page_title: Edge (wrestler)
section_title: Rated-RKO (2006–2007)
hierarchical_section_title: Edge (wrestler) / Professional wrestling career / World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE / Rated-RKO (2006–2007)
caption_attribution_description: A pic of rated-rko live I took at RAW! event in Louisville Kentucky in 2006.
context_page_description: Adam Joseph Copeland is a Canadian professional wrestler and actor. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Edge, and is currently inactive due to injury.
  Copeland was trained by professional wrestlers Sweet Daddy Siki and Ron Hutchison. Throughout the 1990s, he wrestled in various United States independent promotions. During his time in these promotions, he competed in singles and tag team competition, the latter with longtime best friend Jason Reso. In 1997, Copeland signed a developmental deal with the WWF and was rebranded as the storyline brother of Christian, Reso's WWF persona. He made his televised debut the following June under the ring name Edge. In July 1999, he won the WWF Intercontinental Championship at a house show in Toronto, marking his first title reign with the company. Edge and Christian, billed as brothers and later childhood friends in WWF/WWE storylines, went on to win the WWF Tag Team Championship on seven occasions. During this time, they gained notoriety in the tag team division, partly due to their participation in Tables, Ladders, and Chairs matches.
context_section_description: On the October 2 episode of Raw, interference from the newly reformed D-Generation X (DX) (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) cost Edge his "final chance" at John Cena's WWE Championship in a Steel cage match, though their interference was a response to the interference of Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch. It led to Edge approaching Randy Orton and asking him to join forces to defeat DX, which Orton accepted and joined an alliance with Edge. The two formed the tag team Rated-RKO. At Cyber Sunday on November 6, Rated-RKO defeated D-Generation X with Eric Bischoff as the special guest referee. On the November 13 episode of Raw, Rated-RKO defeated Ric Flair and Roddy Piper to win the WWE World Tag Team Championship, making Edge a record eleven-time tag team champion. At Survivor Series on November 26, Rated-RKO teamed with Johnny Nitro, Mike Knox and Gregory Helms to face Team DX (Triple H, Shawn Michaels, CM Punk, Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) in a Survivor Series match, but all members of Team Rated-RKO were eliminated. Also that month, Lita retied, and her on-screen relationship with Edge abruptly ended, with no explanation.
  As part of the storyline angle, Rated-RKO attacked Ric Flair with steel chairs to enrage DX on November 27. At New Year's Revolution in January 2007, Rated-RKO faced DX in a title defense, but the match was declared a no-contest when Triple H suffered a legitimate injury during the match. At Royal Rumble, Edge competed in the 30-man Royal Rumble match where he lasted the longest in the match with a time of 44 minutes, eliminating 5 men and making it to the final 4 in the match before getting eliminated by Shawn Michaels, With Triple H out of action, the team continued their on-screen rivalry with remaining DX member Shawn Michaels. Michaels teamed with John Cena to defeat Rated-RKO for the tag team championship on January 29, 2007. Edge and Orton suffered a series of losses to Cena and Michaels in the following months, In April 2007, Edge competed in the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 23. During the match, Matt Hardy threw him onto a ladder and encouraged Jeff Hardy, who was close to the winning briefcase, to finish him off. Hardy then leaped off the 20-foot-high (6.1 m) ladder, and drove him through the ladder with a leg drop, seemingly injuring both Edge & himself. The two were unable to continue the match and were removed from ringside on stretchers.  After this Edge and Orton also became rivals in their goals of achieving the WWE Championship. Neither Edge nor Orton won the championship, and they lost their claims as number one contenders after a failed match with Cena at Backlash in April.
caption: Edge tagging with Randy Orton as Rated-RKO
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