Original subtitles

[Announcer] The one, the only,

Mr. Wonderful!

[Jim] If you're a certain age and you're a wrestling fan,

Mr. Wonderful, Paul Orndorff, was the pinnacle to you.

[Brian] Mr. Wonderful was a key piece

in the foundation of the WWE.

[Narrator] Remembered for his epic feud with Hulk Hogan,

Paul Orndorff thrilled audiences as the

arrogant heel, Mr. Wonderful.

[Paul] Mr. Wonderful, the man that defied

the whole wrestling world.

[Travis] Mr. Wonderful was this expression

of his perfection.

[Paul] This is what the most

'wonderfulest' body looks like.

[Brian] Paul was a rockstar.

Mr. Wonderful in complete control.

[Narrator] A gifted athlete, Orndorff channeled the

difficult upbringing into an imposing persona

in and out of the ring.

[Jim] When that switch flipped there was a

price to pay for making Paul Orndorff mad.

[Announcer] Look at this!

[Gerry] People feared him. The talent feared him.

The fans feared him.

[Brian] Paul was the toughest guy that I had ever witnessed.

[Brian] He fought for everything that he got.

[Narrator] The intensity that defined him,

pushed his body to the brink and hid his private pain.

[Herb] Hang in there, hang in there.

[Jim] He was the closest thing to Superman

without the cape.

But the cumulative effect of age and injuries

had taken a toll on him.

[Announcer] Paul Orndorff has suffered some sort of

neck injury in the ring.

[Travis] It was hard to watch him physically deteriorate.

- [laughing] - One more match!

[Brian] You could see how much Paul had aged.

He shouldn't look like that.

He had been abused and neglected for a long time.

[Travis] He was in the hospital, I said,

"I'm taking him home." And they said,

"You can't and there's nothing we can do."

This is a joke, right?

People were dying alone in the hospital during Covid.

That's not happening.

I'm gonna raise holy hell,

and I had no idea how,

but he was coming home with me.

[Brian] When Travis posted that video, I said,

"Why would you do this?" Paul deserved his privacy.

[Gerry] Wow. You're putting this out of your dad.

Do not embarrass him in front of the whole world.

[Travis] I didn't know what to do.

I was desperate.

I wasn't trying to embarrass him,

I was trying to save him.

?

[crowd chatter continues]

Why are you here, what's the big deal here?

What's the big deal? Excitement.

This is the sport of the 80's.

This is the media event of 1985.

This is WrestleMania.

This is the thing of today.

Hulk-a-mania is running wild.

[Announcer] Ladies and Gentlemen,

welcome to WrestleMania!

[Announcer] Pandemonium breaking loose here in

Madison Square Garden in WrestleMania.

We're seeing the greatest spectacle

in wrestling history right now.

[Jim] WrestleMania One was Vince McMahon's big gamble.

[Vince] Hello everyone, this is Vince McMahon.

[Jim] There had never been a nationally broadcast

mega close-circuit event

in every market in the United States

to blend pro wrestling and pop culture.

He had to have the promotion right,

the card right.

He loaded the thing up with

the biggest attraction that he could.

[Announcer] Ladies and Gentlemen,

our main event!

[Crowd] [cheering]

[Jim] Hulk Hogan and Mr. T

against Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff.

They were in the spot of the main event of the

biggest grossing wrestling event of all time.

[Mr. T] Piper and Orndorff, you're dead meat.

You're dead meat and I pity you, fool.

[Jim] Everybody went into this thing

with some pressure on 'em because

this had not been done before on this level.

[Announcer] The biggest match in the history of wrestling.

[Jim] Why was Paul Orndorff there?

Because he was an elite level wrestler.

[Announcer] Suplex! He got him!

[Jim] He could work with a guy like Mr. T

that was greener than a pepper tree

and didn't know what he was doing.

He could put all of Hulk Hogan's stuff over.

And then when it came time, he was the guy to get beat.

[Announcer] Oh! He got Orndorff!

Unbelievable, he got him!

[Crowd] [cheering] [Announcer] They got him!

[Jim] The event was such a success that people

had forgotten the fact that Orndorff was the key,

because who else is gonna do the job of those four guys?

Only Paul.

That's how Vince McMahon hoped to,

and eventually did, get a leg up on the rest of

the wrestling world and take it over.

By creating WrestleMania.

[Announcer] Unbelievable, pandemonium...

[Paul] He wanted to take over the world.

And he did.

I think it changed the whole course of wrestling.

Matter of fact, I know it did.

[Travis] Does my dad get all the credit he deserves?

He gets the credit he deserves from

the people that watched it.

?

The people that go back and watch wrestling

very much appreciate his work.

My name is Travis Orndorff and I'm the son of

Mr. Wonderful, Paul Orndorff.

I certainly inherited his intensity.

Everybody out there knows what kind of a man I am.

[Travis] You know, Dad moved.

He was either go or stop.

His evolution to Mr. Wonderful was this

progression of his history, his intensity and

all of that coming together.

As I think most good hero stories are,

they come from very humble beginnings

and a pretty rough childhood.

[Brian] There's no doubt that Paul's upbringing

made him the tough guy that he was.

I mean... [scoffing]

I'm B. Brian Blair, and Paul Orndorff

was one of my closest friends for many years.

Paul's home was in a trailer park.

He actually grew up in a converted chicken coop.

[Travis] My grandfather's a butcher.

The life of a butcher, it's not like there was a lot of money.

Modest would be an upgrade.

They were poor.

[Brian] I'll never forget when his dad came to my house

and the tears started coming from his eyes and he said,

"I did the best that I could."

I thought I grew up tough, um,

Paul really grew up tough.

[Travis] There's one story, Dad had worked some job and

when he came home with cash, my grandmother,

she asked for the money, and he told her no,

he wasn't giving her the money, it was his money.

And so, she knocked him out with a cast iron skillet...

and took the money.

[Travis] Yes.

[Brian] You know, he fought for everything that he got.

He was in an area where

people fought on a regular basis.

It was like part of their lifestyle growing up.

[Travis] My grandfather was a drinker.

My dad bare knuckle fought to pay his bar tab on occasion.

You know, he had a lot of anger.

[Brian] I've seen Paul in lots of fights

and he never lost one.

One night, his brother Terry

got into a situation in a bar,

calls Paul, and says, "I need some help."

Paul runs into this bar, there's two sheriffs that

have Terry down and Terry's screaming.

Paul, boom, nails one of them.

?

Nails the other one.

One guy's on the ground, he calls for back up.

In comes five more sheriffs. They try to grab Paul.

Paul nails all of them!

[shouting] Argh!

This is one guy.

One man.

And seven sheriffs.

[Travis] That was his outlet, but sometimes

you can't put that genie back in the bottle.

You combine the fact that there's poverty,

there's alcohol, there's anger...

my dad was forged in hell.

[Narrator] Despite the chaos at home,

Paul has a gift that will change everything.

[Brian] Since he was very, very young

Paul was one of the greatest athletes

to ever come out of Tampa Florida.

[Gerry] Paul was a true believer in, "my athletic

ability will carry me as far as I can go."

I'm Gerry Brisco, WWE Hall of Famer

and I've spent a lot of time with

Mr. Wonderful, Paul Orndorff.

And Paul definitely thought his way out was football.

[Travis] Dad graduated at 18 years old,

and he went on to the University of Tampa.

[Brian] Paul got a full ride there,

he was number 40, the fullback.

Got drafted by the New Orleans Saints.

Played there for 4 years.

[Paul] Really kinda lost my, my heart for football.

I played it all my life and just didn't

care for it anymore.

And I happened to be watching TV

and catch this wrestling.

Thank you very much and welcome again to

Championship Wrestling from Florida.

[Paul] And I said, "Oh, I can do that."

My father-in-law knew Eddie Graham,

and he gave me a tryout.

[Gerry] So, he brought him in and, of course,

put him right with Hiro Matsuda.

[Announcer] From Yokohama, Japan,

Hiro Matsuda!

[Brian] Hiro Matsuda wrestled as a villain for Eddie,

before he became the trainer.

So, Hiro's job was to train the new prospective talent.

[Paul] It was the Harvard of professional wrestling

and Hiro would just put me through it.

But I had that drive, you know,

I had the heart for it.

[Paul] It sounds like I'm bragging,

I guess I am. But it's the truth.

[Brian] Three summers that I had with Matsuda,

over 100 people came there and the only people

that made it through the camp was Hogan,

myself and Mr. Wonderful, Paul Orndorff.

That's all.

So, we just had a natural bond.

[Narrator] After making his mark in Florida,

Paul now sets his sights on building a reputation

across the country.

[Jim] I had never heard the name Paul Orndorff

before in my life.

When he came into Memphis with that look and that style

and that athleticism.

This guy is something special.

I'm Jim Cornette and I took the picture for

Paul Orndorff's wrestling magazine cover in 1977.

He didn't have a gimmick.

He didn't have an over-the-top personality.

You could kind of buy him as being this hot shot athlete

that's come in and is gonna take over.

[Arn] Paul was one of those guys that looked like a

body builder but was smooth like an amateur wrestler.

I'm Arn Anderson, the Enforcer,

and Paul Orndorff was my friend.

Paul carried himself with just this air of

invincibility about him. If nothing else,

he believed his own press.

And sometimes, that's all you need.

[Announcer] Very quick. Really can move.

[Jim] Paul worked all the major territories in the

first three or four years of his career.

And he progressed quickly.

[Gerry] What really made Paul click was

that desire to better himself and to

bring his family up out of poverty.

[Travis] My mom and dad met in high school.

My mom, Ronda, she got pregnant at the

age of seventeen and they got married.

They were very young.

My brother's Paul Orndorff III.

[Brian] It's Paul Jr. and they call him 'Buzz'.

[Travis] He's nine years older.

So, we had the same parents,

but they were different parents, right?

My mom, those years were hard on her.

There was a lot of moving, there was not a lot of money.

Dad carried baggage from his childhood.

He had a short fuse at times, you know,

he had not grown up.

They didn't have therapy back then.

You worked, you drank and you just lived life,

and nobody said anything about anything,

and you moved on.

That's where you forge bitterness and resentment.

[Brian] It's so hard to raise a family...

when you're on the road.

You know, the wife�s at home and,

the kids have no dad.

[Travis] My mom took her frustration out on everybody.

She was constantly, you know,

talking bad about my father.

It was, it was rough.

My dad was never perfect, but as a father,

he was unconditionally loving.

And I never felt like he was that far away.

[Narrator] In 1983, Hulk Hogan

recommends Paul to Vince McMahon,

opening the door to the hottest promotion

in the country.

[Vince] The topic of this week's update, a gentleman

known in professional wrestling as

Mr. Wonderful, Paul Orndorff.

[Jim] In late 1983, Vince McMahon was

starting the national television syndication that

would lead to the WWF's national expansion.

Hogan's word carried a lot of weight with Vince

because Vince was building the entire company

around Hogan and he wanted to bring in people

that Hogan liked to wrestle.

That he thought he could draw money with and

one of the guys that he brought in

was Paul Orndorff.

[Announcer] Introducing the challenger,

Mr. Wonderful...

Paul Orndorff!

[Gerry] Paul checked every box that he could

possibly check except the experience box.

So, it was kinda a roll of the dice.

[Announcer] Hulk Hogan...

[Paul] You gotta take gambles in life, and I did.

And it paid off.

[Announcer] Oh!

[Jim] Paul was in the WWF within five or six years

after he started and he's already been

a main event guy in a variety of big promotions.

That's a very quick trajectory.

[Announcer] Mr. Wonderful...

[Jim] Paul took the name Mr. Wonderful

because in his heel persona

it indicated that he was a megalomaniac.

That he was the most self - absorbed man on the planet.

[Women] Hello, Mr. Wonderful.

[Paul] This is the kind of treatment that

Mr. Wonderful gets.

[Travis] One of my favorite lines is

"so with a body like this and a face like this..."

[Paul] When you got a body like this and

a face like this, you can do any damn thing

you wanna do and I get away with it.

[Travis] He saw his body as a temple.

For him, that was his pay cheque.

[Paul] A lot of people try to have a body like this.

But they never will.

[Brian] [laughing] He, Paul was a,

Paul was a stud.

I mean, he had to have his hair blow dried perfectly.

[Travis] Paul Mitchell hairspray.

If I ever get cancer, it's gonna be from having

to have smelt that my entire childhood.

[Paul] Ah, look at that. It's terrible.

[Travis] There's a reason my dad loved being a heel.

[Crowd] [cheering]

[Travis] Anger is the easiest emotion to evoke.

[Announcer] Oh! Oh!

He's giving the sign for the pile driver.

[Jim] The pile driver was Paul's signature

finishing move.

He could get a massive jump

and then boom, drove him.

It was one of the most deadly moves in wrestling.

[Paul] I knew my style was different

and I would be the best heel there,

which I was.

[Announcer] Dropping it like yesterday's newspaper...

[Gerry] So that cockiness and arrogance

just went along with that body.

[Paul] And all you women that are ready to leave

your husband for me, now you know why.

That was me, it wasn't fake.

I mean, that was me. That's the way I was.

Ask my wife, she'll tell you.

I was a jerk.

[Brian] I think Ronda wasn't stupid

when it came to realizing

that her husband wasn't

the loyal husband.

[Travis] I was out on the road sometimes and I can

remember being at different hotels and the groupies,

and the women, standing outside.

You gave them money and you gave them fame

and all the things that come with it.

I don't think my family was immune to it

any more than anybody else was.

[Brian] Girls were throwing themselves

at you all the time.

I mean, it was like being a rock star.

Following the success of WrestleMania...

[Roddy] In WrestleMania it was your shoulders that were

pinned to the ground brother, not me.

[Narrator] Vince McMahon recasts Paul Orndorff

as a hero, aligning him with Hulk Hogan.

[Announcer] Mr. Wonderful wants Hulkster

to shake hands.

[Jim] Imagine, especially in the 80's,

you have seen Hulk Hogan

rise to become the champion

and all the little Hulkamaniacs are on his side

and suddenly, he has a friend.

