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Joe Babinsack Looks At The Paul Orndorff Shoot DVD

Posted: Oct 22nd 2009 By: CMBurnham

Paul Orndorff is a man of great talent, character and insight into this world of professional wrestling that we all love to follow.

Strange, isn?t it, how the fascination with nostalgia seems to be growing these days. But when the subject of nostalgia appears, whether it be in MWF Shoots with former WWF stars, or the interviews of other wrestling nostalgia companies, or just classics and programs produced by the WWE, there seems to be interest, product and buzz ? far more than one would ever expect.

Each company has their own little twists and presentational gimmicks. MWF is no stranger to the Shoot interview concept, and got far more mainstream (well, if Howard Stern is still considered mainstream these days) with their absolutely insane taping of Khosrow Ali Vaziri, otherwise known as the IRON SHEIK.

(Which of course rhymes with shriek.)

Mr. Wonderful?s DVD is nowhere near the mindless insanity and pure entertainment quality of the former Iranian Olympian, but it?s clear throughout this DVD that the two have crossed paths in the past. Of course they had, with both in the WWF of the mid-1980?s.

And likely crossing paths in the industry in the decade or so of wrestling each had before they got to New York.

A nice thing about the MWF?s presentation is the setting. Taping in front of a live audience is a little different. Then again, after the introduction and obligatory applause, and a few spots throughout, I all but forgot about the audience in attendance. It would have been nice to have some spontaneous questions from the crowd.

Instead, and gratefully instead of inserts of crazed fans goofing it up with often nonsensical questions, they relied upon a panel, and mostly Dan Mirade. The other parts of the panel, a superfan known only as ?The Jackal? and John Cena, Sr, well, they weren?t obnoxious, but sometimes it felt like they could break out that stick.

Mirade is a solid interviewer, taking time to listen to the answers and forming questions on the fly. The questioning was never hard hitting, which it really doesn?t need to be, but then again, it didn?t offer up enough softballs, nor did the panel followup to glean more insight from Orndorff.

Actually, while I loved the DVD, I was a bit put off by the somewhat annoying perspectives of the rest of the panel. Cena is a long time wrestling guy, and I can?t dispute that, nor can I dispute his insight nor his opinions, but at a few moments, I couldn?t help but cringe at the apparent judging of Paul Orndorff.

C?mon, Orndorff was a headliner in the heady days of the WWF, and I simply cannot wrap my head around Paul Orndorff, one of the most physically fit of athletes in his day, looking across the stage at a superfan who Paul couldn?t put in a bear hug.

But at least the emphasis of the interview was on Mr. Wonderful?s own words.

The hype from MWF says that this is a must watch, and great for WWF fans. I can?t disagree. Paul Orndorff is outspoken in his own fashion. He?s seldom argumentative, and less so loud, but he?s not holding back on his perspective of the industry, and what it was to be wrestling in the WWF back in the mid-1980?s, notably after runs in some of the best territories in the business.

Does Orndorff respect Hulk Hogan?

I?ll let you watch the DVD/Video for that, but let?s just say when Orndorff declares that he never wrestled the same match twice, and adamantly takes pride in that statement, I knew he was a guy to sit back and listen to.

Like many Shoot interviews, it starts a little slow, and seems to take a little bit of talking before the subject warms up. I was a bit mystified when Orndorff talked about leaving professional football because of the schedule, and segued that into getting into professional wrestling.

That was a point that I would have wanted the panel to pick up upon: five or so months of football as opposed to a year-round schedule of wrestling? Wanting to be with your family and moving from a half-year schedule to a non-stop one??

Please.

But from then on, Orndorff hits enough of the details of training, learning the business and hitting the circuits that made me understand what he?s all about as a professional.

He talks about how he broke in, how he got trained by Hiro Matsuda, and reveals some interesting reasons why he owes Matsuda a lot ? for teaching him aspects about the business. What did he learn from Hiro Matsuda? Well, that?s what buying and watching the DVD is for.

Orndorff started out in Florida, and moved to Memphis, then moved on to Charlotte with booker George Scott. He talks about St. Louis, and then working for Bill Watts for four years.

