Paul Orndorff Discusses His Relationship with Hulk Hogan, His Thoughts on Mr. T at the First WrestleMania, and More

– The Shining Wizards Wrestling Podcast recently interviewed Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorf. Below are some highlights:

Orndorff on promoters stiffing him in the territory days: “I was a high strung guy anyway. I wasn’t brought up in wrestling even though I wrestled in high school, but the trouble is, promoters didn’t know how to deal with me. They control everything, including how much they pay you, and 90% of promoters were a bunch of crooks. There were a few around that weren’t, but it could have been a little better but they all got excuses and so do I, and that that’s the way it was.”

Orndorff on his relationship with Hulk Hogan and saying he never hated him: “At the time, we didn’t just didn’t like each other. You know, I never hated him. Trust me, I never hated him. Never. It was the business that we were in. We had to make people think we hated each other, but I never hated him. The only people I really hated were promoters and that was about it.”

On if he should’ve been the WWE champion: “If these promoters were as smart as they think they are, I would have had the belt for a while. It would have been that much better, but maybe Terry (Hulk Hogan) didn’t want to do that. Maybe that would have killed him if I beat him.”

His thoughts on Mr. T’s involvement with WrestleMania: “I wasn’t real positive towards it. I was negative towards it because you had a guy out there (Mr. T) that couldn’t lace the boots up. And what I went through with Hiro Matsuda and Eddie Graham, and when I broke into the wrestling business, and what they put me through, it puts a real bad taste in your mouth when you see somebody that never put on a pair of trunks or did any of that to get into wrestling. It was only because he was on TV. That’s all it was, and for that part, it was ok. It did ok. Do I think it was necessary? I personally didn’t think it was necessary.”

On Paul Roma: “I liked Paul Roma. I liked him when I first saw him because he had a good body and he had pride. I liked this guy and I wanted him as my partner. I’m not here to say I know everything or I did everything, but I helped Paul. I brought the idea of teaming me and Paul up. We both had good bodies. We had the best bodies out of everybody in wrestling then. I worked with Paul because I was in it longer than Paul. Paul had his own little way of trying to do stuff but after 6 months he started getting fine tuned.”

On how he’s doing with his current health and if he would ever return as a trainer: “I’m fine. My voice is a little bit different. I’m 195 pounds. I go to the gym 5 days a week. I’m not an alcoholic. I’m not a drinker or a drugger. I did that (train) for a while in WCW. I ran the school there and did pretty dang good. Sure, I’d do it for somebody, if somebody wanted people trained and they had the money. I wouldn’t try to ask for some unbelievable amount of money, but to train and help somebody or give them some advice, I’d do that in a heartbeat. I still have that fire. I still do.”