Randy Orton vs. Edge and Most Anticipated WrestleMania Matches of Last 5 Years

A case can be made for WrestleMania 36 looking more appealing on paper than any other installment in recent memory.

That isn't to say it will be the greatest WrestleMania event of all-time, nor has the build on Raw or SmackDown lately been the best. In fact, it feels like WWE has undersold the potential of this pay-per-view, at least in regards to the key matches.

Of everything announced and teased for the spring spectacle so far, however, Randy Orton vs. Edge is easily the most anticipated bout of the bunch.

Up until last night, Edge hadn't been on WWE TV at all to progress his program with Orton, yet fans are looking forward to that 'Mania match more than any other right now. That's largely because of the brilliant heel work The Viper has been doing in his absence and with it being Edge's first one-on-one outing back.

Although it's possible Edge vs. Orton could ultimately underwhelm in the ring, at least WWE has managed to get everyone excited for it, something that can't be said for a number of the matchups on tap. Then again, this is hardly a new phenomenon at the Show of Shows.

Regardless of whether they lived up to the hype or not, these were the WrestleMania matches the WWE Universe had the highest expectations for over the last five years.

At this time one year ago, the idea of Edge and Randy Orton competing against each other at WrestleMania 36 would have been unfathomable.

Edge's return to the ring after almost nine years at the 2020 Royal Rumble shocked the entire wrestling world and immediately led fans to question who his first rival back would be. Sure enough, Orton answered the call and laid out his longtime friend in brutal fashion at the end of Raw the next night.

For weeks, Orton refused to explain his actions and instead opted to lash out against Matt Hardy. He followed up those attacks by planting Edge's real-life wife Beth Phoenix with an RKO last week on Raw.

His promo on that episode was among the best mic work he's done in years. As beloved as Orton is as a babyface, he's in his element as a heel and this rivalry with Edge has been evident of that.

It makes perfect sense for Orton to be Edge's first one-on-one opponent at WrestleMania given their extensive history and how Orton can almost always be counted on for a quality contest. Everything about their feud up to this point has felt real and has been exactly what both guys needed.

WWE was smart to keep Edge off the show as long as they did, and now that he's returned to Raw, the best is yet to come from the former World Tag Team champions.

From the moment AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura signed with WWE at the onset of 2016, longtime members of the WWE Universe fantasized about them one day meeting in a rematch from Wrestle Kingdom 10 on the grand stage of WrestleMania.

In 2018, that dream finally became a reality.

After crossing paths on a handful of occasions in 2017, the timing was right for them to wage war at WrestleMania 34. Styles was in the midst of a lengthy reign as WWE champion and Nakamura was fresh off a monumental Royal Rumble match victory.

Their original encounter at Wrestle Kingdom two years prior was widely regarded by fans as one of the greatest in their respective careers. It also marked Styles' final match for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, so WrestleMania was the only stage worthy enough of hosting the highly-anticipated rematch.

Nakamura vs. Styles essentially sold itself on paper, but the biggest issue with the build was that both men were babyfaces and hardly had bad blood with each other. The audience had zero incentive to cheer one man over the other, which consequently resulted in an odd dynamic.

Fans set their expectations so high for their matchup that it was going to be near impossible for those expectations to be met, so while they failed to deliver an instant classic, it was still cool to see them go at it under the bright lights of WrestleMania.

Per Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, plans originally called for Dean Ambrose and Chris Jericho to clash at WrestleMania 32 after teasing tension at Night of Champions 2015, but those plans changed once AJ Styles signed with WWE in January 2016 and he was paired off with Jericho instead.

That left Ambrose without a dance partner for WrestleMania, causing fans to fear that he'd be demoted down the card. Thankfully, he wound up benefiting from the shakeup to the lineup by entering a rivalry with Brock Lesnar and continuing what they already started in the buildup to Fastlane that February.

The Lunatic Fringe had been positioned as a top face on Raw for years, but it wasn't until this feud that he felt like a true main event player. Although Lesnar laid him out more often than not in the weeks preceding the pay-per-view, Ambrose showed resilience by always standing his ground and promising to take Lesnar to his limit at WrestleMania 32.

Above all else, it was refreshing to see Lesnar work with someone other than an established icon for a change. Ambrose had a surge in popularity around his time thanks to remarkable Royal Rumble run, memorable matches with Kevin Owens and main event match with Triple H at Roadblock, so the idea was that he would come away from their rivalry a bona fide top-tier talent.

