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Florida
native Paul Martin is widely regarded as one of the toughest
men in professional wrestling. A story told by Bobby
Heenan has it that Orndorff once beat up the wrestler known as
Vader while wearing a bathrobe and slippers. Hulk Hogan
has cited Orndorff as one of the toughest men he ever
faced. Martin played football for the University
of Tampa and was a first round draft pick in the NFL.
While football didn't pan out for Martin, he tried his hand at
wrestling and was trained by Hiro Matsuda (the same man who
trained Hulk Hogan). Orndorff's first major title win
was in Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling (MSW)where he battled
with Ernie "The Cat" Ladd over the North American Heavyweight
Championship, beating Ladd for the belt and eventually losing
it back to Ladd. Orndorff traveled to Mid-Atlantic
Championship Wrestling (MACW) where he teamed with
Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka and captured Mid-Atlantic's version of the National
Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Tag Team Championship from
Baron Von Raschke and Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. The two defended the belts before
dropping them to Von Raschke and his new partner Paul
Jones.
After his campaign in
MACW, Orndorff wrestled in Southeastern
Championship Wrestling (SCW) winning the Southeastern Tag
Team Titles with Dick Slater. Later on, Orndorff
returned to MSW where he resumed his feud with "The Cat"
after Ladd injured Orndorff's brother Terry. Orndorff
turned heel and feuded with some of the area's top stars
including the Junkyard Dog, Jake
Roberts, and Ted
DiBiase.
Following hissuccess in
MSW, Orndorff moved to Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW)
where his championship success continued when he defeated Buzz
Sawyer for the National Heavyweight Title. Orndorff
feuded with the area's top heels including Ivan
Koloff, Larry Zybszko, and the
Masked Superstar. The National Title was often the
center of the feuds but Orndorff had his eyes on the NWA World
Heavyweight Championship as well. At one point Orndorff
vacated the National Title so he could focus his attention on
winning the World Championship. Unfortunately the world title
eluded Orndorff.
During the
World Wrestling Federation's national expansion, Orndorff was
one of many wrestlers sought out by Vince McMahon and he soon
found himself wrestling in the WWF with "Rowdy" Roddy
Piper as his manager.
With Piper at his side, it didn't take Orndorff long before he
found himself in the main event of the first
ever Wrestlemania. It all started when Orndorff
interfered in a match between Piper and Hulk Hogan at
the War to Settle the Score, a main event match in Madison
Square Garden televised live on
MTV.
The War to Settle the Score settled
nothing. Instead, it led to a tag team match between the
teams of Hulk Hogan/Mr. T and Roddy Piper/Paul Orndorff.
The match became the cornerstone of an event promoted as
Wrestlemania, an all-star card that would be broadcast on
closed circuit television. The event was heavily hyped
by the WWF and the Hulkster began making appearances all over
television including an appearance on Saturday Night
Live with Mr. T.
At Wrestlemania,
the Hulkster and Mr. T defeated the team of Piper and Orndorff
after outside interference by "Cowboy" Bob Orton
backfired. After Bob Orton accidentally hit Orndorff
with his cast during the match, Mr. Wonderful was easy
pickings and quickly pinned, costing Piper a defeat.
Piper was not happy and appeared on Saturday Night's Main
Event during his "Piper's Pit" show to criticize his former
tag team partner. After Piper brought up Orndorff's
family, Orndorff lost his temper shouting "You leave my family
out of this!" Orndorff attacked Piper but Orton's
bodyguard laid into Orndorff with his cast and the two heels
began beating up Orndorff before Mr. T made the save. As
a result of the events on "Piper's Pit", Orndorff earned the
cheers of the fans and soon found himself allied with his
former foe Hulk Hogan. To remove all questions about his
intentions to wrestle as a fan favorite, Orndorff fired his
manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. An enraged Heenan then offered a $50,000 bounty to
anyone who put Orndorff out of action.
Heenan was
unable to find anyone to collect on the bounty and Orndorff
competed in singles action in the WWF, proceeding to the
second round of The Wrestling Classic before being eliminated
in a double count-out with Tito Santana.
Orndorff enjoyed success and the cheers of the fans before his
ego and temper got the better of him.
During the
summer of 1986, Orndorff appeared on Adrian Adonis' talk show
segment "The Flower Shop". Adonis mocked Orndorff and
told him that he was nothing more than Hulk Hogan's
sidekick. The words dug deep into Orndorff's psyche and
fans noticed that Orndorff was different. When Mr.