Along the way, The Jackal inserts himself, giving us a brief history of the Missouri Championship. My only problem here was that the names named weren?t Orndorff?s contemporaries as much as a who?s who of who held the belt.

Watts may not have been a lovable type, but Orndorff praises the man for teaching him further about the business. He talks about Jerry Jarrett, Jerry Lawler and Ernie Ladd, the Crocketts, and about how the different promoters well, differed.

Cena and The Jackal talk up how Orndorff finally got to the WWF. Orndorff talked about how he skipped his first opportunity, but couldn?t pass up his second.

I wasn?t so enthralled with Orndorff?s entry into the WWF, since the WWF wasn?t exactly the capital of professional wrestling in terms of talent and workrate. But I was likely one of many who saw Paul Orndorff as someone who certainly was ?different? and it?s cool to hear him present himself as such.

As in, he knew he was different enough to make a name in the WWF at the time.

Again, Orndorff stresses his intentions on wrestling different matches, not presenting the same match, and wrestling Old School style ? doing it on the fly, not practicing, not setting up spots, not getting spots in, and not presenting the same old, same old.

And you wonder what he thought about Hogan?

Orndorff does go back to kayfabe, in my opinion, when asked about steroids, drinking and wrestling. He says you can?t do both ? partying and working out, abusing drugs and working hard, but that?s just wishful thinking to me.

He?s also quite evasive and/or overly deferential in terms of talking about Jimmy Snuka.

Well, Snuka always seemed to have been a workout fiend, but rumors persist that he was more than just that?.. and there is some talk in that direction.

Orndorff talks much about Brody, and how he completely avoided Puerto Rico after the murder. He then presents a rather weird answer about whether or not such a murder could happen again.

And from then, he really gets started about the WWF, about the way some of the guys wrestled, about the attempts to unionize and why that didn?t get going. Orndorff lays out how and why he did go to the WWF, and especially about his eight months of getting paid by Vincent K. McMahon before he debuted.

Orndorff isn?t exactly bitter about his run in the WWF, but it?s clear that he knows that he damaged his health in order to prolong a goldmine of a feud between himself and Hogan, after suffering a neck injury from a kick, and continuously putting off the necessary surgery for a few more weeks of top notch pay.

Orndorff admits that he wrestled for a long time with only one arm.

One regret, he says, is that he never had the opportunity to wrestle Bruno Sammartino one-on-one and in full health. Of course, Bruno was brought back from retirement at the time, mostly because of manipulations by Vince, and the two fought in tag team matches with Paul on either side of the fence.

That brings up another interesting perspective, that Orndorff, seemingly like a lot of other wrestlers, was far happier wrestling as a heel. But that was a time when he turned a few times, often obviously against his comfort zone.

Orndorff seemingly went on wrestling, and then was pulled back when WCW came calling, with an admitted lack of effort and often just phoning it in. It?s a bit hard to wrap around it, but then again, Orndorff paid his dues, never sought out being a full time wrestler, and was paid more for his name regardless.

Some of the fascinating backstage situations, and then the Power Plant years, seem to get glossed over, as if the emphasis of the DVD was on the WWF years, but man, you can read a lot into Paul?s smug smile, demeanor and shaking of his head at certain comments and questions.

Wrestling remains a complex industry, with characters that often break the molds with which we slot them.

Paul ?Mr. Wonderful? Orndorff is certainly not the boisterous, smarmy heel that you may have remembered him as, although you can readily see that he ramped up his personality for the entertainment portion of his efforts.

But Orndorff?s perspectives on professional wrestling as he saw them in the WWF in the 1980?s, and his rather plain disgust with what WCW became in the 1990?s shows that like most Old School talent, he?s likely dissociated with the industry these days.

He already left the business in the early 1990?s to run a bowling alley, and already began his second career before he really had to do so, although his physical limitations also prodded him along.

I?m sort of happy the MWF panel didn?t bring up the WWE of today.

With Mr. Wonderful?s experience with bowling shoes, I?m sure he?d be tired of that talk pretty quick.

Tags: Paul Orndorff, WWF, Hiro Matsuda, Bill Watts, Jerry Lawler, Ernie Ladd, Bruiser Brody, WCW