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Paul Orndoff has died


Jazzy G

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I'm not going to link the video because it's some hard viewing, but Mr Wonderful appears to be be in a very bad way. He had some cancer a few years back, but now is suffering with alzheimer's as well. His son's posted a video on YouTube of him in a medical facility. His hair is unkempt, his beard is scruffy, he's in an ill fitting hospital gown just eating pepper from one of those sachets, seemingly oblivious to a lot of what's going on around him. It's sad to see. He was never a top top guy, but he was a heck of a worker. 

Edited by Chest Rockwell
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I read his run with Hogan back before the first Wrestlemania made drew more money than any of Hogan's Wrestlemania feuds. 

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He was better than a safe pair of hands.

He drew 70 odd thousand with Hogan in Canada, headlined the first Wrestlemania and was the hottest villian in wrestling for close to a year. 

It did not work out for him as a face in the WWF for whatever reason. His short lived feud with Rude should have been better than it was. His arm was gone by then though. Humperdink was useless.

His resurgence in WCW as a member of Pretty Wonderful was very good, and he had a good match with Cactus at Superbrawl 3. 

A proper badass. I still watch a lot of his stuff from 85/6/7 in WWF.

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There's a random tag match - I think it was Pretty Wonderful vs. Stars & Stripes - that I watched a while back that really opened my eyes to how great he was. It's a bog-standard WCW opening match, but his work in it is spot on, and anchors the whole thing. Better than almost anyone I've seen at being in the right place at the right time, moving into position to facilitate other people's spots, and just generally making everything flow together.

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Alzheimer's is the most fucking evil disease going.  My Mother in law has gone from a bright, funny woman to just sitting there staring into space in just 12 months.  Breaks my heart.

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4 hours ago, Mr Lawrence said:

he had a good match with Cactus at Superbrawl 3.

I love that match. Probably Orndorff’s best as far as singles went during that WCW run. 

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The cage match with Hogan in 87 was great too. As was the ‘Pretty Wonderful’ stuff with Roma. Even when he was saddled with the bloody Equalizer a lot in 93, he managed to make it watchable. Big fan of him. He had a great look with the physique and the robes and stuff, looked more like a body builder but had a real hardcase aura about him long before I read about his rep as a legitimate tough guy and giving Vader a hiding while wearing flip flops and all that. I saw the thumbnail of this recent video and decided against watching it. It’s a real shame.

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I always have fond memories of Orndorff because i had one of those little rubber thumb wrestlers of him as a kid, but i didnt see him wrestle until probably 20 years later. I considered myself a fan simply because i had his figure and i liked his name. 

I dont think i actually saw him wrestle (outside of highlights of Mania 1) until he had scary moment in at Fall Brawl 2000 when he was momentarily paralysed in the ring. 

 

 

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3 hours ago, Kamaras-Tash said:

I saw it mentioned during the week on Twitter and the son was getting blasted from people and ex wrestlers etc for putting it out there. No interest in looking for it but not sure why the son would make something like that public 

Didn't that Hannibal bloke share it. Does shoot interviews, seems a bit off. 

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7 hours ago, Kamaras-Tash said:

I saw it mentioned during the week on Twitter and the son was getting blasted from people and ex wrestlers etc for putting it out there. No interest in looking for it but not sure why the son would make something like that public 

He said he wanted to raise awareness about CTE. Others, like Dave Prazak (who knew Orndorff in WCW) have said that Orndorff himself definitely wouldn't have wanted it shared, as he'd want to be remembered as Mr. Wonderful. 

I'm not going to watch the video because it sounds heartbreaking and Alzheimer's is evil. 

Really like Orndorff, especially his WCW stuff, where he seemed to settle into a role as a very solid midcard tag teamer. He was a very good worker and, lest we forget, legit chinned Vader in the shower while wearing flip flops once. 

I can't remember the specifics, but I seem to recall Orndorff having some really solid matches with Ricky Steamboat in early 90's WCW. Worth checking out. 

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I seen the video and honestly really wish i didnt, its so upsetting to see what this awful condition is doing to him and his surrounding family, awful thing for him and his family to go through, as stated above though it is nice to remember the better and more positive times too, he always seemed very solid in ring and someone who could always be depended upon and there can only ever be 1 main event for the first wrestlemania and to be fair he was there and that can never be taken away from him. 

My thoughts are with him and his family and friends at this difficult and awful time

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