And you like the friend too.

[Announcer] Mr. Wonderful, Paul Orndorff.

[Jim] They were on his side because he was

a straight ahead, all American athlete.

[Narrator] Just as Mr. Wonderful reaches

the peak of his popularity,

an injury in the ring stops him cold.

[Travis] He was in a match,

somebody caught him on the chin.

It ended up causing nerve damage

that ran through his radial nerves.

[Arn] It affects your deltoids, your triceps, bicep.

Comes all the way down on into your forearm.

Once you have serious nerve damage,

it's irreversible.

[Jim] He could not bring himself to give up that spot

and that kind of money to have surgery

and so he soldiered through it.

[Travis] He has built his body and life

around this moment

where he was gonna capture

generational wealth.

[Narrator] Despite the nagging injury,

Paul prepares for his most important story line yet.

[Vince] You and Hulk Hogan.

[Paul] I've been trying to call him 5 or 6 minutes.

I've been on the phone.

He won't come to the phone.

[Jim] One of the biggest drawing angles you can do

is give the hero a sidekick,

a best friend, a partner.

[clicking tongue]

And he stabs him in the back.

[Announcer] Oh no! What in the world?

[Travis] During the heel turn,

he does what my dad does.

He does a pile driver on him.

[Announcer] You've gotta be... no!

No! No!

[Travis] You know, he walks over to

the ropes, and it's real slow.

[Crowd] [booing]

[Travis] How do you like that?

[Announcer] Look at that.

I don't believe this.

What in the world is wrong with Orndorff?

[Brian] When Orndorff turned on Hulkster,

that was a monumental spot for the wrestling industry.

[Announcer] Hulk Hogan!

[Paul] I loved working with Terry.

He made me the hottest heel in the country,

and I made him the hottest babyface in the country.

[Brian] Everything about it clicked.

Everything started exploding and they were just hot.

[Announcer] For 6 months this feud has gone on.

[Hulk] You sold out a country, man!

You sold out all those people that believed in you, man.

[Jim] Now all the little Hulkamaniacs and

the big Hulkamaniacs, they all wanted to

see Hulk Hogan get even

with the guy that betrayed him.

[Paul] I mean, I had death threats

and everything else, man.

Bottles and darts thrown at me and...

[Travis] Wrestling fans are a whole 'nother level.

It is crazy how driven, motivated and

in love they are with these characters.

I had a friend that quit talking to me,

when I was like 8 years old and a few years later

"I am so sorry I hated you.

Your dad turned on Hulk Hogan."

[Paul] I am the most unpopular person in

the world, well, that is an achievement right there.

[Crowd] [cheering]

[Jim] When they decided to do the big event at the

Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto,

over 60,000 people

went to Exhibition Stadium to see

Hulk Hogan versus Paul Orndorff.

[Announcer] Big right hand by the champion!

[Arn] You know why it worked?

Everybody in that building believed Orndorff

could beat Hogan. They believed.

[Announcer] Oh, he's back with the shoulder of Orndorff.

Oh, come on, Paul!

[Jim] That was the biggest crowd in the history of

wrestling in North America, to that point.

Here's a guy that grew up in a fucking trailer

that they used to use as a chicken coop.

Now he's facing the top star in the business

and he's making $25,000 a week,

which is the equivalent of almost

$100,000 a week today.

[Paul] I didn't go in here blind.

I mean, I had a plan.

I truly had a plan for once in my life, and it worked.

I was told I was gonna make money.

And when Mr. McMahon said you're gonna make money,

you will make money.

?

[Brian] He was absolutely on top of the world.

[Announcer] There he is, right there.

[Travis] That was a job.

And it was a job that took him away from me

and I wanted my dad home.

I don't remember at that period

ever going without anything.

I can tell you I went to one of the

top private schools at the time.

Everything was paid off.

Do you remember the old red Tupperware?

We had those in the freezer and there was like money

stacked in there and, like, one of them fell out

and broke my toe.

My mom, she liked the money of wrestling and,

you know, she didn't have to work.

She had been diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis,

and it was genuinely severe,

this happened in the late 80's.

And then, you know, the pills started.

[Brian] Unfortunately, when he was sending his money home

his wife was spending it all on the wrong things.

On drugs and other things.

[Travis] It was often just me and my mom.

She wouldn't wake up on time to take me to school.

There was this evolution of pain medication,

and you know, it just continued and

it continued the rest of her life.

[Narrator] The relentless schedule leaves Paul

little time at home with Ronda and their sons

or to deal with his worsening injury.

[Jim] There were a few weeks

where the WWF was selling in excess of

150,000 tickets, in a week,

to see Hogan and Orndorff wrestle.

And it was a double-edged sword.

[Paul] I'd get two or three days off

and Vince would track me down

and wanted me to come back to work.

