Arn Anderson Spills The Tea On Vader vs. Paul Orndorff Backstage Fight

01/12/2025 10:18 AM

During a recent edition of his “The ARN Show” podcast, Arn Anderson discussed the infamous fight between Vader and Paul Orndorff in WCW in 1995.

You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:

On what led to the fight: "Now keep in mind, Paul Orndorff was a guy that had a rep for being — from the point he was in high school in Tampa, to college in Tampa. I think he might have played pro football. He was a tough son of b**ch. And he was one of those guys like Dick Slater, there are just some guys he used to mess with. And he had been given split job duties when he signed his new contract, was to be a part-time agent and a part-time talent. We were at TV at Center Stage, and somewhere was Vader in the building. He was supposed to be doing a photo shoot or something they needed shot to be put in the show. Vader had been given the time and all that stuff. But as you know, I think they might have been over at — even at CNN studios, and they weren't on TV. And Paul was walking around looking for him. That's the way it went down, right? Nobody could find him.

"Well, when he finally came in, he hadn't ate. He was probably flustered because they did too many takes of the s**t that could have taken one or two takes. But he finally walked in, put his stuff down in locker room, and Paul went, 'Jesus Christ Leon, where the f**k you been?' 'I was over shooting something at CNN.' 'Yeah yeah, sure you were. Bulls**t, get your a** dressed. They gotta have you out here, and doors are in 45 minutes,' let's just say. '45 minutes, get your s**t on.' And he was pretty gruff about the way he said it and he walked out. Leon looked around, and he could tell guys were kind of looking at him like, 'You're gonna put up with that s**t?' without saying it. And the idea was, you know, Paul was an office guy. He was just doing his job for those that knew. But to many young guys, the look was, 'Are you going to put up with that s**t?'

On how the fight started: "So [Orndorff] came back in. He said, 'Leon'– He saw that Leon hadn't advanced in getting dressed, and he said, 'Hey man, let's go. Get your fat a** up, and let's go. They've been waiting on you.' And when he walked out, Leon jumped up and he walked out. And I heard him screaming, 'Hey man, you don't talk to me that way.' This is Leon to Paul. Paul stopped and turned around, 'Hey, I've been trying to find you. My job ain't to run you down in this building for however many hours,' or whatever the deal was. Paul walked right up on him, and then that backstage area. It was like a lean-to, it was all metal. And Leon just walked up on Paul. Paul was kind of where his back was in the back of the lean-to of metal. And he just took his palm and just, 'Kaboom,' waffled him and dropped him.

On Orndorff firing back: "Now, here is one of those what-ifs. And as you know me, I'm a big fan of what-ifs. Had Leon followed up, that would have been over right then and right there. But he just cut a promo on him and backed off, and turned and started to leave. When he did, Paul — I got in kind of between them, so nothing else happened. I don't think I could've stopped it. But I just felt a wind come across the top of my shoulder. And as Leon turned, he saw something was going on, and Paul just went 'Boom,' right on the chin. He dropped on his knees, right on his belly."

"Now, Orndorff had on flip-flops. Had he had on cowboy boots? Leon would be a dead man because he stomped a mudhole in Leon. He was kicking him with bare feet with flip-flops. 'Boom, boom, boom!' Five, six, seven times. And we finally got him off, and Paul just went on down the hall and went into a little office that we had for the producers and agents and stuff to get organized in there. And he went in, shut the door. Leon came in that door and his head had blown up. I mean, his eyes were shut, his nose was busted, his mouth was busted. And here he came again. He grabbed Orndorff and jammed him up against the wall. Paul is still throwing."

On Ming breaking up the fight: "Had Ming not been there to come in and separate. He literally by himself separated it. And we got Leon out of there, and Paul stayed in that one room. Paul allowed it to be separated. They got him out of there. They got him — somebody drove him back to his hotel. And man, as he was walking out the door, I saw his face. It was brutal. Took him back to the hotel, they sorted through what happened. Figured out Paul was doing his job. He might not have done it in the right way, a little gruff, little — you know, bullying. The irony of it was earlier that day, Leon had signed a $600,000 times two contract. Which, he got fired that night. They sent word over to him, 'You're just going home tomorrow. Don't worry about coming in, signing that contract. It's been voided.' And it was one of the most physical, brutal things I've ever witnessed."

On Bischoff firing Vader: "I think Eric [Bischoff], I think he probably got a call from someone above him, and he didn't hesitate to act… [Paul] was a producer who got struck, who was doing his duties. He was seen trying to do his duties a couple of times. See, the story never reverted back to, 'Well Leon, it wasn't his fault, really either because he wasn't even in the building. He was over at CNN shooting this deal.' There was a mass lack of communication. And then the fact that Leon struck him first, and the fact that he came back after him a second time."

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