Fans were also excited to see how well their in-ring styles would mesh and if they'd go to great lengths to deliver a wild No Holds Barred bout as had been alluded to. Unfortunately, the match was a dud and did more to harm Ambrose than help him.

The hype surrounding their first-ever one-on-one encounter was through the roof going into the event, though. If Ambrose's comments on The Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast years later are to be believed, it was hardly his fault that it fell flat.

Although Chris Jericho is at the apex of his career at the moment in All Elite Wrestling, his year-long story with Kevin Owens deserves more credit for being as exceptionally told as it was.

Jericho and Owens, collectively known as Jeri-KO, started off as allies in the summer of 2016 and were inseparable for the remainder of the year. They teased tension from time to time but remained a cohesive unit.

The longer their friendship lasted, the more apparent it became that Owens was solely using Jericho so he could help him maintain his possession of the Universal Championship. Jericho was constantly interfering in Owens' matches to ensure he'd retain the title and never was he not successful.

Mere weeks out from his title defense against Goldberg at Fastlane, Owens severed ties with Jericho in shocking fashion by betraying him during a "Festival of Friendship." It was one of the strongest segments in recent Raw history and planted the seeds for the two to settle their score at WrestleMania 33.

Considering Jericho was already endearing himself to the audience with the amazing work he was doing at the moment, babyface Jericho vs. heel Owens worked wonderfully. It helped that Jericho was United States champion and thus had something he could put on the line in exchange for the chance to get his hands on Owens at the Show of Shows.

Interestingly enough, Jericho has gone on the record since leaving WWE about how he and Owens were originally scheduled to be the main event for the Universal Championship, but WWE decided Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg needed the belt more.

That left the former friends to compete in the second match on the show, but their series of matches that spring were an absolute blast and made up for their midcard placement.

Truth be told, Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 31 had every reason to fail. Fans weren't exactly excited at the idea of the match when it was made official in January 2015, largely because they would have rather seen the returning Daniel Bryan in Reigns' spot instead.

The build to the bout was rough because Lesnar was rarely around on WWE TV and Reigns simply wasn't getting over in the babyface role at the rate the company was likely hoping for. It seemed way too predictable that Lesnar was leaving WWE and that Reigns was going to conquer him for the WWE Championship on his way out.

Shortly prior to the pay-per-view, the complexion of the contest changed completely when news broke that Lesnar had re-signed with the company for another three years.

This ensured that it would be a different situation than what Lesnar had to experience over a decade earlier with Goldberg at WrestleMania 20 when word got out that both men were leaving. The outcome was now much more in doubt, especially with Seth Rollins' Money in the Bank briefcase being in play.

As it turned out, that was exactly what happened. Just as the electric outing between The Beast Incarnate and The Big Dog was winding down, Rollins' music blared throughout the arena and brought everyone in attendance to their feet.

Rollins became the first and only man to date to cash in the opportunistic contract at WrestleMania and did so successfully. That historic moment closed out the epic evening on the highest of notes, proving that all those ups and downs fans witnessed with Lesnar and Reigns on the road to WrestleMania were worthwhile in the end.

Despite never headlining WrestleMania prior to 2019, the women had the opportunity to make history last year and there was zero doubt that the main event was where they belonged.

For almost a year, it had been heavily rumored that Ronda Rousey (who had just debuted in WWE at the time) was being groomed for the main event spot at WrestleMania 35. Charlotte Flair was a strong candidate to be her opponent, but no one could have expected Becky Lynch to break out the way she did.

Lynch vs. Rousey made the most sense to headline WrestleMania once their match was called off at Survivor Series due to Lynch's last-minute injury. Flair was needlessly shoehorned into their feud months later, but at least both Lynch and Rousey already had history with her and thus it wasn't completely random.

WWE nearly butchered the story heading into WrestleMania by cooling off Lynch in odd angles with The Authority and putting the focus on Flair. Nonetheless, fans eagerly awaited their three-way WrestleMania dance and got behind Becky at every turn.

Rousey's heel turn (which was only natural) made matters more interesting and put the outcome of their Triple Threat in serious doubt. Lynch emerging as the new Raw and SmackDown Women's champion was what fans wanted to see, but the company has been known to go against the grain before.

Whether the match was as great as it could have been is an entirely different argument, but the build itself was pure money. Never before had WWE fans witnessed the rise of a women's wrestler as popular as Becky Lynch, and this merely marked the beginning of her long stay at the top.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, is an Endicott College alumnus and aspiring journalist. Visit his website, Next Era Wrestling, and "like" his official Facebook page to continue the conversation on all things wrestling.