Here's to the 99%.

[Cory]

Monday Night Warfare was hours away and Renee Young was standing by as she got the final words of several participants in the Tag Team Classic that was set up in the wake of the King of the Ring PPV event. She noticed a few people in the distance and hurriedly scuttled over to meet them, cameraman in tow. As she closed the distance on them, it was quite obviously the imposing frames of Randy Orton and Edge, who were talking amongst themselves, bottles of water in hand.

Renee Young: Excuse me, Edge and Randy? You two are a part of tonight's Tag Team Classic tournament, and I wanted to get your thoughts on the tournament and your opponents tonight.

Edge: Tag Team Classic.

Edge gave Randy a rough slap on the chest as if to say “I got this’.

Edge: Let me explain something to you, Renee. Nothing, and I mean nothing, says congratulations on your triumphant return to the main event picture, in your unbelievable final four finish in the King of the Ring tournament. Here’s a main event as Rated RKO because no one had enough of that for the untouchable 513 days we held those titles last time. Rated RKO doesn’t need the Tag Team Classic, the Tag Team Classic needs Rated RKO. So here we are, ever your humble… well, I’m humble. I don’t know about this one.

Randy clenched his jaw before leaning in to speak into Renee's mic.

Randy Orton: This Tag Team Classic is a joke. Edge and I have been the undisputed best tag team in the history of the company for longer than most of the participants have had contracts. This tournament doesn't make that any more or less true than it has always been. In the time Rated RKO has been around, every other team, stable, faction, friendship, or loose acquaintance has broken up and become a distant memory. I don't know how many more times we have to demonstrate the truth.

Renee gave a little grin and nodded, seemingly in agreement.

Edge: Why… how… why does she DO THAT.

Randy turned his head to look at Edge.

Edge: She eye-fu…

He cleared his throat.

Edge: No disrespect, Renee. You always look like you’re just gonna rip the clothes off of every man you interview.

Randy cocked an eyebrow at Edge.

Randy Orton: You act like it's just men. She looks at everyone like that. Pretty sure I saw her look at Nattie like that once.

Edge: Well, come on, Nattie. Who wouldn’t.

Randy shook his head.

Randy Orton: Let's switch topics before we get sent to HR.

Edge: Sorry Renee. What topic would you like to speak on, Randy? I’m a grossly underutilized talent? Sami Zayn can’t tie your boots, but somehow he’s King of the Ring, the number one contender for the Path to Glory Title, and facing us tonight for a chance at the Tag Belts? Glory hog. Geez Sami. Could you leave some scraps for the rest of us?

Randy Orton: Can't miss with any of those, Edge. We can talk about our opponents couldn't be more polar opposites - one guy that can't seem to get enough spotlight, and another guy who couldn't find it to spare his life. Baron Corbin is a low-rent me without the burden of all of my talent. Not sure why Sami Zayn agreed to take on this charity case, but it's going to end up costing him.

Renee Young: Actually, I can help with that. Half of the teams are partners you would expect, and the other half are strange bedfellows so to speak.

Edge turned to look Randy in the eye.

Edge: If that isn’t the most ridiculous thing. If I didn’t know any better I’d think… you know who… is running this show again.

Randy Orton: Dixie Carter?

He shrugged.

Randy Orton: That's probably not what you meant.

Edge: No. Not what I meant. Speaking of puppet masters, who is Robbie Brookside? I thought I knew every no name wrestling guy who ever was, but this one escapes me.

Randy Orton: Well, it just goes to show that there are levels of irrelevancy that even you aren't aware of.

Edge: Yeah, the way PJ Black has fallen completely off the radar is pretty much where my interest in irrelevancy stops. Or, the fact that AJ Styles doesn’t even work here anymore. Who’s laughing now, AJ? Certainly not the guy still under contract.

Renee Young: Maybe I can refocus this conversation…

Edge: No, I’m asking the questions here. Who. is. Robbie. Brookside?

Randy Orton: What we need is Evan Bourne. We need to know how long this guy has been pro.

Edge: In his absence, Renee. Will you be a doll and take out your phone?

She looked hesitant but did as he asked.

Edge: Good. If you ever have a mundane question about wrestling history, and Evan Bourne is not immediately available to you, Randy and I have found that Wikipedia is an acceptable substitute. Could you look up Robbie Brookside?

She typed into her phone, and once the information was pulled up, she offered the device to Edge.

Edge: Oh, he’s from Liverpool, and his name isn’t John, Paul, George or Ringo, so that explains why I’ve never heard of him. He has held titles in twelve promotions I have never heard of. He beat Chris Jericho once. Who hasn’t am I right?