When you're main event you can't, you gotta go.

And I was going hurt,

burnt out and tired flying all day and

getting to the gym and I was working

18 hours a day, man.

I did that for three years.

You know, I got a family to feed.

[Travis] So, Dad was still on the road,

he was injured and, I got... deathly ill.

I went from 83 pounds

to 52 pounds

in about 3 weeks.

Dad didn't see me every day,

but they would bring in a cot and when

he'd come into town he'd sleep in my room with me.

I lost the ability to walk, my hands quit working,

my body kinda shut down.

The best answer I've gotten is a complex regional

pain syndrome, but at the time,

they really didn't think I was going to live.

So, the doctor, at his own wits end, said,

"We think your son has a brain tumour."

My dad grabbed him by the collar,

pinned him up against the wall, and said,

"He doesn't have a F-ing brain tumour".

In that moment, he was angry and he was scared.

And he didn't want to lose his baby boy.

[Brian] I think that always hurt Paul,

that he couldn't be around his kids more.

But he couldn't do both.

And he chose what

was gonna at least feed 'em, clothe 'em

and hopefully he would make amends

when he retired.

[Jim] By 1988, you couldn't ignore it anymore.

His arm was atrophying, it was getting smaller,

it was affecting his work.

[Arn] You looked at his two arms,

and it was like two different people.

[Brian] He was very depressed about his arm,

about the business, about Ronda, about money,

about so many different things and he's using,

whether it was drugs or women,

whatever crutch he could find to

escape the moment.

[Travis] Vince had made my dad a promise

when he got hurt. He said,

"Don't screw me and you'll have a job here

the rest of your life."

And my dad screwed him.

nerve injury to his arm, a se

Paul Orndorff walks away from wrestling,

burning a bridge with the promoter

who made him famous.

[Travis] The way my dad left WWF,

when he did, he upset Vince.

[Jim] He no-showed Vince McMahon and the WWF

after asking for days off that he didn't get.

Paul was a guy that if he felt he wasn't being treated

fairly that he would take matters in his own hands.

Did you and Vince leave on good terms?

No. [laughing]

No... Oh, I got buried.

I think that people got in his ear,

that tell him I didn't get hurt. I was hurt.

I mean, I was hurt, it was obvious I was hurt.

It was time to go.

[Jim] At that point, he's almost 40 years old.

He had made a lot of money over the previous few years.

That's when he decided to retire,

for the first time, from wrestling.

?

He wanted to get away from the business for a while,

he wanted to heal.

[Arn] He bought a bowling alley

and worked it like a business.

[Travis] My dad knew nothing about bowling

but when my dad left WWF

he had started to invest with a financial advisor

named Shelton Thorne down in Florida,

somebody he knew from a dentist where my mom worked.

And so, he trusted my mom

and he trusted Shelton.

They got some investors together and

they opened a bowling center.

[Arn] I thought that was very unique,

that a guy of his magnitude would,

would buy a bowling alley.

[Off-screen] That's Travis Orndorff,

Paul's little son there.

[Travis] My dad said, "My identity is not in wrestling.

My identity is not in Mr. Wonderful.

My identity is your daddy.

And my identity is what I do."

[Jim] Paul had been so visible in the WWF

that when he retired, somebody actually started

a rumor that he was dead,

and it was picked up internationally.

[Paul] Used to get calls at my bowling center,

I think somebody said I died on steroids.

[Scoffing]

That's stupid. I was home.

I hadn't been home in 20 years, man.

?

[Narrator] At home, things are far from quiet.

Paul's eldest son falls into a life of crime and addiction.

[Brian] Buzz is Paul's first son, his older son.

And Buzz has been in

a lot of trouble.

[Travis] You know, alcohol was involved.

DUIs, substance use.

[News] Paul Orndorff III has been arrested again,

here in Peachtree City after another high-speed chase.

[Travis] I'm not better than my brother.

We had different circumstances.

[Brian] Paul did everything he could to love Buzz.

To give him a chance, to forgive him and all that,

Buzz would always turn the wrong way.

[Travis] The funny thing is, is he could be the nicest

and sweetest person in these moments.

You would get your hopes up,

but they just were short lived.

My parents ended up adopting my brothers� children.

I think I was 13 at that point.

You know, by the time his kids were born

my parents were raising them, you know,

we were going to visit the prisons he was in

every Saturday, or every other Saturday.

[Narrator] But the trouble at home puts Paul's family

and their financial security at risk.

[Jim] All the money that Paul had made in the WWF

that he had ignored his injury for,

his business manager they found out

was a crook and had been running

some kind of Ponzi Scheme

and his money was gone.

[Travis] Shelton was getting money from this place to

pay this investor, as they were going,

and it eventually folded.

