WWE WrestleMania: Edge vs. Randy Orton and Best-Built Matches in PPV History

Some of the most memorable matches in WWE WrestleMania history were preceded by storylines that hooked audiences long before the Superstars ever set foot inside the squared circle.

They were intensely personal, steeped in emotion and captivated audiences for months on end.

The best-built matches in the long and illustrious history of the company's annual Showcase of the Immortals live forever thanks to the rollercoaster ride they took fans on.

Ahead of this year's Last Man Standing match between Edge and Randy Orton, a match built expertly by two of the all-time greats, relive the events preceding that contest and other contests fueled by engrossing stories that set the stage for the ensuing in-ring action.

Edge’s return to WWE after nine years spent in retirement should have been the greatest moment of his career. A thunderous ovation greeted him as he entered the 2020 Royal Rumble and fan fervor for his return to Raw the next night was at a fever pitch. 

His promo on that night was passionate and emotional, everything you would hope for given the circumstances.

Then Randy Orton arrived.

The Viper told the story of Edge reaching out, saving him from the self-induced hole he found himself in. He saved Orton, helped him become the success story and man he is today. Without him, who knows what the third-generation star with a ton of potential would have become.

Then, seconds after pitching the reformation of Rated RKO, he did the unthinkable and dropped the Hall of Famer with an RKO. A sickening con-chair-top followed, leaving Edge to be stretchered out of the arena while fans rained down on Orton with a chorus of boos.

Clearly torn, Orton could not bring himself to address his actions at first, offering up only a meek “I’m sorry.”

From there, he repeated his actions, brutalizing Matt Hardy in consecutive weeks. Then, he came face-to-face with Beth Phoenix, wife of Edge and Hall of Famer in her own right. The Glamazon struck out at Orton with cutting words, to which Randy claimed to love Edge and their daughters more than Phoenix because he did what he did to keep Edge at home. To prevent further injury so that he could be the father and husband they deserved.

Phoenix ultimately hauled off and slapped the hell out of Orton, who dropped her with an RKO.

Edge’s return featured an RKO of his own to Orton. Fueled by rage and revenge, he showed up the following week to issue a challenge for a Last Man Standing match at WrestleMania. Orton accepted, dropping another stellar promo in the process.

The mic work from Edge and Orton has been nothing short of phenomenal. It has managed to tell a story across months of television while the competitors laid hands on each other the bare minimum number of times, preserving their energy for what should be one of the best, most physical and emotionally fueled matches on the entire WrestleMania card.

In a year in which the creative process was hampered incredibly by issues beyond the world of wrestling, Edge and Orton not only delivered the best storyline preceding this year’s PPV broadcast, they provided one of the best stories in the three-decade history of the extravaganza.

In the fall of 2016, Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens forged a friendship that led to some of the most entertaining television in recent Raw memory.

Their chemistry as a team, and comedic timing in promos, helped make their tandem one of the few must-see elements of the flagship show. That Jericho so expertly played the delusion bestie to Owens’ straight man only helped.

Jericho would spend months helping Universal champion Owens retain his title against the likes of Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins while even adding to his resume with a United States Championship run. Unfortunately, Jericho’s faith in his best friend proved costly as Y2J accepted a challenge by Goldberg to Owens for a title match on behalf of his partner. 

Infuriated that his title reign could come to an end at the hands of the returning WCW icon, Owens suckered Jericho into a false sense of security. During a grand Festival of Friendship, Jericho professed his love for his friend. In return, Owens offered him a gift: a brand new list.

Not a List of Jericho but, rather, a List of KO and the only name on it: Y2J’s.

Owens proceeded to beat down, brutalize and assault Jericho before throwing him face-first through the obscenely expensive JeriTron. Their friendship severed, The Prizefighter of Raw went on to Fastlane for his title defense with Goldberg.

Stalling majorly, Owens was finally forced into the ring when Jericho made his return. The result? A spear, Jackhammer and the end of KO’s reign. In the wake of the match, Jericho laid down the challenge to Owens, who accepted as long as the US title was at stake.

