R.I.P Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff at age 71
 

It was reported last week that Paul had late stage dementia. His son confirmed his passing.

This really sucks. Paul was incredible.

R.I.P Paul Orndorff.

P. Orndorff...

Porn Dwarf...

Would have liked to see an arm wrestling match between Porn Dwarf and Withered Arm Handerson

RIP. Met him a few years ago. Nice man.

Greatest piledriver ever

Wonderful piledriver.

Wonderfullllllllllllllllllllll, they call him Mr. Wonderfulllllllllllllllllllllll, you know that he's so wonderfulllllllllllllllllllllll :(

Best moment was him kissing his biceps while dancing in Land of 1000 Dances video.

Soooo great


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August 7, 1983 at the Omni in Atlanta. GA,,,,,Paul Orndorff was on this card with Bobby Jaggers. RIP to both and also RIP Vicky Venom,,,,

... I never noticed Gorilla Monsoon slapping the top of Fink’s bald head instead of clapping until just now.

Haha good find

Half of Wrestlemania's first main event is now gone. RIP Mr Wonderful

Hogan's first 6 Wrestlemania opponents are dead

WM1: Piper and Orndorff
WM2: Bundy
WM3: Andre
WM4 Andre
WM5 Savage
WM6 Warrior.

By wrestling standards especially, It’s actually kinda shocking that it’s only half.

It should have been Steamboat

Those guys from the early to mid 80's lived longer than the late 80's/early 90s guys.

I remember having a discussion with someone about this topic and I found a April 1984 MSG card where up until recently the entire card was alive. I think Piper was the first to pass away on this card

Still though, 24 wrestlers on this card and only 5 are dead. Goulet, Bellomo, Piper, Orndorff and Johnson


Tiger Chung Lee v Tonga Kid
Rene Goulet v Jose Luis Rivera
WWF IC Champion Tito Santana pinned JJ Dillon (sub. for Afa)
The Iron Sheik v Sgt. Slaughter
Salvatore Bellomo v Ron Shaw
Roddy Piper, Paul Orndorff, & David Schultz v Ivan Putski, Rocky Johnson, & Tony Atlas
B. Brian Blair v Samula
Women's Tag Team Champions Princess Victoria & Velvet McIntyre v Peggy Lee & Wendi Richter
Bob Backlund pinned Greg Valentine

If I counted correctly in my quick look over the WM 1 card, 16 out of 31 of the match participants (managers included) are still alive. Over 50%. Nice.

I never narrowed it down that much but it makes sense. Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

That and injecting horse steroids and monkey hormones

My favourite Orndorff opponent was Piper. They had some wild brawls post WM1.

LOVE these matches. Crowd went crazy.

I have a blind spot for Orndorff. My only real memory of him was when he got piledrived (piledriven?) onto concrete by the Horsemen on a Nitro.

There's tons of 84-86 WWF on YouTube if you wanted to check him out.

RIP

This is the real Mania streak.

His final career match saw him get injured delivering a piledriver to Mark Jindrak at Fall Brawl 2000. Match had to be shut down. :(

All that for a crowd that seemed oblivious to the fact that Orndorff had trained most of the Thrillers at the Power Plant.

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Nobody in this crowd had a clue who he was. Really sad.

I hope his death gets people to check out the Rock n Wrestling Era. There's so much fun stuff with Tuesday Night Titans, the crazy promos, great matches etc.

I always hated how he never got his chance to Main Event Wrestlemania with Hogan. Just bad timing. back in an era where there was only one PPV.

They did the Big Event match and some Saturday Nights i believe, but that was it. If this was a few years later, this would of been a Summerslam main event for sure.

The turn was fantastic and he was the best heel in 86

Here's the Orndorff turn on Hogan if ya'll haven't seen it before

OOF. This is one of those passings that just makes you scream "FUCK (year)!". Truly one of the greats and he will be sorely missed. RIP.

That lariat, and the taunting the crowd. Brilliant.

So well executed.

Ordnorff's turn cemented the archetype for Hogan feuds for pretty much the rest of his face career. When in doubt, have a friend turn on Hogan.

seeing those heel turns just baffles me why they can’t execute them like that today . They are so simple and not overdone/over acted like everyone today. I love how Orndorff was 100% on Hogans side during the match. He wasn’t acting like a heel at all (you know lollygagging around , not reaching the the tag etc…). But as the match progressed, he just got so fed up with Hogan basically trying to win the match himself. Then Hogan runs into him and that was the last straw . So relatable and so simple

It reminds me of the Windham turn on Luger in 88

The whole build up to it was so well done. They had a tag a week or so prior against the Moondogs where Orndorff stayed in the ring the entire match and didn't tag Hogan once. He also did a Flower Shop appearance with Adonis where the heels got into his ear that he was just Hogan's lackey. So well done.

They used to do these slow burn storyline so well

:(


One of the cruelest illnesses, dementia, you live a life and at some stage of that disease most of it is basically wiped from your mind.

Just watched a May 1984 episode of WWF All Star Wrestling. A fan in the crowd had a sign that read "Orndorff + Piper are Gay Lovers". The cameras focused on the sign for a good 4-5 seconds.

I wonder if this was true

I really enjoyed Orndorff as a 2nd tier heel in WCW in the early 90's. He was able to have some really fantastic high paced matches with the younger guys, even though his arm was atrophying so badly. I remember Meltzer saying his WWF run with Hogan was the most successful house show circuit ever for WWF, I wonder if that still holds true. His look and ability was certainly top notch in those days. It's a real shame how WWF didn't get a better main event at Mania 2. The Bundy match was good yes but why they didn't go for a one on one with Piper or Orndorff is baffling to me. I mean sure the boxing match with Mr. T and Piper "seems like a good idea" and a draw but, Bundy just wasn't a star.