They played college football against each other
Tito Santana told the In The Front Row podcast that of every wrestler he ever stepped in the ring with, his closest friend in the locker room was Paul Orndorff.
“For me, people that asked me who was my number one choice of anybody, I always say, Mr. Wonderful, Paul Orndorff. I mean, him and I. He played for Tampa University. We played against each other in college. He was a bit older than me, but we played against each other, you know, would he know each other back then?”
Orndorff told him later that he was bipolar
Santana said Orndorff had a famously short fuse and would explode without warning. Years later, Orndorff explained why.
“I mean, he was a, they used to call him the Brendan Bull. I mean, he was that guy was just, you know, straightforward. And if he liked you, he liked you, and if he didn’t like you, he didn’t like you. And, you know, he didn’t hide it. I mean, he, later on, he told me that, because he used to blow his fuse pretty easy. He said, Tito, I found out that I was that I’m bipolar, you know, that that’s where all my problems came from. I never knew that, but he was my best friend in the business.”
Why Tito outlived a lot of his friends
Asked why so many of his peers are gone while he is still here, Santana credited not chasing the same physical extremes.
“I didn’t do steroids. I didn’t do drugs, you know, I didn’t pop the pills. You know, a lot of the times the guys were popping pills because we were in pain, you know. And it was easy for us to get the pain pills from the doctors, because we had doctors everywhere we went. So, but, you know, I never even took aspirin. You know, I just was so against that.”
Santana said he watched it happen up close in the locker room.
“I remember seeing guys just throw pills, you know, in the locker room, and, you know, shoot themselves with steroids in the locker room.”
Vince told him not to bother taking steroids
Santana said he once asked Vince McMahon directly whether he should join the rest of the roster on steroids. Vince’s answer was blunt.
“As a matter of fact, I asked Vince McMahon one time as it you know, I saw everybody know, the Ultimate Warrior hawk. You know, they were all huge guys. And I said, Vince, Tony Edwards. Walked by Tony Edwards, I don’t know, you know who he is. I mean, he was Mr. USA. And I said, Vince, I was the Intercontinental Champion, and I always look good, I mean, because I always worked out. But I said, Should I take steroids? He says, Tito, I’m the one that decides what I’m doing with you guys. He said, you don’t, if they want to take the steroids, let them, you don’t have to take steroids. You know, you got your position in my company. So I never, I never got into the steroids.”
Family pride kept him clean
Santana said his refusal to use was tied directly to representing his family and his community.
“My family was so important in. I never wanted to do anything to embarrass my family. You know, I had a lot of pride, not only my family, you know, the entire Hispanic world. You know, I knew we were, we were Hispanics, or, you know, you know, we were Hispanics, you know, I want to represent them, you know, positively, you know, I wanted them to be proud of me, and not to say, oh, you know, Tito just got caught busted with the drugs. Or, you know, I didn’t want that.”
Paul Parlette Orndorff Jr. died on July 12, 2021 at age 71. His son Travis announced the death on Instagram. Orndorff was nicknamed “The Brandon Bull” by local Tampa-area press during his college career at the University of Tampa, where he played fullback and tight end for three different head coaches who later went on to coach Kentucky, Georgia Tech, and Ohio State. He was drafted in the 12th round of the 1973 NFL Draft by the New Orleans Saints, but never made the team. Orndorff main-evented the first WrestleMania alongside Roddy Piper against Hulk Hogan and Mr. T, and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005. His son had said before his death that Orndorff was suffering from CTE.
You can click below to watch the full interview.