It was and at WrestleMania 33, Owens beat Jericho in the second match of the night. While there was nothing inherently wrong with the match, it was considered a major disappointment, both from a quality perspective and its place on the card, given the months of storytelling that had gone into it and the heat the program had generated.

At WrestleMania 27, Triple H succumbed to the Hell’s Gate submission hold, the latest victim on a long list to have challenged The Undertaker at wrestling’s most prestigious event and lose. Something strange happened that night, though. The Game walked out of Atlanta’s Georgia Dome on his own while the victor was wheeled out on a stretcher, seemingly the worse for wear.

That imagery was implanted in Triple H’s mind but, more importantly, in the mind of The Deadman.

Undertaker returned the following January to challenge Triple H to a rematch, dissatisfied by the way he left the match with The Game. The now-COO of the company refused the challenge. To him, the Undertaker’s streak was a profitable brand that the company could cash in on and he had zero interest in being the one to bring that to an end.

Triple H’s friend Shawn Michaels appeared, tried to goad his bestie into accepting the challenge, but failed. It was not until The Deadman compared The King of Kings to Michaels and called him a coward for refusing to fight him that Triple H took exception and accepted.

Michaels played a key role in the story, as well.

Not only did he have issues with Triple H suggesting he was better than him and that he would do what HBK never could by beating Undertaker at WrestleMania, but he had also been retired by the Deadman two years earlier. He, himself, had come ever-so-close to putting a blemish on the undefeated streak, only to fall at the feet of The Phenom.

Who would he side with if confronted with that situation?

The moving pieces were many, their history one rich with elements to pull from. It was a great bit of storytelling from three Superstars who made their names and established their legacies at a time when that was as integral a part of professional wrestling as one’s ability to do 20 versions of a suplex.

The match was equally as great, a rollercoaster of emotion and a drama-filled bit of live-action theater. Undertaker won, naturally, but it was the embrace shared by all three atop the WrestleMania stage that remains the most memorable moment of the night. The End of an Era, if you will.

SummerSlam 2013 should have been the greatest night in Daniel Bryan’s career. He had overcome all of the naysayers and defeated John Cena to capture the WWE Championship. His celebration, though, was cut short by the arrival of Money in the Bank winner Randy Orton. A shocking Pedigree from special referee Triple H set The Viper up to cash in and take the title, crushing Bryan’s dreams and forming an alliance between the COO and Orton.

Dubbed a “B+ player” by Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, it was apparent Bryan was not in their plans to be a top star in WWE, but he fought anyway. He would win the WWE title from Orton, only to be screwed out of it the following night on Raw. He would face insurmountable odds on a weekly basis and even if he was left lying one week, he would get up and fight back the next.

With every triumph came a downfall to the point that it inspired a passionate Yes! Movement among a WWE Universe that badly wanted Bryan to succeed. He was their chosen one, their champion, regardless of what the hated Authority said or did.

It all culminated in the March 10 episode of Raw, where fans filled the ring alongside Bryan to stage a protest. The segment resulted in Bryan vs. Triple H being made for WrestleMania. Despite a brutal beating that left his shoulder injured, Bryan showed up at The Granddaddy of Them All for the most anticipated match on that night’s blockbuster card.

Showing the same guts and determination he had in the weeks and months leading up to it, he shook off the excruciating shoulder pain and defeated Triple H to earn a shot at the WWE World Heavyweight Championship later in the night.

His opponents? The dastardly Orton and the returning Batista. He would put an exclamation point on his journey with a win in that match and go on to celebrate amongst pyro and confetti as the show went off the air.

Without the long, emotional, at times frustrating journey that preceded it, neither of those matches would have meant as much. The moment Bryan won the title would not have had the same impact. It was a masterfully crafted, wholly relatable story of the underdog overcoming the corporate system and emerging with his head held high. 

That is why it struck a nerve and that is why it is so fondly remembered over half a decade later.

When The Rock made his shocking return on the February 14, 2011 episode of Raw and announced he was the special guest host of WrestleMania 27, it was only a matter of time before he addressed the elephant in the room, that being John Cena and the remarks the No. 1 contender to the WWE Championship had spent years making about him.