Wonderful teamed with the Hulkster against the Moondogs, there
was a noticeable attention. The two then teamed up to
take on the awesome combination of "Big" John Studd and "King
Kong" Bundy. Almost from the start it was obvious that
Orndorff was trying to prove that he didn't need Hogan's help
in the match. This was a serious mistake to make against
a team as powerful as Bundy and Studd. Things didn't go as planned however and Orndorff was
forced to tag Hogan in. After winning the match by
disqualification, Orndorff attacked Hogan and piledrived
him, leaving him laying in the ring. A jubiliant Bobby
Heenan then congratulated Orndorff, chanting "Wonderful,
wonderful" and welcomed him back into the Bobby Heenan
Family.
While he was now
hated by the fans for betraying Hogan, Orndroff was also the
number one contender for Hogan's WWF Heavyweight Title.
Mr. Wonderful taunted the fans and Hogan by coming out to
Hogan's theme song "Real American". Orndorff battled the
Hulkster across North America and set an attendance record in
Toronto, Ontario at The Big Event where he lost to Hogan by
disqualification after his manager Bobby Heenan hit Hogan with
a wooden stool. The feud continued and reached its
climax on Saturday Night's Main Event where the two battled in
a steel cage match. The match was highly controversial
with Orndorff and Hogan escaping the cage at the exact same
time (In the WWF a cage match was one by the first wrestler to
escape the cage). To the referee, it appeard that both
men's feet had touched the floor at the same time and video
replays were inconclusive. As a result, the referee
restarted the match. After the match was restarted,
Hogan fought his way to victory and was the first man to
escape the cage.
After his feud with Hogan, Orndorff
surprised fans by firing his manager Bobby Heenan again.
This firing occured after Heenan brought "Ravishing" Rick Rude
in as the newest member of the Bobby Heenan Family and there
was a dispute over who had the better body. Orndorff
turned face and feuded with the Ravishing One.
Orndorff patched things up with Hogan teamed up with Hogan at
the 1987 Survivor Series.
For the next three years, Orndorff
disappeared from wrestling and focused his energy on running a
bowling alley. However wrestling began its siren call to
Mr. Wonderful and he soon found himself wrestling occasionally
on the independent circuit before returning to the NWA in
1990. Orndorff returned as a face and teamed with Sting, Lex Luger, El Gigante, the
Steiner Brothers, and the
Junkyard Dog as part of the "Dudes with Attitude", a
babyface faction which opposed the Four Horsemen.
Orndorff didn't stay long in the
NWA but he continued wrestling, this time in smaller
promotions such as Herb Abrams UWF and Jim Cornette's Smokey
Mountain Wrestling (SMW). In SMW, Orndorff battled in a
tournament to crown the SMW Heavyweight Champion.
Orndorff battled Brian Lee in the finals but lost by
disqualification. He began feuding with Lee and teamed
with the Dirty White Boys during the feud. After
piledriving a referee, Orndorff was suspended from
SMW.
Harley Race brought Orndorff in to
battle Cactus Jack in a special "tough man" match.
Orndorff began feuding with Foley and went on to win the WCW
Television Title in a 16 man tournament. Orndorff held
the belt for several months before dropping the belt to Ricky
Steamboat. Orndorff then teamed with "Pretty" Paul Roma
to form "Pretty Wonderful" a successful tag team which went on
to win the WCW World Tag Team Titles on two separate
occasions.
In 1995 though, Orndorff found his
star falling in WCW as wins seemed to elude him. Gary
Spivey of the Psychic Network approached Orndorff and helped
him regain his self-confidence. "Mr. Wonderful" was
back, and better than ever. In December 1995, it
all came to an end when Brian Pillman mocked Orndorff's
association with Spivey. Orndorff confronted Pillman but
was then double-teamed by Ric Flair and Arn Anderson of
the Four Horsemen. Orndorff was then spike-piledrived
and put out of action.
As a result of neck surgey,
Orndorff was unable to compete in the ring. However in
2000 he came out of retirement to battle against Creative
Control and the Natural Born Thrillers. During a tag
match against the Thrillers, Orndorff suffered a stinger and
was unable to wrestle any further.
In 2005, Paul Orndorff was inducted
into the WWE Hall of Fame.
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