Randy Orton: Wait, can we talk about the fact that Renee gave you her phone but didn't let you navigate it for yourself? That pretty much guarantees she has something to hide on her phone.

Renee Young: He asked me to look the man up!

Edge: I’m just trying to help you stay in your lane sweetheart. He’s 31 years pro. So basically, since you were 5. Before she was born.

He gestured between Randy and Renee. Randy had already liberated Edge of his possession of Renee's phone, and began flipping through it. He made a look of disgust.

Randy Orton: Oh come on. You use emojis in your contact list. Don't be that person.

Renee went to snatch her phone, but Randy held it up high above her head.

Renee Young: How do the two of you feel about being classified as EBWF legends? Some have said that as members of the old guard you should stand down and make way for the new talent.

Randy shrugged as if to say “touche”, and lowered the phone to give it back to her.

Edge: We get that a lot don’t we? Legends, past our prime. Once great talents in this company now holding on to the last shred of what’s left of their careers. Randy and I don’t have anything to prove to anybody, but that doesn’t mean we can’t finish a fight better than just about any EBWF Superstar there is. Half these characters aren’t what they seem. Randy and I are the last of a dying breed. We rank right up there with our esteemed EBWF World Champion, in a class of our own. The kind of wrestler that only has to show up. The kind of wrestler who stays ready so they don’t have to get ready.

Randy Orton: The kind of wrestler who says what they mean and means what they say. When Edge and I come out here and we tell the world that there's not a team out there that can hold a candle to us, we mean it. When a mic gets put in front of either one of us, we speak our mind and we're not afraid of the reputation that comes with it. Not quite like our opponent Sami, is it? This guy who likes to pander to the crowd and put on the white meat babyface routine, but you stick a mic in front of him and he talks out of both sides of his mouth. Can't have it both ways, Sami. I know you're going to come out here with your talking points about how we're washed up, and how we're a shell of our former selves. That's cute coming from a guy who never was in the first place. Edge and I, we talk a pretty good game for sure. But we've got the resume to back it up.

Edge: Let me remind the entire world about something, right here, right now. Rated RKO held the EBWF World Tag Team Championships for 513 days. That’s the part you know. That’s the thing everyone remembers. But Rated RKO never, ever lost those championships. We were never pinned. We never submitted. We never lost those belts. Randy here had a…

Edge did air quotes around his next words.

Edge: …”shoulder injury”. Which in wrasslin’ is just a fancy way of saying he and his wife had the audacity to have a baby. They paired me with a different partner, who I will insult when we face him again in this tournament, and that partner couldn’t be bothered to defend the titles with me so we were stripped of them. Randy Orton never lost his Tag Team belt. Edge never lost his Tag Team belt. And if everything had been left as it was, me and him? We’d be standing here one thousand one hundred and seventy days EBWF Tag Team Champions.

Randy Orton: And there wouldn't be a damn thing you, or anyone else will do about it. Sami, you might be on top right now, but like everything else in your miserably unmemorable career it will be fleeting. Before you it was John Cena, and before him it was CM Punk. When this business is done with you, and that day is coming, you will wander off to your little corner of the Earth, never to be heard from again. Edge and I will still be here, and we'll still be the best tag team the wrestling industry has ever seen.

Edge: People want to make fun of our friendship. Make jokes about a bromance. Whatever it is. We’ve been a tag team for a decade, and we’ve been friends for a whole lot longer. If there’s a team in the locker room, that was just now hastily thrown together for the sake of this tournament, and you’re thinking you’re going to beat us? You’re all more stupid than you look. It doesn’t matter how good you are on your own. It doesn’t matter if you're King of the Ring, King of the Mountain, King of England. It doesn’t matter if you’re Sami Zayn and Baron Corbin or Cactus Jack and Doink the mother fuckin’....

Edge stopped and looked down at Renee.

Edge: You can edit this right.

She gave him the aforementioned adoring look and nodded.

Edge: ...right then. Doink the mother fuckin’ clown. Randy and I don’t talk about how we’re going to win. We don’t have to talk about what move set is next. The thing about being tag team partners for ten years? It’s of no consequence that I go off and do my own thing. Sometimes Randy goes off and does his own thing. We’ve learned how to deal with that, without the drama. Without the bad blood. Without the Miz and AJ Styles bitch fits. This guy has always had my back, and when we’re in that ring together? I can find him with my eyes closed.

Randy Orton: So let’s see how all of that stacks up against these teams who are meeting for the first time at the Gorilla position.

Edge: Baron, Sami. We see you. We know what you’re about. We know that for you, 99% is good enough.

Randy Orton: It’s just not good enough to beat us.

Both men gave an upward nod in Renee’s direction. The blonde beauty seemed to be very aware of her facial expressions as the two walked away.