WWE WrestleMania 36: Who is Edge? The Rated-R Superstar, a Hall of Famer, and a man out for revenge

This weekend, families across the nation will grab a snack, curl up on the couch, and get ready to watch WWE’s biggest annual event, WrestleMania.

But parents be forewarned – WrestleMania 36 will have a Rated-R feel to it.

Edge – best-known as ‘The Rated-R Superstar’ – will enter the ring this weekend to face former tag team partner Randy Orton in a Last Man Standing match.

Only one can be left standing. #WrestleMania #LastManStanding @RandyOrton @EdgeRatedR pic.twitter.com/CRRNaV1M0Q

— WWE (@WWE) March 28, 2020

The winner of the match will be the man that can avoid a 10-count while being downed – and for Edge, coming back from being counted out has been the name of the game during his career.

He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012, after being forced to retire in 2011 with multiple neck injuries that required him to undergo spinal fusion surgery.

Edge remained in WWE, but no longer competed, up until he shocked the world as the 21st entry in the 2020 Royal Rumble in January.

That is one of the greatest moments in WWE history.

Moments like this aerial spear on Jeff Hardy are what made Edge one of the biggest stars in WWE from the late 1990s into the 2000s.

It’s been 19 years since @EdgeRatedR broke @JEFFHARDYBRAND “smack-dab in half!” #WrestleMania pic.twitter.com/rHW9eq58J5

— WWE Network (@WWENetwork) April 1, 2020

Edge’s WWE resume is unmatched. There have been superstars who might have been more popular – ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin and The Rock are hard to surpass in terms of popularity – but there has rarely been a superstar with more success.

‘The Rated-R Superstar’ is a 7-time World Heavyweight Champion, 4-time WWE Champion, 12-time World Tag Team Champion and 4-time WWE Tag Team Champion.

Edge began as a solo act, but early in his WWE career, he joined forces with his brother, Christian, and Gangrel to form a wrestling stable known as ‘The Brood.’

‘The Brood’ would become a part of a dark storyline involving The Undertaker and the Ministry of Darkness, but Edge and Christian would break away and form a tag team duo that would go on to win the WWE Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 2000.

Edge and Christian would win the World Tag Team Championship multiple times in the years to come, and their high-flying, creative matches with the Dudley Boyz and the Hardy Boyz set a new bar for tag team competition.

‘The Rated-R Superstar’ would eventually break away from Christian and explode as a singles superstar, but would still enjoy tag team success. He eventually formed tag team duos with the likes of Hulk Hogan and Rey Mysterio.

He would win the World Tag Team Championship with both Hogan and Mysterio.

Edge would maintain singles rivalries with Kurt Angle, Shawn Michaels, John Cena and many other legends during the mid-2000s, winning the WWE Championship on multiple occasions and serving as one of the faces of WWE for years.

His Hall of Fame credentials speak for themselves, and at WrestleMania 36 this weekend, he will face an opponent with whom he’s incredibly familiar in Randy Orton.

For a moment in time, Orton and Edge famously made up the tag team duo, Rated-RKO.

Rated-RKO won the World Tag Team Championship in the summer of 2006, before losing the titles in January of 2007. Its ongoing feud with D-Generation X was a major storyline during the Rated-RKO tag team reign.

Rated-RKO split up in spring of 2007 and the two men continued a love-hate relationship for the next several years.

However, after the 2020 Royal Rumble, that relationship became firmly hate, as Edge eliminated Randy Orton from the battle royale and then the following night on WWE Monday Night Raw, Orton viciously attacked his former partner.

Needless to say, Edge hasn’t forgotten that night just a few months ago.

“You dug yourself another hole, didn’t you @RandyOrton? This time, I’m not gonna pull you back out. I am gonna push you so far in, you will NEVER get back out!” – @EdgeRatedR

Who will be the #LastManStanding at #WrestleMania?#WWERaw pic.twitter.com/XvnyR0b8D0

— WWE (@WWE) March 31, 2020

Edge vs. Randy Orton is one of the most highly-anticipated matches on the WrestleMania 36 card, but it’s not exaggerative to say that it means more to Edge.

‘The Rated-R Superstar’ is at the beginning of a rebirth, and a win over Orton would put Edge back over the edge of greatness.