"Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff's passing at the age of 71, is yet another loss of professional wrestling's stars of yesterday, but to fans of 1980s wrestling, Paul Orndorff was a special performer even in an era that held arguably the highest number of top grapplers in the history of the business.
Orndoff played college football at the University of Tampa and was drafted in round 12 of the 1973 draft by the New Orleans Saints as a running back.
Paul Orndorff had established himself as a top babyface and heel during stints in the Mid-South territory and on national television on WTBS as part of the Georgia Championship Wrestling promotion, but his top work was yet to come.
In 1983, Orndorff left Georgia as a babyface to move to the WWF as a heel to be managed by the Grand Wizard, who would pass away before Orndorff's debut.
Orndorff would be managed by Roddy Piper after the Wizard's passing as Vince McMahon initially brought Piper in as a manager believing him to be too small to be a main event heel.
Dubbed "Mr.Wonderful" by Piper, Orndorff would challenge Hulk Hogan for Hogan's newly won title in 1984 before one of the more memorable angles of his career in teaming with Piper against Hogan and Mr.T at the first Wrestlemania.
Orndorff would lose that match when Cowboy Bob Orton missed with a cast shot off the top rope and hit Orndorff instead causing him to be pinned.
Orndorff would turn to the fan-favorite side after Piper blamed him for the loss and not Orton which led to a feud with Piper and Orton before Orndorff slid down the cards as a babyface
Orndorff would then make the biggest money of his career when he turned on Hulk Hogan during a televised tag match against John Studd and King Kong Bundy and would lead to six months of huge crowds including an outdoor show in Toronto at Exhibition Stadium that drew over 60,000 fans to the then-home of the Blue Jays and CFL Argonauts.
The blowoff would be a memorable steel cage match on Saturday Night's Main Event where "video evidence" was shown to prove that both men hit the floor leaving the cage at the same time to force the match to continue where Hogan would retain his championship.
Those matches were the last for Orndorff at the top of the card, although he would continue with the WWF for another year and would have two different stints with WCW.
After his WCW time in the ring was complete, Orndoff would work as a road agent and as a trainer at WCW's "Power Plant" training school and would have one final moment behind the scenes as Orndorff beat up the much larger "Vader" (Leon White) in a locker room encounter.
What I liked so much about Paul Orndorff was the intensity and realism that he brought to the ring.
Orndorff came off as a real athlete and as mentioned above, Orndorff's intensity as a heel might have been unmatched by any of his peers.
For all of the theatrics that comes with the world of professional wrestling, the ability to put the fan into a state of "suspension of disbelief" was one that most in the business wanted to possess.
Paul Orndorff looked like a fellow that was legitimately angry and didn't have any interest in playing along with the show, which wasn't often the case in the oft-cartoonlike WWF in the 80s.
His punches looked strong and I always loved how he kicked and stomped his opponent with such anger and bad intentions.
It was very easy to believe that Paul Orndorff really was pissed off at his opponent, wanted to beat the hell out of him, and that he would like to have the opportunity to pound on those fans that booed him so much!
My two favorite Paul Orndorff matches were not ones that were classic main events but were television "enhancement" matches that symbolized what Paul Orndorff was all about.
The first was in 1984, not long after Orndorff arrived in the WWF.
It was the transition period between the old All-Star Wrestling and the production values that were to come over the next few years and Orndorff is angry about the fans calling him "Paula".
Orndorff is scheduled against Rudy Diamond, a somewhat scrawny preliminary wrestler, and the fans immediately go after Orndorff with the Paula chant.
Orndorff goes into angry mode and Diamond leaves the ring to walk back to the dressing room.
Orndorff talks to the referee a bit and Diamond comes out wearing a black t-shirt with Paula printed on the front.
Orndorff loses his mind and Diamond literally tries to run away, which is something that not even the lowest wrestlers did, and Orndorff hammers Diamond with a back suplex that looks nasty even today as Diamond's neck hit the mat very awkwardly among other moves before easily winning.
This is a contender for my favorite television squash match ever!
It can be found on YouTube here.
The other match is against Lanny Poffo, who was a level above the Rudy Diamonds of the world. but still usually lost on television and the match takes place shortly after Orndorff's turn on Hulk Hogan.
Poffo, complete with 80s perm, in his role as poet, takes the ring announcer's microphone and gives a catchy poem about Orndorff to cheers from the fans.
Then the sounds of "Real American" ring out as Orndorff was using the theme music for Hulk Hogan as he "claimed" that Hogan's theme was written for him and stolen from him by Hogan and here comes Orndorff with manager Bobby Heenan.
Complete with a stoic face that makes even a "smart mark" stay away from him, Orndorff stomps down the aisle and Poffo is in trouble.
Normally, Poffo would offer an offensive move or two in his role as one of the better enhancement talents, but not in this one as Orndorff tears into him as soon as he hits the ring, suplexes him outside the ring in an era where that isn't done very often, almost decapitates him with a clothesline before finishing Poffo off with a piledriver.
The entire match was incredibly effective in having Orndorff get "over" as a heel (and give Poffo credit for doing his job well) and made me at the time wonder "Damn, did Lanny Poffo do something to tick Orndorff off before this match?"- Suspension of disbelief, indeed.
The Orndorff-Poffo match can be found here.
Orndorff wasn't used quite as well in his days in WCW, although he was usually in the upper-middle of the card, and didn't have many world titles matches, although he did hold the television title and the tag team title with Paul Roma as the team named "Pretty Wonderful".
My favorite WCW memory of Orndorff was this almost operatic theme that he used. Hilarious.
Paul Orndorff's ability to seem real was almost unmatched and at his peak, Orndorff was one of the best wrestlers in the world and very few wrestling fans in the 1980s ever forgot what they saw from "Mr.Wonderful in the ring.
Orndorff won't be forgotten.
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