Hulk Hogan vs. Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff (Jul 1986 – Mar 1987)

Background

Paul Orndorff came out of the University of Tampa, where he starred in football and track before the New Orleans Saints drafted him in 1973 without a roster spot ever materializing.[6] He trained under Eddie Graham's notoriously rough Florida program alongside Bob Backlund and Hiro Matsuda, then made his name in Bill Watts's Mid-South territory, winning the North American title three times.[6] Watts, who booked him for years before the WWF ever saw him, put it simply: "Paul Orndorff was upset with me all the time, but he never did not do his absolute best in the ring."[6]

Hulk Hogan and Orndorff started out as opponents, not friends. At the first WrestleMania on March 31, 1985, Orndorff teamed with "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, managed at ringside by "Cowboy" Bob Orton Jr., against Hogan and Mr. T. Orton's arm was in a cast, and near the finish it accidentally caught Orndorff instead of Hogan, opening the door for the pin.[5] Piper and Orton turned on Orndorff for costing them the match.[7]

Orndorff spent the rest of 1985 feuding with Bobby Heenan's stable, including a stretch where Heenan put a cash bounty on him, first $25,000 and then $50,000, for anyone who could injure him seriously enough to end his career.[1] Out of that shared antagonist, Orndorff and Hogan drifted into a partnership, tagging together against Piper, Orton and other Heenan Family regulars through 1985 and into 1986.[1][7]

Off camera the two of them had more in common than the storyline let on. Both had trained under Hiro Matsuda in Florida and arrived in the WWF around the same time, and Eric Bischoff has said on his 83 Weeks podcast that the two got along very well behind the scenes.[7] Orndorff's son Travis has described his father's feelings about Hogan in blunter terms: "He loved him. Loved him. Absolutely loved him. Talked about him like a brother."[18]

By 1986, Orndorff was arguably the second most popular wrestler in the WWF behind Hogan.[14]

Build-up

The wedge arrived in the person of Adrian Adonis. With Piper away, Adonis debuted his own interview segment, The Flower Shop, on May 3, 1986, and made Orndorff his regular target.[7][14][24] He kept a cardboard cutout of Orndorff, and he and Heenan called him "Hulk junior" and planted doubts about the friendship.[7] On the June 14 Championship Wrestling, Adonis told Orndorff that Hogan was stealing his spotlight and was the more popular of the two.[24]

Hogan answered it himself on the June 21 Championship Wrestling, interrupting the Flower Shop to tell Adonis off for the things he'd been saying.[24] A week later Heenan sat on the same set and challenged Hogan and Orndorff to face Studd and Bundy. Orndorff accepted and said all he had to do was call Hogan.[24]

At the end of that June 28 show, Orndorff told Vince McMahon and Bruno Sammartino that he hadn't been able to reach Hogan because the champion was busy.[24] By the night of the match he was still angry about it. Hogan said he had been at the squat rack, and by the time he got to the phone after the fourth ring, nobody was there.[12]

The turn itself came on a Championship Wrestling taped July 15 at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York, and broadcast on July 19, 1986.[12][24] Hogan and Orndorff faced Studd and Bundy, managed by Heenan. Orndorff stood on the apron and watched while Studd and Bundy hammered on Hogan, then finally came in and cleared them out.[2][11]

He helped Hogan up and raised his hand. Then he dropped him with a short clothesline and a piledriver.[2][11]

On the July 26 Championship Wrestling, Orndorff walked onto the Flower Shop set and introduced his new manager, Bobby Heenan.[24] The next week on All-Star Wrestling, he watched footage of himself turning on Hogan and announced that the "old Mr. Wonderful" was back.[24] That same weekend, Vince McMahon interviewed Hogan in the gym on Championship Wrestling, and Hogan walked through everything that had led to the attack while the footage rolled.[24]

