Paul Orndorff

1949-10-29 · Brandon, Florida, USA

Paul Parlette Orndorff Jr., nicknamed "Mr. Wonderful", was an American professional wrestler and college football player, best known for his appearances with WWE and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). After seven years working around the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Orndorff became a star in the 1980s WWE wrestling boom, and featured with manager Bobby Heenan and champion Hulk Hogan extensively, including in the main events of the first WrestleMania and Survivor Series. With an untreated neck injury, he left WWE for WCW in early 1988, where he won the WCW World Television Championship and the WCW World Tag Team Championship with Paul Roma (as a team called Pretty Wonderful). Arm atrophy from a nagging injury led him to retire in 2000 and he was treated for cancer in 2011. After retiring, he trained aspiring wrestlers. Orndorff was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005 and the National Wrestling Alliance Hall of Fame in 2009.