Bearded Brock Is Back & Sunny's Search For Sexy Co-Stars: Ten Things You May Have Missed In Wrestling This Week

We lost a good one this week, as Paul Orndorff passed away at the age of 71.

My Wonderful was a huge figure in the industry, particularly in the 1980s, where he was involved in the main event of the very first WrestleMania and drew record-setting crowds in his feud with top babyface Hulk Hogan.

A tremendous heel who could work, talk and had an amazing look, Orndorff's career slowed down later in the decade due to a serious neck injury that caused his arm to atrophy.

When he came back on the international stage as a member of the WCW roster in the early-to-mid 90's, he continued to produce some great work and won the TV and Tag Team Titles, having some cracking matches in his Pretty Wonderful team (with Marcus Bagwell) and as a singles competitor in bouts with opponents as varied as Ricky Steamboat and Cactus Jack.

Made a WWE Hall of Famer in 2005, Orndorff had suffered with serious health issues and some hard times in recent years.

If you don't know much about or haven't seen a whole lot of Orndorff in action, now would be a good time to fix that.

After reading Ten Things You May Have Missed In Wrestling This Week, of course.

10. Mickie Pitching To The Boss

WWE.com

Recently-released former WWE star (and current NWA producer) Mickie James was recently interviewed for AdFreeShows.com and spoke on a range of topics, including coming up with the 'stalker fan' storyline, how Lita helped her get to WWE and meeting (and pitching to) Vince McMahon for the first time.

There's a lot to digest here, but it's all very interesting and a great look into Mickie's journey to WWE and her creative process.

"As far as Vince, obviously I met him at tryouts, but it was very brief. He's always being rushed by, power walking to Gorilla, from Gorilla, so I was scared to death. My first real conversation with Vince probably happened about six months before I debuted. We were in Cincinnati. I was in Louisville at the time for Ohio Valley Wrestling. We would go whenever it was within driving distance, all the students, or all the people that were signed to developmental deals. We would then go to the house shows, to the live events, or the TVs that were in the area for extras to get re-evaluated because it was a much different system than it is right now. I had been in the system about two years at that point. I had gone home, come back, and I really needed to do something different. I felt I needed to come up with this character or something because I was not fitting in the mold that was typically being presented because it was the start of the Diva Era, and the Diva Search, and stuff like that.

I had been in developmental for two years, and now I was having to teach new girls to wrestle because they're not from wrestling. I had devoted, at this point, seven years to it, and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong here. I've missed the mark here. At any rate, I came up with this character that kind of parallel, in OVW, I was doing that Punky Brewster kind of character. I think back to fandom, and fandom of anything, of sports, of people, that Single White Female, when it can go to the extremes, when it goes way too far in the other way. I came up with this super fan character, Alexis Laree, that was a big fan of Lita. Amy was so helpful to me when I was first getting started because I was from Virginia. The Carolinas, the Mid-Atlantic, those were a lot of my first shows. The first two or three years were Mid-Atlantic, then I ventured north once I went with Maryland Championship Wrestling when I went to Baltimore. That's how I got in the Northeast loop, and then I eventually got to Ring Of Honor, but it was mostly this Mid-Atlantic area.

At any rate, I would go to house shows in North Carolina. Amy and The Hardy Boys would often be there because they loved wrestling and it was in their backyard, it was in a bar, and it was entertaining. There were a lot of their friends wrestling like Champagne or Shannon Moore. That's really where I started. I met her. She was so kind, and always honest, brutally honest, like a real friend should be, like, 'This was really great. Please don't ever do this again. This was bad, but this is why it was bad. This is how you can make it better'.

She didn’t have to do that. I was so green at the time. I think she went to bat for me a lot. I think she went to bat for me for my job, when I first got hired. I think she then went to bat for me in order to come up to the main roster as far as one of the girls that was ready. Personally, I know her, and I just love her so much. That's why I had to ask her. She was my friend, so I could ask her, 'Can I write this?' because you don't want to pitch some random storyline for somebody, and what if they hate you, or they don't like you, and they don't want to do it? It would be a mess. I asked Amy if I can write up this idea, this storyline, with her in mind, and pitch it. When I pitched it, apparently they really liked it, obviously. They really loved it. I remember writing out 18 weeks of television where I saw this character going over the next three months. That's what I had written in my mind.

The trainers would come down when they were around the area to come and inspect everybody at OVW to see where they were. I remember Michael Hayes being there and a bunch of other people. He said, 'Vince really liked your idea'. I said, 'Oh cool. That's really cool'. I got really hopeful. By the time we made it to that set of TVs, Michael pulled me aside again and said, 'Vince really liked your idea. He liked that character. You need to walk in there and you need to tell him that you wrote it. You need to also tell him that you know that character. You wrote that character, and nobody can play it like you'. I'm scared to death and terrified. I felt like now I have to do this because Michael Hayes told me I have to do it, and if I don't do it, Michael Hayes is going to say to me, 'Why didn't you go do what I told you to do?. So, I'm going to get heat either way I go.

I sat by Vince's door for what felt like an eternity there after the show to end. I was waiting, and it was legit. I felt like he was around the corner watching me sit there and wait, pacing, and sweating. I'm sweating. I'm terrified. I can't breathe. Where is the water? He came in the office. He saw me standing there. I said, 'I would love to have a moment of your time. I would like to talk to you'. He said, 'Sure'. I came into his office and literally said what Michael wanted me to say. I said, 'I appreciate you taking the time. I heard you read my storyline'. He acted confused about it and said, 'Hmm'. I said, 'That's my character. I made that character. I know that character inside and out. I know that nobody is going to deliver that character like me. Give me a chance. I promise you I'm going to kill it'. He said, 'Hmm. You got balls kid'. I'll never forget it because I'm a lady, and I have lady balls. I said, 'Thank you so much'.

I got out the door without falling down. A huge sigh of relief, but terror, and all these things, it is a very powerful presence when you meet someone like that, especially where I was then. That was the pinnacle, and that's where I wanted to be. That was one of those make or break moments. If he hated me at that moment, I was fired the next day, right? In my mind, this could go really well or really bad for me. I went back to Louisville after that whole loop. That was probably in the early spring of that year, and then I didn't debut until October. I didn’t hear anything back for months. Then I was like, 'What did I do?'. Then they called me in October and said they wanted me to debut. They said, 'We want you to do it with Trish instead'. I didn’t know Trish. But I was supposed to debut like five times before that. I debuted with CM Punk on Sunday Night Heat, and we got back through the curtain, and Hunter said, 'I really like you, and I really like you, but the two of you together, I just don't get it'. They pulled the match, and they filled it with some type of filler for the PPV coming up, I think. That's so weird because we were together in TNA with Raven and all that stuff. It was ironic. It was weird. How different our careers would have been, right?".

h/t WrestlingNews.co

9. Gangrel's Magazine Photo Shoot Hijacking Heat

WWE.com

Gangrel is one of the latest wrestling stars of yesteryear to start a podcast, and Fangin' N' Bangin' with Gangrel is a good watch (it's on YouTube).

The veteran journeyman is seemingly happy to answer any and all questions from fans and has plenty of stories and anecdotes from his long career.

On a recent edition, he relayed a story about how he accidentally hijacked a magazine photo shoot for Entertainment Weekly, featuring top stars The Rock, Steve Austin and Vince McMahon himself.

"Entertainment Weekly, they came in to shoot The Rock, Vince McMahon and Stone Cold for some reason. And she [the photography] ran across me in the hallway. 

I was in a long trench coat, I had my sunglasses on and my hair done and I had been out all night. She goes, 'Oh my!' and pulls out her camera [and takes pictures]. 

And I remember, I got so much heat from like the office and stuff, because they were there for that shoot, and she spent like, four hours, just shooting me moving and just talking to me. I didn't think nothing of it, and they did the article, and it was a nice thing in Entertainment Weekly or whatever, a nice spread of him and The Rock, he was looking dapper. 

And I didn't think nothing and those pictures showed up, and it was the end-of-the-year Entertainment Weekly, and there was a thing, a column and it said 'stud muffin Gangrel changes the face of pro wrestling to entertainment'". 

I like Gangrel and I've heard him described in many ways, but 'stud muffin' is certainly a first.