On August 28, 1986, the WWF ran The Big Event at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, headlined by Hogan defending the title against Orndorff. Attendance was recorded at 61,470, and sources agree it set an outdoor attendance record for professional wrestling at the time.[2] A Toronto paper's front page called it "Record 65,000."[25] The Wrestling Observer issue dated September 2, written before the show, had said it was expected to break all sorts of box office records.[13]

Hogan wrote that the office had expected "ten thousand people, maybe a few more if we got lucky," and that he got out of the car and found "almost sixty-five thousand."[25] Last-minute video screens and cameras forced seats to be relocated, roughly 70 rows at ringside stood for most of the night, and fights broke out in the aisles.[25] The dispute went to court, and refunds were offered to 219 people from outside southern Ontario, while 1,609 from the Toronto area were offered tickets to a 1987 show that never happened.[25]

Elsewhere on the card, Ricky Steamboat beat Jake Roberts in a Snake Pit match, and the Rougeau Brothers beat Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine.[20] The main event ended in a disqualification at 11:05 when Heenan hit Hogan over the head with a wooden stool as Hogan set up Orndorff for the piledriver.[2][24] The decision wasn't clear at first, because the knocked-out referee tapped three times on Orndorff's cover before calling for the bell, and afterward Orndorff put the belt on and attacked Hogan until a boot to the face sent him to the floor.[24]

The house shows that fall ran the same way. At the Rosemont Horizon outside Chicago on October 3, in front of around 16,000, Hogan won by count-out under a stipulation that Orndorff would win the title if Hogan was disqualified.[24] At the Spectrum on October 18 and the Summit in Houston the next night, Hogan won by count-out after hitting Orndorff with a chair on the floor while Heenan distracted the referee.[21][24] Houston drew 3,439.[24]

The Matches

The blow-off, such as it was, came on a Saturday Night's Main Event taping at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut, on December 14, 1986, broadcast on NBC on January 3, 1987. It was taped December 14 at the Hartford Civic Center, and the stipulation was a steel cage, for the WWF Championship.[19]

Orndorff attacked before Hogan could even get the title belt off, whipped him with it, and made an early run for the door.[23] Hogan caught him by the hair just as he was going over the side. "Hogan would not be the champion if Mr. Wonderful was bald," Jesse Ventura said on commentary.[23] The two traded control and escape attempts from there, with referees Danny Davis and Joey Marella both at the cage door.[23] At one point Hogan choked Orndorff with a strip of his headband, and later Orndorff missed two elbows trying to put him away.[23]

Both men climbed over the top and hit the floor at about the same time. Marella declared Hogan the winner, and Davis declared Orndorff the winner.[3][23] Davis shoved Marella, Orndorff kneed Hogan in the spine when he came to help, and Howard Finkel announced the match had ended in a tie. Davis ordered it to continue.[23]

Orndorff controlled the restart and used a foreign object on Hogan's face, and Davis was carried out by trainers.[23] Then Hogan came back, ramming Orndorff into the cage. When Hogan climbed again, Heenan ran in and grabbed his ankle, but Hogan atomic-dropped Orndorff, sent Heenan bumping into the cage, and went over the top to win.[19][23]

The broadcast drew a 10.6 rating, with a 26 share, the highest-rated Saturday Night's Main Event to that point, the Wrestling Observer reported. It even beat every Saturday Night Live episode in the same 11:30 slot.[19][27]

The two of them wrestled a handful more times as the program wound down, mostly in tag and trios formats rather than singles rematches. On March 7, 1987, at the Boston Garden, Hogan teamed with Roddy Piper and Billy Jack Haynes against Adrian Adonis, Orndorff and Hercules in a six-man elimination match. Piper and Adonis fought to a double count-out at 11:25, Hogan pinned Orndorff with a rollup at 15:26, Hercules pinned Haynes with a corner clothesline at 16:23, and Hogan closed it out by pinning Hercules with the leg drop at 18:04.[26] Orndorff decked the referee on his way out after Hogan's rollup.[10]

