Paul Orndorff
Paul Parlette Orndorff Jr., nicknamed "Mr. Wonderful", was an American professional wrestler and football player, best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling.
After seven years working around the National Wrestling Alliance, Orndorff became a star in the 1980s WWF wrestling boom, and featured with manager Bobby Heenan and champion Hulk Hogan extensively, including in the main events of the first WrestleMania and Survivor Series. He left the WWF for WCW in early 1990, where he won the WCW World Television Championship and the WCW World Tag Team Championship with Paul Roma.
Arm atrophy from a nagging injury led him to retire in 2000. After retiring, he trained aspiring wrestlers. Orndorff was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005 and the National Wrestling Alliance Hall of Fame in 2009.
Professional wrestling career
Early career (1976–1983)
After his football career ended, Orndorff watched Championship Wrestling from Florida in the mid-1970s. He called his father-in-law, who knew someone who knew Florida promoter Eddie Graham, which got his start into the wrestling business.Orndorff started wrestling in 1976 in Mid-Southern Wrestling where he feuded with a young Jerry Lawler. Orndorff won his first wrestling title when he pinned Lawler for the NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship on June 7, 1977. Orndorff lost the title back to Lawler before he left the Memphis territory. Orndorff began working for the NWA Tri-State promotion where he got involved in a feud with Ernie Ladd. The feud with Ladd saw Orndorff win the NWA Tri-State North American Heavyweight Title from Ladd on two occasions. Both times, Orndorff's reigns were short and were ended by Ladd.
After feuding with Ladd, Orndorff continued to make a name for himself in the National Wrestling Alliance where he feuded with The Masked Superstar. During this time he became known as "The Brandon Bull", a nickname he had during his days as a football player. In December 1978, Orndorff teamed with Jimmy Snuka to capture the NWA World Tag Team Championship from Baron von Raschke and Greg Valentine. The duo held on to the title for five months before losing it to Raschke and his new partner Paul Jones on April 16, 1979.
In 1979, Orndorff traveled to the Alabama territory's "Southeast Championship Wrestling." There, Orndorff worked mainly as a tag team competitor teaming with Dick Slater to win the NWA Southeast Tag Team Championship from the team of Jimmy Golden and Norvell Austin in October 1979. Their reign only lasted about a month before being upended by the combination of Dennis Condrey and David Schultz. Orndorff then teamed with former opponent Austin to win the title in late 1979. The duo beat Condrey and Randy Rose, the same team that ended Orndorff and Austin's run with the gold. Austin, Condrey, and Rose formed The Midnight Express shortly thereafter.
File:Paul Orndorff applies a chinlock to Jake Roberts, 1981.png|thumb|Orndorff applying a chinlock to Jake Roberts during a 1981 match
During 1980, Orndorff started to split his time between the Alabama and the Mid-South territories, until he left the Alabama territory by the end of 1980 to focus entirely on the Mid-South territory. In Mid-South, Orndorff feuded with Ken Mantell over Mantell's propensity for cutting people's hair after a match. Orndorff got the better of Mantell and won the right to use the Freebird hair removal cream on Mantell. Orndorff earned a shot at the North American champion The Grappler but on the day of the match he overslept and was incensed when his replacement Jake "The Snake" Roberts beat the Grappler for the title. Orndorff's reaction to Roberts's title win signaled a change in attitude; he turned heel as he demanded a title match against Roberts. While he lost the support of the fans, he won the North American title on July 4, 1981. Orndorff feuded with Ted DiBiase, JYD, Dusty Rhodes, and Dick Murdoch while holding on to the North American title. Orndorff lost the title to DiBiase on November 1, 1981, in a match at the Municipal Auditorium in New Orleans, Louisiana. Orndorff was unable to wrestle in the rematch due to car trouble, which meant that Orndorff's friend Bob Roop got the title shot and won the match. It was soon revealed that Roop had sabotaged Orndorff's car so he could get the title shot instead. Orndorff turned face to feud with Roop but found himself unable to regain the title after which he left the Mid-South Territory.
Orndorff reappeared in Georgia Championship Wrestling in early 1982 immediately launching into a feud with Buzz Sawyer over the NWA National Heavyweight Championship. He won the gold on June 20, 1982. During the summer, he vacated the title to focus on pursuing the NWA World Champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. He was unsuccessful in his challenge and soon focused on the title he gave up. When Orndorff vacated the title, it was put on the line in a tournament that was won by The Super Destroyer. On August 19, 1982, Orndorff regained the title from the Super Destroyer. Orndorff next feuded with The Masked Superstar, with whom he traded the National Heavyweight title back and forth during the fall of 1982. Orndorff then traded the title back and forth with Super Destroyer. Frustrated with his inability to beat Orndorff for the National title, Larry Zbyszko paid Killer Tim Brooks $25,000 to do his dirty work. Brooks beat Orndorff with the help of a chair and won the title only to turn around and give it to Zbyszko. The fact that Zbyszko bought the title and did not win it forced NWA President Bob Geigel to step in and strip Zbyszko of the title.
Orndorff then moved to New Japan Pro Wrestling for several months. He made two tours of Japan, the first in April. He wrestled Kengo Kimura, Riki Choshu, and Akira Maeda, as well as teaming up with Ed Leslie against Antonio Inoki and Seiji Sakaguchi. Orndorff returned in October and partnered with Big John Studd against Maeda and Sakaguchi, then faced Maeda again in singles competition.
World Wrestling Federation (1983–1988)
Alliance with Roddy Piper (1983–1985)
Orndorff signed with the World Wrestling Federation in late 1983 and made his debut in November of that year on Championship Wrestling. Starting in January 1984, Orndorff took on "Rowdy" Roddy Piper as his manager. Piper nicknamed Orndorff "Mr. Wonderful", a nickname that he used thereafter. Orndorff faced Salvatore Bellomo on the night that Hulk Hogan defeated The Iron Sheik for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship and "Hulkamania was now in the WWF as it was in the AWA". Orndorff became one of the first people to challenge for the world title, shooting straight to the main event less than a month after his debut. Hogan disposed of the challenger and moved on while Orndorff fought a variety of opponents including the Intercontinental Champion Tito Santana. When Piper assaulted Jimmy Snuka on the set of Piper's Pit, Orndorff assisted the Rowdy One in his matches. Orndorff and Piper often faced Snuka and "The Tonga Kid" in tag team competition.Near the end of 1984, Piper's assault on Cyndi Lauper brought Orndorff and Piper on a collision course with Hogan and Mr. T. Hogan's feud with Piper also meant that Orndorff was thrust back into the main event picture; he defeated Tony Atlas at The War to Settle the Score and then played a part in the main event. The fallout from The War to Settle the Score led to the creation of WrestleMania, with Hogan and Mr. T taking on Piper and Orndorff in the main event. Orton's interference at the end of the match backfired when he accidentally hit Orndorff with the cast on his arm, allowing Hogan to pin Orndorff and win the match for his team. Blaming Orndorff for the loss, Piper and Orton attacked him on Saturday Night's Main Event I. Later in the evening, Orndorff ran to the ring to even the sides when Piper and Orton were preparing to double team Hogan. He solidified his babyface turn by publicly firing manager Bobby Heenan shortly afterwards.
Alliance with Hulk Hogan (1985–1986)
Orndorff and Hogan started teaming up to feud with Piper and Orton, facing them in tag team competition all over the country. Orndorff's feud with Piper and Orton continued to rage on while Hogan started to defend his title against other contenders; Orndorff faced both Orton and Piper in individual competition, usually without a conclusive outcome. After Orndorff fired Heenan as his manager, Heenan placed a $25,000 bounty on Orndorff, payable to anyone who could injure him. When no one succeeded, Heenan upped the bounty to $50,000. One of the first men to try to claim the new, higher bonus was Piper himself, but their matches got so out of hand that Bruno Sammartino was appointed as a special referee in the hopes of keeping the peace. Instead of keeping the peace, Sammartino became a target for Orton and Piper, which led to Orndorff and Sammartino teaming up. Orndorff teamed with a variety of opponents in his fights with Piper and Orton, including André the Giant. In February 1986, Heenan used a match between Hogan and Don Muraco as an opportunity to have King Kong Bundy attack Hogan, setting up their WrestleMania 2 match. While Hogan fought off Bundy, Orndorff battled Muraco in a match that ended in a double count out.Feud with Hulk Hogan; arm injury (1986–1987)
took every opportunity that he could to mock Orndorff, saying that he had gone soft from teaming with Hogan. Adonis kept on irritating Orndorff, going so far as daring Orndorff to prove just how close his relationship with Hogan really was. During a televised phone call to Hogan, Orndorff was told that Hogan was too busy training to come to the phone, something which aggravated Orndorff no end. The next time that Hogan and Orndorff teamed up, against The Moondogs, Orndorff wrestled most of the match by himself in an attempt to upstage Hogan, scoring the winning pin. The next week, during a tag match where Hogan and Orndorff faced the massive duo of Big John Studd and Bundy, Hogan and Orndorff accidentally collided and Hogan knocked Orndorff off the apron. When Studd and Bundy started to double team Hogan, Orndorff did not help out; he looked like he had hurt his eye in the collision. It was not until Studd and Bundy had Hogan in a compromised position that Orndorff re-entered the ring to fend off Studd and Bundy. Orndorff then helped Hogan to his feet and raised his hand in the air, only to give Hogan a clothesline followed by a piledriver.Orndorff soon reunited with manager Heenan and again feuded with Hogan, and began using Hogan's theme music, "Real American", as his own entrance theme. During the Hogan feud, Orndorff seriously injured his right arm in a weightlifting accident. Because he was in the middle of his big-money run with Hogan, he did not want to take the time off to have the surgery to properly treat it, opting instead to continue to wrestle. Their matches included a memorable outdoor match in Toronto at The Big Event which drew an estimated 76,000 fans. After a series of matches with no clean outcome it was decided that Hogan and Orndorff would clash in a steel cage match on Saturday Night's Main Event IX. The cage match saw both Orndorff and Hogan climb over the top of the cage and touch the floor at the same time; heel referee Danny Davis, illegally at ringside, declared Orndorff the winner and assigned referee Joey Marella declared Hogan victorious. After reviewing the footage it was decided that it was a draw and the match was restarted. Once the match restarted, Hogan easily exited the cage to win the match following a leg drop, ending their feud. Their half-year-long feud is one of the most notable feuds in the history of pro wrestling.
After the program with Hogan ended, Orndorff worked a reduced schedule for a few months. In March 1987, he teamed with King Kong Bundy in the Frank Tunney Sr. Memorial Tag Team Tournament, defeating Bob Orton and Don Muraco in the first round but losing to the Killer Bees in the semi-finals. During March, he briefly reprised his feud with Hogan on several house shows before taking time off because of the injury. While Orndorff was away from the WWF, Heenan brought in a new man "Ravishing" Rick Rude to take Orndorff's place in the Heenan Family.