My Dad was sued by the investors, as well, you know,

they didn't win 'cause we didn't have anything.

[Gerry] It hurts your pride because you think you have

all your bases covered and then you get swindled by

a person that you gave your trust to.

[Brian] Shelton Thorne basically bankrupts him

and there's no pay cheque coming every month.

There's no insurance.

He's in a very difficult situation and he's gotta

make a choice to go back on the road again.

[Announcer] Back around... Holy! Whoa!

[Brian] And make a living

the only other way he knows how.

I'm sure it was very emotionally difficult on Paul.

[Jim] You could tell that it had taken something

out of him, and then...

from there, things just got worse.

[Paul] You have not seen the last of me.

I have gotten letters,

I have gotten phone calls from all over the world.

People wanting to know, is it true

that Mr. Wonderful has died.

Well, I want everybody out there to know

that I am alive and well.

[Narrator] Two years after walking away from the WWF

with permanent injuries, Orndorff is scammed

out of his life savings,

forcing him back into the ring.

[Brian] He knew that the independents were hot.

There were places from Paul to go.

[Jim] When he popped back up in 1990,

he went about the UWF and some different

independent promotions over the next couple of years.

He still looked like Paul Orndorff.

[Paul] I'm coming after you, Herb!

[Arn] You would never know he was hurt.

Didn't affect his work at all.

[Announcer] Here it is! The pile driver.

[Jim] You could tell, if you looked close,

that there was a little something going on

with the arm, but otherwise than that,

he looked just as good as he always did.

By 1992,

I was running Smoky Mountain Wrestling

based out of Knoxville, Tennessee.

[Young Jim] First of all, I wanna ask a favor

of all these genetic mutants out here.

You gotta keep the noise down.

[Crowd] [cheering] [Jim] We got to-

[Jim] I called him. I said, "Would you like to come in

and work some weekends for me?"

and he said, "Yes," for a very agreeable rate.

[Travis] At some point it's your job,

it's not in stadiums.

It's not to sell out crowds, and nothing like

the WWF was at that time.

The UWF merchandise is the talk of the town.

[Travis] These guys paid for his name and Dad

could still work and he tried to keep his left arm

in front of the camera instead of his right arm.

And he did what he had to do

to take care of his family.

[Announcer] Now there is a man on a mission, right there.

[Narrator] In 1993, Paul changes course,

signing with wrestling's most ambitious promotion.

[Jim] WCW in the mid 90's was,

they were trying to imitate

Vince McMahon's WWF.

With the entertainment aspect and the celebrities aspect

and the glitz and glamour aspect.

However, they didn't have the brain power.

[Announcer] But here comes Robocop, Bob!

[Jim] WCW's celebrity angles

involved D-list people that

were on reality shows or on late night commercials.

One of them was a psychic.

Gary Spivey, of the psychic companions� network?

What are you doing here? - I got a vision.

[Jim] He was on TV everywhere at 4 o'clock in the morning,

predicting the future.

I know you're not okay.

- How did you know that? - I got a vision.

[Jim] I don't know why he couldn't have seen

that this angle was gonna be the shits.

- You're Mr. Wonderful. - I am Mr. Wonderful.

[Travis] He had lost who Mr. Wonderful was

and he needed to fall back in love with

Mr. Wonderful and kissing the handheld mirror.

I hated that gimmick so bad.

[Jim] So, Paul was, again, performing at a high level,

doing everything expected of him,

but 1990's WCW

was just so low budget

and so silly and so directionless.

It was just low rent.

Thank you, Gary.

[Arn] If you wanna figure out why that happened,

Paul was getting paid. That's it.

[Narrator] Still in constant pain from nerve damage,

by 1999, Orndorff moves behind the scenes

as a trainer for WCW.

[Jim] While Paul was at WCW,

they instituted a wrestling school in house

called The Power Plant,

where they would try to train the

next generation of their athletes.

And, Paul was a perfect fit for that.

[Paul] I may have 15 or 20 kids down

every 2 to 3 weeks.

What I try to do is to get the best athlete

as I possibly can.

[Brian] Paul took that very seriously and he would

teach them just the way that he was taught.

[Travis] He wanted to hand off his legacy to

these next generation wrestlers.

[Jim] Paul had been training guys for some time

when the idea came up for an elimination match

where Paul would get back in the ring.

- Who is it? Oh my God! - It's Paul Orndorff!

[Jim] And the premise of it was that he was wrestling

against some of the young guys that

he had been training at The Power Plant.

[Brian] Paul told me that he didn't want to go out there.

Yet, they insisted that he go out.

[Announcer] I don't mind telling you,

Paul Orndorff has been hit a lot of times in his career.

He doesn't mind taking a few more.

[Jim] For a normal 50-year-old man,

he looks in great shape.

But see the arms are so much smaller.

[Announcer] Into the ropes...