Aftermath

Orndorff didn't get to follow the program to its biggest possible stage. He had been wrestling for months on an injured right arm, and he kept working rather than take time off at the height of the program.[1][6] In March 1987 he briefly picked the feud back up with Hogan on several house shows, then took time off for the injury and missed WrestleMania III.[1]

Heenan brought in Rick Rude to take his place in the Heenan Family.[1] The damage never fully reversed: when Orndorff rebuilt his physique for WCW in 1990, his right biceps was still atrophied.[6]

With Orndorff sidelined, Hogan moved straight into the WrestleMania III program with André the Giant.[9] Heenan, who had managed Orndorff through the feud, walked André out on a February 1987 Piper's Pit and had him rip off Hogan's shirt.[22]

Orndorff came back to the WWF that fall, and by Survivor Series on November 26, 1987, he was back alongside Hogan rather than against him. Orndorff teamed with Hogan, Bam Bam Bigelow, Ken Patera and Don Muraco against a team built around André the Giant; Orndorff was eliminated by Rude with a rollup at 10:25, and André outlasted the whole opposing side to become the show's sole survivor.[4]

He came back that summer as a fan favorite. On WWF television on August 22, 1987, he fired Heenan during an interview with Craig DeGeorge and introduced Sir Oliver Humperdink as his new manager.[26] On Saturday Night's Main Event that fall, King Kong Bundy pinned him after André pulled him into the corner from the floor.[26]

That run didn't last long. Orndorff's last WWF match came on January 4, 1988, against Rick Rude in Augusta, Georgia, and he was gone from the promotion within days, retiring to run a bowling alley he owned in Fayetteville, Georgia.[1]

Behind the Scenes

The story of how Orndorff's arm actually got hurt isn't told the same way everywhere. The version repeated most often is that it happened away from Hogan entirely, in a weightlifting accident that damaged nerves running down his right arm and shoulder.[1][7] A different account, from Orndorff's longtime friend B. Brian Blair, puts the injury inside one of the Hogan matches themselves: Orndorff failed to tuck his chin before taking a corner clothesline from Hogan, damaged vertebrae in his neck, and the injury "never healed because he wouldn't take any time off."[6] One obituary described it as a severe spinal cord injury that hampered his career through the mid-1980s.[6] Both versions agree that Orndorff kept wrestling on it.[1][6]

Blair put it plainly: Orndorff "was a natural heel, with that cocky, matter-of-fact way of talking of his, and with how he made you believe everything he said and did," which was a big part of why the office kept running him out there.[6]

The real friendship between Hogan and Orndorff sat underneath all of it. Travis Orndorff has said his father talked about Hogan "like a brother."[18] What never happened, on screen or off, was Orndorff beating Hogan for the WWF Championship, something Hogan later suggested was a matter of trust: he's said Vince McMahon wouldn't put the title on wrestlers like Piper or Orndorff because he couldn't be sure they'd do business and drop it back. Travis Orndorff didn't dispute the general point about his father but framed it differently, saying it wasn't about refusing to lose: "The fact that Terry said that Dad was difficult is 1000% true," he said, arguing his father's volatile personality, not any refusal to do jobs, was what made McMahon cautious with him.[18]

Travis said his father never refused anything McMahon asked. But because Hogan was close to McMahon, an unwritten no-no in the business then, his father enjoyed giving Hogan a hard time, which he later regretted. Travis also said McMahon had offered his father a job for life, had he wanted it. "There were times where, because of the situation, Roddy and Dad would screw with Terry and say no, even though they were fine with it."[18]

Orndorff's willingness to work hurt fit a pattern that predated the WWF entirely. In 1976, he and his brother got into a bar fight against multiple patrons and seven police officers, with bail set at over $5,000 each.[6] Years later, working as a WCW agent, he got into a real backstage brawl with the 400-pound Vader; a fellow agent who witnessed it said Vader swung first and Orndorff still somehow got him to the ground.[6] Eric Bischoff reportedly fined Vader around $400,000, half his salary, and gave Orndorff a raise.[8]