8. Beast Incarnate Or Pale Rider?

WWE.com

Speaking of pro-wrestling vampires (not often you can use that as a segue), Kevin Fertig, who wrestled for WWE as Mordecai and then Kevin Thorn, was quick to comment once the familiarity of Brock Lesnar's new look was pointed out by the Kayfabe News Twitter account.

Seemingly agreeing with the comparison, Fertig replied that he had been 'beefing up'.

Lesnar - who hasn't appeared anywhere since dropping the WWE Title to Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 36 - re-emerged this week as a guest on the Bearded Butcher's YouTube channel.

If you want to see fifteen minutes of Brock discussing and cutting meat (and why wouldn't you?) then I recommend checking it out. The new look is a surprisingly hipster departure for the Beast Incarnate, but it also kind of works.

7. Mark Jindrak's Post-Release Royalties

WWE.com

Though a released WWE superstar no longer receives a monthly cheque from the company for their in-ring (or otherwise) services, they will continue to receive royalty payments based on products that they are featured in, such as action figures and DVDs.

The pay range obviously varies massively from top stars and legends to midcard and opening match talent, but former WWE star Mark Jindrak recently gave an insight into how healthy and welcomed those payments can be.

Speaking with former WCW colleague Allan 'Kwee Wee' Funk on the Get Funk'd podcast, Jindrak mentioned how he was given a decent chunk of change after his 2005 release for appearing as a playable character in the SmackDown versus Raw video game.

"What was cool too, I got fired [from WWE] in 2005, I didn't start doing sh*t until July — and I didn't start doing sh*t until like May of 2006 because I remember I got on the last video game for — even though I got released, I made the last cut for Raw vs. SmackDown 2006 and you know with video games, those royalties were f*cking sick, you know? 

I got — I think one royalty cheque — I was released and I'm thinking, my gears were spinning. I was like, 'I need to party less, I need to date less and go on less dates. I gotta turn it down'. I had a sweet Hummer and then all of a sudden, I opened my mailbox one day and a royalty cheque came for the f*cking video game and it was for f*cking $53,000 and I was like, 'Umm…'". 

The drinks are on Jindrak!

6. A Rated-R Makeover

WWE.com

Heath Slater certainly paid his dues down in WWE's developmental territories Deep South and then Florida Championship Wrestling, grafting away for four years before being given a chance on WWE's game show version of NXT and then as a member of rebellious rookies The Nexus.

According to Slater, who now wrestles for Impact and on the independent scene as Heath, he almost didn't make it to WWE TV due to his ring name and what Vince McMahon thought was a strong resemblance to an established top star.

Speaking with the Such Good Shoot podcast, Heath detailed how his moniker needed to be changed and a makeover was necessary for him to get a shot on WWE TV:

"Johnny Ace [John Laurinatis] was like, 'Yeah, Vince don't like Sebastian'. I was like, 'Hell'. They were like, 'We want you to cut your hair and go to trunks too. You remind him too much of Edge'. And I'm just like, 'What the hell, man? Like, I don't want to go to damn trunks, you know? Sh*t'. 

And then, like, 'You're the one that told me to grow my hair out!'. I am confused, you know? So it's like, 'Hey, we want to bring you up here. We like you. And you're a good worker, but we want to change every damn thing about you'. 

I literally told Johnny, I said, 'Let me just use Heath. Let me be Heath Slater then'. And that's my real name, Heath, anyway, and he was like, 'Yeah, let me pitch it'. And I think they didn't even know my real name is Heath or something. I don't know. But they just was like, 'Yeah, let him use it. We like it'. So that's how I got the name, you know, with Slater".

Very strong Mr. Burns 'get rid of those sideburns' vibe from Vince, there.

5. Steeling The Role

WWE.com

Former WWE star Alex Riley bizarrely took the time to reference a 2017 episode of Chris Jericho's Talk is Jericho podcast, where the current AEW performer mentioned that he had auditioned for the part of Steel Horse in Netflix's wrestling-based series GLOW.

At the time, Y2J mentioned to Chavo Guerrero (who worked on GLOW as an actor and the wrestling coordinator) that he auditioned for the part after a WWE show in Edmonton and that he 'didn’t get it, and not only did I not get it, Alex Riley got it, who’s about a one on the scale of wrestling notoriety'.

