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 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. 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. On August 19, 1982, Orndorff regained the title from the Super Destroyer. 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". Hogan disposed of the challenger and moved on while Orndorff fought a variety of opponents including the
Intercontinental Champion Tito Santana. 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. 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
Feud with Hulk Hogan; arm injury (1986–1987) Adrian Adonis took every opportunity that he could to mock Orndorff (including referring to him as "Hulk Jr."), 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 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. ending their feud. Their half-year-long feud is one of the most notable (and profitable) feuds in the history of pro wrestling. Orndorff received a babyface response from the crowd during his return, leading the WWF to change his character. He fired Heenan two months later and began a feud with Rude. Orndorff took
Oliver Humperdink as his manager in his fight with Rude and Heenan. Orndorff's last "big" appearance was at the inaugural
Survivor Series on November 26, 1987, where he teamed with Hogan,
Bam Bam Bigelow,
Ken Patera, and Muraco to take on André, One Man Gang, Bundy, Rude, and
Butch Reed. Early in the match, Rude eliminated Orndorff with a
roll-up. His final match with the WWF came on a house show on January 4, 1988, against Rude in Augusta, Georgia.
Semi-retirement and return (1988–1990) Paul Orndorff retired in early 1988 due to his arm injury and focused on running his
bowling alley in Fayetteville. During his time away from wrestling he was actually reported to have died; the story made several newspapers. The time off was because of the injury to his arm/neck that he suffered during the Hogan feud and left untreated for too long. and at the
1990 Great American Bash, Orndorff teamed up with the Junkyard Dog and
El Gigante to defeat Arn Anderson,
Barry Windham, and
Sid Vicious by disqualification. Throughout the summer, he faced Anderson and defeated the WCW TV Champion by pinfall in several non-title matchups. He also defeated
"Mean" Mark Callous in multiple house show encounters. His final WCW match came on August 26 in Chicago when he teamed with The Junkyard Dog in a losing effort against the tag-team champions
Doom. Orndorff departed from the promotion that fall.
UWF, AWF, and NWL (1990–1993) By late 1990, Orndorff became one of the featured headliners for
Herb Abrams' fledgling
Universal Wrestling Federation. Orndorff left the UWF sometime in early 1993, vacating the Southern States title. and
Robert Gibson the feud included a featured "piledriver match", which Garvin won. Orndorff was fired from the SMW after piledriving a referee in frustration.
Return to WCW (1992–2001) World Television Champion (1992–1993) Orndorff returned to WCW in late 1992. In January 1993 he took on
Cactus Jack, with the winner being manager
Harley Race's chosen replacement for an injured Rick Rude at
Clash of the Champions XXII. Race assisted Orndorff in the match and was quickly joined by
Vader in his attack on Cactus Jack. After the match, Race declared that Paul Orndorff was his chosen man. Orndorff was pinned by Cactus Jack in a subsequent
Thunderdome match; the two had an intense feud including a
Falls Count Anywhere match at
SuperBrawl III, which Cactus Jack won. After the feud with Cactus cooled off, "Mr. Wonderful" set his sights on the vacant
WCW World Television Championship. Orndorff signed up for a 16-man tournament beating
2 Cold Scorpio, Cactus Jack,
Johnny B. Badd, and then
Erik Watts in the finals to win his first title in WCW. During this time Orndorff also turned back the challenges of
Ron Simmons and Marcus Alexander Bagwell, amongst others, holding on to his Television title by any means necessary. Orndorff defeated Bagwell controversially, using the second rope for leverage during the pinfall. The two feuded over the WCW World Tag Team Championship. Orndorff's TV title reign also included a successful defence against future ECW champion Shane Douglas and a disqualification loss to Johnny B Badd, after
Maxx Payne violently interfered. This led to a brief six man tag team alliance between Orndorff, Payne, and
Chris Benoit. On August 18, 1993, Orndorff's luck ran out as
Ricky Steamboat won the title at
Clash of the Champions XXIV. After unsuccessfully challenging Ricky Steamboat throughout the fall and winter of 1993, Orndorff moved into the tag team division.