[Jim] Now here's the first pile driver.

[Announcer] This is it! His signature move!

[Jim] He hasn't got him all the way straight.

He didn't get the jump that he used to,

but he stuck him and it was safe.

[Jim] Here comes Jindrak,

6'5", 250 pounds.

Couldn't wrestle

out of a wet paper bag.

[Announcer] Orndorff's got him!

[Jim] He goes to pile drive him.

Jindrak tries to go up too quick.

Now he got sideways and they went down backwards.

[Jim] The weight and the velocity

made it kind of like

a rear end car accident from a different angle.

[Jim] Paul, laying there,

had to tell the referee,

"I'm hurt, I can't get up."

[Announcer] Ladies and Gentlemen, due to

a serious injury to Mr. Wonderful, Paul Orndorff,

the referee, Charles Robinson,

has stopped this match. It is a no contest.

[Jim] A stinger is like a knockout punch to your nerve.

Sting goes through your entire body.

Zzzt! Like an electric shock

and then you got nothing.

When you recover,

you get all the feeling back in your extremities.

If it doesn't work out that way,

then you're... paralyzed.

[Announcerrff

has suffered some sort of neck injury.

[Travis] He had broken his neck.

They stopped the match and called an ambulance.

It's very rare that you stop a match on television,

it never happened in those days.

[Announcer] A standing ovation for Paul Orndorff

from the fans.

[Brian] It's difficult when you're hanging on

wrestling at 51 years old

and gets hurt...

Doing his own move.

[Jim] That was the sign that the neck had gotten too bad

and there was no way he could

do this anymore at all.

It was God telling him, "You're done."

[Travis] From then on, things he could do

were very limited, physically.

The pain was unrelenting for most of his life after that.

[Paul] I had another operation on my neck,

which was the third one, they gotta fuse it

to get two discs and put a rod in it.

My body ain't, you know, very good right now.

It's hurting, as we speak.

[Arn] And we didn't see him for...

God, long time.

[Narrator] In 2005, Paul returns to the public eye,

enjoying the fans' appreciation of

his legendary career.

[Brian] To see him go back and be in the WWE

Hall of Fame was the icing on the cake.

If anybody deserved it, Paul deserved it.

[Paul] I would truly like to say I thank you fans,

very much, it means... - [cheering & applauding]

...it really, it means a lot.

[Travis] In 2005, he looked great.

He was still himself, but I'd noticed

a decline in his memory.

When it hit about 2010, it accelerated

from like 0 to 100 when he got cancer,

throat cancer.

[Brian] He knew he had a battle between

life and death, and

he got through that cancer but... um...

[Host] Is that you, Paul Orndorff?

No, it's Rudolph.

It's just my memory is not what it used to be.

You know, this cancer and this chemo and radiation,

just messed my... you know.

[Travis] He would call me over and over and over again

and not remember we had just talked.

Then I was like, oh, my god.

Like I wouldn't even know he was going on

these conventions, and I think he got

lost at the airport, one time.

And as I'm telling people this, they're,

"No, he's fine, he's fine."

And I'm like, "No, he's not."

[Narrator] As Paul's dementia symptoms increase,

so does the instability of his life at home.

[Brian] Whenever I was in Atlanta,

I always tried to stop and go see Paul.

As soon as I saw him,

I knew that he was being abused.

The man I know was

skin and bones and

scars and bruises.

His wife was not giving him his medicine.

Not taking care of him.

She was getting strung out on drugs

and she was doing meth

and she was in pitiful shape.

It was sad. Very, very sad.

A few years before Paul had full onset dementia,

he was, you know, not in the best shape.

Unfortunately, Buzz got out of prison and

Buzz hit him and broke his nose.

You know, how he could hit his own father,

I don't know, but...

[Travis] I didn't know what to do.

I picked him up from that house and

I took him home to my house.

I made every attempt to get him to move in with me.

But he wanted to go home, and he would ask for Ronda.

He wouldn't leave her.

Like, I tried. Multiple times.

He needed care, and at that point,

she wasn't willing to do that.

And that was the first time I called

Adult Protection Services.

But you have zero control over it. Zero.

[Jim] He was in bad shape.

He didn't know what was going on.

And then, unfortunately,

you know, the pandemic came in,

that was about the end of it.

[Narrator] In 2021,

Paul is hospitalized with pneumonia.

When he's ready to be discharged,

Ronda refuses to take him back.

[Travis] I got my mom to tell me where my dad was

and I went in the room

and I...

I walk in...

and his hair's all, all out, long.

His leg is shaking.

He's non-verbal.

It absolutely overwhelmed me.

I said, "I'm taking him home."

They said, "You can't." And I said, "Why not?"

They said, "You're not listed as next of kin."