Another of his real fights, with the much bigger Tony Atlas, comes down to competing eyewitness accounts. Atlas says he took Orndorff down after Orndorff threw a punch and held him there until Orndorff bit off a chunk of his ear. Blair, who watched it, remembers Orndorff slipping behind Atlas and suplexing him to the ground.[6]

Legacy

The Big Event's record stood until WrestleMania III. In March 1987 the Wrestling Observer reported that WrestleMania's ticket sales had passed 70,000, beating the 69,000 it credited to the Big Event as the North American record.[2][28] Pro Wrestling Illustrated named Hogan-Orndorff its Feud of the Year for 1986, with Orndorff separately named the year's Most Hated Wrestler.[17]

The split-decision finish to the January 1987 cage match had a strange afterlife. Danny Davis's call for Orndorff became part of his turn into a crooked referee who showed blatant favoritism, a storyline that ended with his removal as a referee. He went on to help manage the Hart Foundation and wrestle as "Dangerous" Danny Davis.[3]

The template itself outlived both men's runs in the feud. Voices of Wrestling has described it as "the stock Hogan feud" going forward: when in doubt, have a friend turn on Hogan, a formula the company leaned on again almost immediately with André.[9]

He wrestled into 2000, largely for WCW as half of the tag team Pretty Wonderful with Paul Roma, and went into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005 and the NWA Hall of Fame in 2009. After retiring, he trained aspiring wrestlers.[1][6]

He survived a cancer diagnosis in 2011, and in his final years faced progressive dementia that his son has attributed to CTE.[6][16] In 2018 he nearly lost his home after missing three years of property taxes. His son Travis set up a GoFundMe with a $10,000 target, it hit the goal, and Orndorff later thanked the fans for their support.[8] Paul Orndorff died on July 12, 2021, at age 71, after years of the health problems that had followed him out of the ring.[6][16]

A 2026 episode of Dark Side of the Ring, "Paul Orndorff: Saving Mr. Wonderful," revisited his career and final years.[15]