Pretty Wonderful (1993–1995) After the 1993 WCW pay-per-view
Battlebowl, Horsemen members
Paul Roma and
Arn Anderson faced the semi-regular team of Paul Orndorff and
"Stunning" Steve Austin on
WCW Saturday Night. During the match, Roma acted very indifferently to his tag team partner, sowing the seeds to his heel turn. A week later, Roma teamed with
Erik Watts to take on the team of Orndorff and
Lord Steven Regal. This time, Roma took it a step further and attacked Erik Watts before announcing that he was now teaming with Paul Orndorff. Under the tutelage of manager
Masked Assassin, the team quickly began to work well together in a feud with
Marcus Alexander Bagwell and
2 Cold Scorpio. In the following months, both Roma and Orndorff focused on their individual careers before reuniting around May. This time they wrestled without their manager and were officially known as "Pretty Wonderful". With both men rededicated to teaming, they soon challenged for the
WCW World Tag Team Championship then held by
Cactus Jack and
Kevin Sullivan. One incident especially stands out that established Pretty Wonderful in the title chase. The champions had one last defense against former champions
the Nasty Boys that also saw Kevin's injured brother
Dave. The match degraded into a brawl that saw Pretty Wonderful make an appearance using Dave's crutch to attack the champions. Before the team left the ring, they also took a couple of shots at the Nasty Boys for good measure. Going into
Bash at the Beach, Pretty Wonderful had the advantage as both champions were suffering from injuries inflicted by the challengers on previous occasions (kayfabe).
Cactus Jack and
Kevin Sullivan were unable to hold off Roma and Orndorff, as Pretty Wonderful left the ring with the gold. Pretty Wonderful was immediately challenged by the Nasty Boys after winning the title, but the Nasty Boys were never able to take the gold from the champions. Next, Pretty Wonderful was challenged by the duo of
Stars and Stripes (Marcus Alexander Bagwell and
The Patriot) at
Fall Brawl. The champions retained, but a week later the championship changed hands when Stars and Stripes got the victory. At
Clash of the Champions XXIX Stars and Stripes were granted a final shot at the tag team title, but the challengers also had to put up the Patriot's mask on the line. After a controversial double pin finish, Stars and Stripes were declared the winners and thus the champions, putting the end to Pretty Wonderful's second and final run with the gold. In May, Orndorff got a golden opportunity to regain the WCW Television title. He defeated
Brian Pillman in a tournament to earn the shot at the champion. He lost to WCW newcomer
The Renegade at
Bash at the Beach. Orndorff was also unable to beat the rookie in subsequent matches and (in
kayfabe) began to lose confidence in his abilities. After losing more and more matches, including a match on
WorldWide to
Randy Savage, Orndorff lost all faith in his abilities; the outwardly arrogant Mr. Wonderful was riddled with self-doubt, until one night, after beating himself up backstage after yet another loss, he was visited by psychic
Gary Spivey. Spivey convinced Orndorff to believe in himself and that he shouldn't forget that he was "Mr. Wonderful". On the December 11, 1995 episode of
Monday Nitro, Orndorff confronted Brian Pillman after Pillman made derogatory comments about Orndorff. After telling Flair and Anderson how much he respected them, Orndorff told Pillman that he could have been a Horseman and the only reason Pillman was a Horseman was because he was also offered to be one, but turned it down. Anderson and Flair tried to calm Orndorff down but Orndorff lost his temper and attacked Pillman. Pillman, Flair, and Anderson attacked Orndorff and then Arn Anderson and Ric Flair delivered a spike piledriver to Orndorff on the arena floor during the attack. WCW later explained that Orndorff had been seriously hurt in the attack and that his career was over. In actuality, Orndorff was forced to retire due to his previous injuries in the WWF, with the entire right side of his body beginning to
atrophy (eventually causing his arm and leg muscles to shrink). It was something he had worked through as best he could but by the end of 1995 he was forced to retire and started to work as a trainer and a road agent for WCW. He had a brief onscreen role during this time in the Old Age Outlaws with
Terry Funk,
Arn Anderson, and
Larry Zbyszko to feud with the last WCW version of the
nWo.
Post-retirement appearances (2005–2017) , 2015 On February 3, 2005, Orndorff was announced as one of the inductees for the Class of 2005 into the
WWE Hall of Fame. He was inducted on April 2 at the
Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles by
Bobby Heenan. In 2009, Orndorff was elected by a committee of his peers to the
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, then located in Amsterdam, New York, now located in Wichita Falls, Texas. On April 6, 2014, Orndorff made an appearance at
WrestleMania XXX, marking his first time on WWE television since the 2005 Hall of Fame. He appeared in a segment with his
WrestleMania I teammate
Roddy Piper and their opponents from the event,
Hulk Hogan and
Mr. T, as well as the referee for the match,
Pat Patterson, interrupting Hogan's interview with
Gene Okerlund. On August 11, 2014, Orndorff made an appearance at Hogan's birthday celebration on
WWE Raw, celebrating in the ring with many other WWE legends, including
Hogan himself,
Ric Flair,
Kevin Nash,
Scott Hall,
Okerlund,
Jimmy Hart, and
Piper. On May 3, 2017, aged 67, Orndorff had his final match, and first since 2000, winning a six-man tag at a Canadian Wrestling's Elite (CWE) show in
Brandon, Manitoba. ==Personal life==