And she said, "Listen, we've been trying to

call your mom for the last, you know,

several months,

saying that it's time, he needed to go home.

She's been unwilling to assist.

And there's nothing we can do."

And I said, "Get me a social worker."

They said, "It won't matter." And I said,

"I'm gonna raise holy hell

until you do something."

And I said, "I'm gonna take a video."

[background chatter]

[Travis] Do you remember...

do you remember wrestling?

Daddy, you're just eating the pepper.

[Jim] To see a guy that had been that

vibrant and that strong and that powerful...

[Arn] It broke my heart then

and it breaks my heart now.

You just can't stand the sight of it.

[Gerry] The worst video I've ever seen in my entire life.

I was furious with his son.

[Brian] I was very upset, and I called Travis.

"Why would you want to put your dad in that light?"

He's a very proud person.

This is nobody else's business, Travis.

[Travis] And he's like, "Take that down."

And I said, "No. I'm not doing it."

?

And he's like, "Dave Meltzer just posted it."

And I'm like, "Who is Dave Meltzer?"

Why would I care what this guy said?

That was a plea.

I was desperate.

I was scared to death.

You know, they were saying like people were dying

alone in the hospital during Covid.

I'm like, "That's not happening."

It's not happening.

[Jim] But it was sad

to see a guy that had been that

vibrant and that strong and that powerful.

He didn't know where he was.

You could tell it was Paul,

but Paul wasn�t there anymore.

a video of his father's

deteriorating condition in the hospital,

Travis faces backlash from the wrestling world.

[Travis] Wrestlers were upset,

the community, the brotherhood.

As if I had betrayed him, showing him in this state.

And I will tell you what I think my father would say,

if he saw it, he'd be mad.

And the next day he'd say, "He did the right thing."

Because he taught me how to make the right decision,

even if it wasn't the decision he would make.

But he always supported me.

I got a phone call from the social worker

a couple days later and got a couple apologies.

Sat down with the doctor, and the doctor said,

"Listen, he doesn't have much time left."

I said, "Okay, well then, he's coming home with me."

And I took him home.

Best decision of my life.

Now that I know that Travis

used the video to try to

get his dad out during Covid

makes a lot more sense because that was deplorable.

It was absolutely deplorable.

And the bottom line is he got his dad out of there

and that's a good thing.

[Travis] I think he was waiting for me.

His brother and sister and my cousin came up.

My niece, my nephew, my kids,

myself got to spend time with him every day.

I allowed my mom to come visit.

She would spend an hour with him

and then she would go home.

[Brian] I had talked to Paul less than a week

before he passed.

And he could barely talk.

Travis said that he got real excited

when he said it was me on the phone and

kinda took that as a great

feeling of true friendship,

that he would remember me.

I used to sell Cokes in the Tampa stadium

and watch Paul play football.

He was your hero when you were a little kid, right?

He sure was.

[Brian] And I remember hanging up and tears

were coming from my eyes.

It just reminded me that we're only passing through.

[Travis] I was with him 'til every last second.

He died with me.

[Brian] I believe he died in peace.

That he wasn't hurting.

He just beat me to heaven.

[Travis] My children have seen me make mistakes

and I'm fortunate, I have great relationships

with both of them.

The conversation I had with my mother

later in life, I was angry.

The way I was acting towards her was no different than

the way she was acting towards my dad.

So, I was guilty of that.

I knew some of my dad�s decisions and how

it hurt my mom and I was guilty of that.

?

As time passed, I not only forgave her,

but I came to love her.

?

[Travis] The last gift he left me

was his legacy.

That I would get to share.

That first year, people that were online,

they didn't all comment about my dad.

They said, "How are you?" I'm like, "How am I?"

And they're like, "Man, we're here for you."

And I'm now interacting with these people

that I thought I hated.

All this anger and resentment I had about

the times he was away now has purpose.

My dad very much respected the fans that came

to see him and the person he was in the ring with.

So often what I'll hear is,

"I was at that event with my father."

and they are like, "Your dad is amazing."

And I get to reply,

"Sounds like your dad was pretty amazing too!"

[Crowd] [indistinct chatter]

[Arn] WrestleMania One. That was his peak.

Remember him that night.

And keep it in your heart.

That's the one that you remember.

[Gerry] He did it better than anybody else that

ever stepped outta the squared circle.

[Jim] I don't remember anybody having really

anything bad to say about Paul Orndorff as a person.

In the wrestling business

that may be almost unheard of.

[Brian] Handsome, sexy, rugged,

all the things that he was.

Paul was truly Mr. Wonderful.

[Announcer] The pile driver!

[Travis] People say, "Your dad was an amazing wrestler."

and I'm like, "And a better father."

[Announcer] Mr. Wonderful, Paul Orndorff!

[Travis] Wrestling got his body,

fans got his mind, and I got his heart.

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