In the past, I’ve shared a number of legendary backstage fight stories from the world of pro wrestling. More often than not the fights occur between two contracted wrestlers in a promotion. One rare instance, which I last wrote about in this series, featured JBL and the at-the-time WWE RAW announcer Joey Styles.
Today we are going to look at what happens when a wrestler in a promotion gets into a scuffle with a management figure. As is the case with any fight, whether it be in the world of wrestling or in a school yard, the person who loses the fight has multiple excuses for going down in defeat. When a big, muscled up pro wrestler loses a fight to an aged, veteran wrestler who is part of management, the excuses are ready-made.
Let’s travel back to the 1990s, when Big Van Vader, who later had a run in WWE, was performing in WCW. “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff, a legend in his own right, who later became a WWE Hall Of Famer, was working as part of WCW management at the time.
As the story goes, Vader arrived late to a WCW television taping. Orndorff, who was there to help with production, was demanding that Vader hurry up, as they needed to film some promo work for future television broadcasts. Allegedly, there was pre-existing heat between the two, so Vader reportedly got in Orndorff’s face and talked a little smack. Orndorff, himself an infamous tough guy from Florida, apparently egged Vader on. Simply put, he basically begged Vader to hit him. This is where things heated up.
Vader reportedly hit Orndorff in the chest, knocking him down to the ground. Depending on who’s version of the story you believe, what happened next is where details get blurry. The most commonly told version of this story claims Orndorff got up and knocked Vader down to the ground with a hay maker right punch to the face. What isn’t debated, at least from all accounts I’ve heard, is what happened next.
Orndorff followed up his knockdown punch by laying the boots to Vader while he was still laid out on the ground. However, Orndorff wasn’t wearing boots. Orndorff, wearing sandals, or flip-flops, reportedly stomped Vader out with them until the scuffle was broken up by wrestlers and other individuals in the area.
As noted, when you come up on the short end of the stick in a fight, you’ll have reasons for losing. Other times, they’re called excuses. Vader’s reason for losing the fight was — he chose not to fight back because Orndorff was part of WCW management. Wasn’t Vader the guy who landed the first shot? You be the judge. Excuse or explanation? Leave your feedback in the “Comments” section below.
Until next time, this has been another installment of the ongoing eWN editorial series, “Backstage Fight Stories.”
If you want to talk about some other legendary fight stories in wrestling, or request some of your favorites for future installments in this series, add me as a friend on Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBooneWZR.