Rock hurled some insults, Cena hurled others and suddenly, there was great demand for a match between the two despite the latter’s impending title bout against The Miz on wrestling’s grandest stage. Come match time, fans were far less worried about Cena and Miz’s issues and more intrigued by when Rock would show up and physically interject himself in the match.

The Great One did, costing Cena the title and setting in motion events that would culminate in a Once in a Lifetime showdown between two industry giants.

The night after WrestleMania 27, the stars came face-to-face and Cena laid down the challenge for the match. Rock accepted and for the first time in history, WWE had a WrestleMania main event booked an entire year in advance.

In the 12 months that followed, the stars would continue to take shots at one another, building anticipation that left fans chomping at the bit for the match. The feud split the audience like a Twilight flick forced fan girls to choose Team Edward or Team Jacob.

The atmosphere surrounding the match was unlike any in recent history and by the time Rock and Cena set foot in the squared circle, it was abundantly clear that WWE and the participants involved had created something magical, the likes of which we have not seen since and may never see again.

Vince McMahon’s desire to take his New York-based WWE national fueled the idea of the original WrestleMania event. To do so, he recognized he would have to make professional wrestling a mainstream entertainment option and he did just that, forging a relationship with MTV. Their partnership would be dubbed the Rock and Wrestling Connection and bring pop icon, Cyndi Lauper, into the wrestling world.

The loudmouthed villain “Rowdy” Roddy Piper was none-too-pleased by the development, denouncing the idea of music entering a man’s world like wrestling. The constant degradation of the partnership earned the attention of Hulk Hogan, the reigning WWE world champion and major proponent of the connection.

Piper would take things further, interrupting the awarding of a platinum record to Lauper and breaking it over the head of the great Captain Lou Albano, who had appeared in the musician’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” music video.

In February 1985, Hogan battled Piper on the MTV special The War to Settle The Score, the latest chapter in their burgeoning rivalry. The contest was interrupted by interference from “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff and “Cowboy” Bob Orton Jr., two of Piper’s closest allies. This brought the star of television’s The A-Team, Mr. T, into the ring in defense of his friend Hogan.

This set the stage for the main event of the very first WrestleMania, a massive extravaganza of an event that brought together the worlds of wrestling and mainstream celebrity. Hogan teamed with Mr. T to face Piper and Orndorff, with celebrities Muhammad Ali, Billy Martin and Liberace filling attraction roles.

The match, arguably the most important in the long history of WWE, helped WrestleMania become a major closed circuit television success and laid the groundwork for The Showcase of the Immortals as we know it today.

Without that match, who knows what the industry looks like today or if the McMahon family even has a place in it. Had it failed, the visionary owner of the company would have surely been out of business, as legend tells it. 

It did not, thanks largely to the storytelling efforts that preceded the contest and made the match (and event as a whole) a can’t-miss spectacle.

Shawn Michaels came closer than any Superstar before when he nearly defeated The Undertaker at WrestleMania 25. Their match at that show, an instant classic, won the 2009 Slammy for Best Match but Michaels was not willing to walk away content with almost winning the match.

Certain he could beat The Deadman, he challenged him to another date at WrestleMania, to which The Phenom refused. Hellbent on getting back there, Michaels entered the 2010 Royal Rumble, hoping to earn a shot at the then-world heavyweight champion. He failed, eliminated by Batista. 

Desperation set in and Michaels took drastic steps to achieve his goal. At February’s Elimination Chamber, HBK cost Undertaker his world title to Chris Jericho, knowing full well that would be the one action that would get from his rival the answer he was looking for.

It did, with one caveat: Michaels put his career on the line.

The Heartbreak Kid did and with the help of an expertly produced video package set to Placebo’s “Running Up That Hill,” fan excitement for their epic rematch reached a fever pitch.

The Undertaker would go on to win another emotionally fueled bout but in this case, the build was almost better than the match itself, which is saying something given its status as one of the truly great main events in WrestleMania history.

The summer of 1997 brought with it the reignition of The Undertaker’s feud with former manager Paul Bearer, both literally and figuratively. A fireball engulfed the face of the vile villain, forcing him to take drastic measures to avenge himself against The Deadman.

