WWE Hall of Famer “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff recently appeared on The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling. Here are the highlights:
What he learned from working with Rowdy Roddy Piper:
“Roddy actually was in the business longer then I was and started sooner than I did and Roddy was a smart guy. I used my body and Roddy used a lot of his brains. I wished that I could do interviews and do the stuff the way he did and I really did. I tried to be like him when I did interviews but I had that fire in my heart that I was one of those type of guys that whatever I did I was going to do it better that anybody else and I feel like I pretty much have done that in a lot of cases.”
Hulk Hogan’s current issues and their relationship:
“Let me tell you something right now. I don’t care and I don’t know what he did. When it comes down to him, I love him like a hated brother. We all have brothers that some of them we love and some of them we don’t but I don’t hate him now for nothing! He made me and helped make me. I was more to him then he was to me but I took him to a whole new level when it came to the matches because he never had anybody that had the intensity and had the body that I had.”
The rumor that he was a stand in for Andre The Giant at WrestleMania 3:
“To be honest, I truly don’t remember. I probably was. If you heard that then it just depends where you heard it from and who started it. My memory isn’t real good now because of the cancer and the chemo and the radiation it messes with you. But I would have done whatever they wanted me to do.”
How hard did he work on the “Mr. Wonderful” physique:
“The good lord gave me something and he gave me intensity. He gave me a body and he gave me the work and how hard I worked the body the way that it was. I went to the gym six days a week, three hours a day and it was part and it was my life. It wasn’t all about the money it was just that I was one of those guys that was a gym rat and a guy named Harry Smith in Tampa, Florida is the one that got me in and I used to train at his gym and Harry took a liking to me in High School. I had a pretty big name in High School from football and track and anything else I did. I worked out with him for fifth-teen years and I kept getting bigger and bigger.”
Working for Vince McMahon Sr. and Vince McMahon Jr:
“I worked for Vince Sr. (Mr. McMahon) for two or three years and then Vinny came in and just took off. He was and is so smart and he loved the business too and he knew how to treat people and had that kind of a personality. Vince McMahon helped make me and I helped make him.”
Wanting to be a part of the expansion of the WWF:
“Vince’s father was a very smart man as well but Vince (Jr) was a whole new era. He took it to a whole new level and I was a part of it and I went with it. I fought for it because I wanted to be a part of it because I knew that I was different than anybody else. There wasn’t anyone like me at that time. There was nobody with that energy, aggressiveness and the body that I had. I could have been Mr. America if I wanted to be but I chose wrestling. I could have played pro-football but I chose wrestling.”
The infamous WrestleMania 1 training vignette (Orndorff and Orton shoot on a bystander):
“It was a shoot. When I hit him, I hit him. He went down. If it was planned I didn’t know about it. That was a whole different ballgame back then and it isn’t like it is now, now it’s a joke.”
Did he like switching from a heel to a baby face:
“No. I like being a bad guy. But the people were cheering me being a bad guy. I am not bragging it may sound like it but there was nobody in this business that had the aggression and had the body that I had, nobody! To this day there hasn’t been one. This is the one and only and that’s why I was the only one. I’ve seen guys that have the bodies but they didn’t have the ability because I was a worker. I worked every night and I’d go 25,35,45 minutes and that is what made me and that is that I knew how to work and I knew how to work the people.”
Here’s the audio:
