a proper Rated RKO blowoff

The Raw match isn't entirely forgotten, but had the same match happened at WrestleMania, we'd be looking back at the dissolution of Rated RKO a whole lot differently. Free television strikes again in its lack of influence on wrestling history. Orton and Edge had this match on Raw and that was basically it, as far as the story of Rated RKO's Demise goes. One week later Edge won Mr. Kennedy's MITB title shot and an ultimately opportune moment with the Undertaker led to a World Title reign on SmackDown. Randy Orton continued his quest for the WWE Title on Raw and by the end of the year his star was shining brighter than ever before. For the remainder of 2007, Orton and Edge were the heels of Raw and SmackDown respectively. These guys did some great work and their careers really took off, but it's a shame that we never got to see a conclusive PPV finish to their personal rivalry.


WILL IT BE REMEMBERED?

That would depend on your definition of "remembered." As I said, this match is featured on Edge's DVD release and therefore has been given some sort of historical legacy. The match itself hasn't been forgotten by fans as much as the potential of this match has been forgotten by WWE. I think the real tragedy here is that WWE simply seemed to have forgotten (very suddenly) the heat-value of an Edge vs. Orton program. As popular as it may be with the IWC die-hards, this match (and tag team blowoff) has more or less been neglected by WWE over the last couple of years. Here's hoping that Edge and Randy Orton cross paths sometime in the near future and the E impresses us with a rare display of continuity by having the two men reference their parting of ways back in '07.

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No feedback this week because of no column last week. I swear on my moderately embarrassing immense collection of 'rasslin DVDs that I will respond to comments next week.

You guys know the drill. Keep the discussion going and the suggestions coming. Until next time, stay safe and out of jail.