Taking to the ring, he revealed to a stunned Undertaker that his brother, Kane, was still alive. That he did not perish in the funeral home fire that took The Phenom’s mother and father. While Undertaker continued his WWE title reign and, later, a feud with Michaels, the possibility that Kane would appear at any time hanging over his older brother like a dark cloud.

Then it happened. At In Your House: Badd Blood in October 1997, The Big Red Machine debuted and dropped his brother, who was frozen in disbelief, with a Tombstone piledriver. Kane would wreak havoc on the WWE roster, pummeling any and everyone in his path. When Undertaker returned to WWE programming, Kane repeatedly assaulted him in an attempt to get him to face him in match.

Citing a promise he made to his parents not to fight him, Undertaker refused.

That is until Kane and Bearer attempted to end him by trapping him in a casket and setting it ablaze at the 1998 Royal Rumble.

Undertaker returned, vowing to walk through the fires of hell to face Kane at WrestleMania.

After nine months of epic storytelling the likes of which one might find in Greek mythology, the rivalry culminated in one of, if not the single most anticipated match of a WrestleMania card that also featured Steve Austin’s first WWE Championship victory.

It is up to the viewer and their personal tastes to decide if the match paid off the story that preceded it but there is no denying that, from a creative standpoint, Vince McMahon, Vince Russo, Bruce Prichard and anyone else who had their hands in that one hit a proverbial home run that single-handedly gave birth to one of the greatest characters in WWE history in Kane.

Imagine being the most celebrated athlete in the world, a giant of a man who brings smiles to faces and spends 15 years unbeaten in the sport of professional wrestling, only to watch a charismatic, bleach blonde superhero walk in and steal your thunder.

For Andre the Giant, that is exactly what happened when the rise of Hulkamania engulfed WWE in the mid-1980s. Andre had been the man for so long that to watch Hogan strut in, win the world title and the accolades, while he was forgotten and handed what amounted to little more than a participation trophy.

Fed up with taking a backseat to a competitor he had beaten long before Hogan cared about professing the benefits of working out, taking vitamins and saying prayers, Andre sought the leadership of the hated Bobby “The Brain” Heenan. 

On the February 7, 1987 edition of Piper’s Pit with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, Andre and his new manager confronted a befuddled Hogan. Andre challenged Hogan for the world title at WrestleMania 3 and in a sign of disrespect that added tremendous gravity and emotion to the ordeal, ripped Hogan’s shirt off, tearing his crucifix off in the process.

Piper, always alert, pointed out that Hogan’s chest was bleeding. Here was this modern-day Superman, this seemingly unbeatable force, left blubbering and bleeding by a man he considered a friend.

The contract between the two was signed in one of the very best examples of that particular storyline trope and the match was made. 93,173 fans clocked to suburban Detroit’s SilverDome for the titanic clash and if that is not reflective of spectacularly effective storytelling, perhaps nothing is.

Hogan would beat Andre with a bodyslam and leg drop in the night’s marquee match, a contest that served both as the passing of the torch and the solidification of The Hulkster as his generation’s greatest icon.

At WrestleMania 4 in 1988, Hulk Hogan came to the aid of Randy Savage, fending off interference from Andre the Giant and helping Macho Man capture his first WWE Championship. 

Over the year that followed, the two iconic competitors would form a bond as The Mega Powers and rule over WWE. As the duo became closer, so did The Hulkster and the champ's manager Elizabeth.

The paranoid Savage saw lust in Hogan's eyes and, despite a highly successful partnership that saw them defeat "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase and the aforementioned Andre in the main event of SummerSlam, tensions mounted.

On an unforgettable edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, Savage's frustration boiled over. He confronted Hogan in the locker room, where Hulk tended to an injured Elizabeth. Calling him out the biggest babyface in the company and accusing him of lust and jealousy, he attacked him with the WWE title, bashing him in the face and bringing about the end of their year-long union.

At WrestleMania 5, the Mega Powers exploded in one of the most successful and anticipated main events in PPV history. Hogan won, Savage's heel turn was complete but all of it was secondary to the classic storytelling that led up to the encounter.