See Also

Sources & Further Listening

1. Paul Orndorff — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Orndorff
2. The Big Event — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Event
3. Dangerous Danny Davis — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangerous_Danny_Davis
4. Survivor Series (1987) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_Series_(1987)
5. WrestleMania I — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_I
6. "Paul Orndorff Was Simply Wonderful" by Ian Williams (Jul 14, 2021) — The Ringer. https://www.theringer.com/2021/07/14/mma/mr-wonderful-paul-orndorff-wwf-obituary
7. "Hulk Hogan Vs. Paul Orndorff: 10 Things Fans Forget About Their WWE Feud" — TheSportster. https://www.thesportster.com/hulk-hogan-vs-paul-orndorff-wwe-feud-trivia-forgotten/
8. "Paul Orndorff's Age, Death, Feud With Hulk Hogan & More To Know" — TheSportster. https://www.thesportster.com/paul-orndorff-age-death-hulk-hogan-feud-facts-mr-wonderful-wwe-wcw-vader/
9. "Paul Orndorff: Establishing the Archetype Opposite the Hulkster" by Bob Kapur (Jul 12, 2021) — Voices of Wrestling. https://www.voicesofwrestling.com/2021/07/12/paul-orndorff-establishing-the-archetype-opposite-the-hulkster/
10. "Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper & Billy Jack Haynes vs Adrian Adonis, Paul Orndorff & Hercules (WWF, 3-7-1987)" — Tape Machines Are Rolling. https://tapemachinesarerolling.wordpress.com/2020/03/22/hulk-hogan-roddy-piper-billy-jack-haynes-vs-adrian-adonis-paul-orndorff-hercules-wwf-3-7-1987/
11. "Hulk Hogan & Paul Orndorff vs Big John Studd & King Kong Bundy (WWF, 7-19-1986)" — Tape Machines Are Rolling. https://tapemachinesarerolling.wordpress.com/2023/06/12/hulk-hogan-paul-orndorff-vs-big-john-studd-king-kong-bundy-wwf-7-19-1986/
12. "WWF Championship Wrestling July 19th, 1986" — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2014/07/23/wwf-championship-wrestling-july-19/
13. "DragonKingKarl: WON rewind to September 1986 & Hulk Hogan vs. Paul Orndorff in Toronto" — F4W/WON. https://www.f4wonline.com/podcasts/dragon-king/dragonkingkarl-won-rewind-to-september-1986-hulk-hogan-vs-paul-orndorff-in-toronto/
14. "Remembering Mr Wonderful, Paul Orndorff" (Aug 15, 2023) — Mongrel Wrestling. https://mongrelwrestling.com/2023/08/15/remembering-mr-wonderful-paul-orndorff/
15. Dark Side of the Ring review: 'Paul Orndorff: Saving Mr. Wonderful' — F4W/WON. https://www.f4wonline.com/news/other-wrestling/dark-side-of-the-ring-review-paul-orndorff-saving-mr-wonderful/
16. "WWE Hall of Famer 'Mr. Wonderful' Paul Orndorff Dies at 71" (Jul 12, 2021) — SI.com. https://www.si.com/wrestling/2021/07/12/wwe-mr-wonderful-paul-orndorff-dead
17. 1986 in professional wrestling — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_in_professional_wrestling
18. "Paul Orndorff's son confirms Hulk Hogan's story: 'Dad could be difficult'" (Jun 26, 2023) — Cageside Seats. https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2023/6/26/23772512/paul-orndorffs-son-confirms-hulk-hogans-story-that-paul-orndorff-could-be-difficult-wwe
19. "1/3 This Day In History: Hogan Vs. Orndorff Steel Cage Match Headlines Saturday Night's Main Event" — PWInsider. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/98768/13-this-day-in-history-hogan-vs-orndorff-steel-cage-match-headlines-saturday-nights-main-event-triple-h-wins-third-wwf-championship-more-.html?p=1
20. "EVENT REVIEW: WWF The Big Event (1986)" — Retro Pro Wrestling. https://retroprowrestling.com/event-review-wwf-big-event-1986/
21. "WWF Houston House Show – October 19, 1986: Completely Unacceptable" — KB's Wrestling Reviews. https://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2020/12/28/wwf-houston-house-show-october-19-1986-completely-unacceptable/
22. "Why Andre The Giant Turned Heel In WWE, Explained" — TheSportster. https://www.thesportster.com/wwe-andre-the-giant-turned-heel/
23. "Hulk Hogan vs Paul Orndoff (WWF, 1-3-1987)" — Tape Machines Are Rolling. https://tapemachinesarerolling.wordpress.com/2023/06/04/hulk-hogan-vs-paul-orndoff-wwf-1-3-1987/
24. 1986 WWF results (television, pay-per-view and house shows) — The History of WWE. https://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/86.htm
25. "The Big Event 21 years later" (Aug 22, 2006) — Slam! Wrestling. http://slam.canoe.com/Slam/Wrestling/2006/08/22/1770050.html
26. 1987 WWF results (television, pay-per-view and house shows) — The History of WWE. https://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/87.htm
27. "Wrestling Observer Flashback–01.19.87" (recap of the January 19, 1987 Wrestling Observer Newsletter) — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2016/06/22/wrestling-observer-flashback-01-19-87/
28. "Wrestling Observer Flashback–03.16.87" (recap of the March 16, 1987 Wrestling Observer Newsletter) — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2016/07/03/wrestling-observer-flashback-03-16-87/

Further Listening

• Dark Side of the Ring, "Paul Orndorff: Saving Mr. Wonderful" (Vice TV, 2026) — the injury, the money, and his family's account of his final years
• 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff — Bischoff on the real relationship between Hogan and Orndorff backstage
• Paul Orndorff shoot interview — RF Video — Orndorff's own account of the feud and why it never led to the WWF title