Guerrero subsequently mentioned that Jericho wasn't the only WWE star to be turned down, but that The Miz was, too, and that Riley snatched it after auditioning in bathrobe and full costume.

Clearly the jab Jericho took at Riley still rankles, as A-Ry posted an Instagram story on Wednesday night, showing a screencap of Jericho from that night's AEW Dynamite, with the captions (per 411 Mania):

This guy actually thot [sic] he should have had the GLOW roll [sic] I got hahahahahahahahahahahha.

I mean guys WTF are we talking about here

You had to be some what [sic] attractive to 'any sex' to be 'The Steal [sic] Horse' baby. Let's get 'real'.

Don't expect to see Alex Riley join the Inner Circle anytime soon.

4. The Culprit

WWE.com

Shawn Michaels' 2019 comeback match was bad and regrettable on all fronts.

There's not other way to put it, because one of the greatest ever - who had gone out with a classic in a WrestleMania main event - decided to put on the leather pants one more time in order to work a tag match with his mates in Saudi Arabia.

A disaster on the night, the match completely fell apart, something which was worsened by Triple H tearing his pec early on.

New AEW star Malakai Black, who worked in WWE as Aleister Black, is probably one of the only people with positive memories of the bout, as he revealed on a recent Twitch stream that he worked with the Heartbreak Kid to put it together, saying:

"Sitting down and helping Shawn Michaels put together parts of his match in Saudi Arabia and watching it on TV and they are using parts of things that I opted to do. Those are things where you feel like you're on par with them".

I'm not sure if that's a self-own from Black there, but I don't think I'd be bragging about being involved with that train wreck...

3. It Ain't '96

WWE.com

WWE Hall of Famer Tammy 'Sunny' Sytch is out of prison and back on OnlyFans.

Not only is she back on the adult content platform but, in what would surely be something out of a dream for 1990s teenagers who loved WWE, she's also looking for guys (and girls) to co-star with her in some pictures and videos.

I have nothing else to add here.

2. Adam's Bombs Are Back In Stock

WWE.com

Another mid-90's WWE standout, Bryan 'Adam Bomb' Clark, hasn't just gotten out of prison but a few weeks ago was cleared on charges that could have seen him go off to the slammer.

Now free and clear, Clark has become more active on social media and is getting in on the retro merch game, selling t-shirts, figures and, best of all, Adam Bomb football bombs!

Now you can be a member of the Bomb Squad by purchasing one, although I'm not sure they're on release just yet.

On a side note, I feel like Clark is one of those that never really gets his due, because Adam Bomb was good, so too was Wrath and KroniK was one of the very few highlights of dying-day WCW.

1. The Cleaner Takes The High Road

All Elite Wrestling

It should be apparent to everyone at this point that Jim Cornette is not too fond of today's wrestling.

While the tennis racket collector hates on just about everything from all companies these days, he has reserved particularly scorn in the past for the likes of AEW's Young Bucks and Kenny Omega.

After some twit tried to jump the guard rail and attack Chris Jericho on last week's episode of Dynamite, following it up by posting on social media that he was doing it for Cornette, Jim took to his own social media to denounce the 'fan's' actions.

Omega chimed in with a thought that was clearly about Cornette and his fans, writing:

'Is it finally time to assume some responsibility and dial the online persona back a bit? Your low IQ man children have evolved from parroting your comments to actually acting out in (attempted) violence'. 

The Smoky Mountain man, never one to resist taking a shot, replied:

'You & I agree for the first time--this guy IS a moron, or he wouldn't have been at a show with your phony ass on it. Two clarifications: Unlike you I've SEEN violence in an arena & this wasn't it, & secondly looking at your supporters I wouldn't toss the phrase "low IQ" around'.

Rather than engage in any more public mudslinging, the AEW Champion seemingly put the issue to bed with:

'Hey Jim,I think you’re one of the greatest wrestling historians going and I enjoyed your work with #darksideofthering .For whatever it’s worth, I sincerely hope that you’re remembered for your positive contributions to the wrestling business. That’s all'.

Can't we all just get along?