WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.100 Welcome back to the Deep Dives. Today, we've 00:00:02.100 --> 00:00:04.099 got a stack of files here that I think are going 00:00:04.099 --> 00:00:06.500 to make you look at one of the most famous last 00:00:06.500 --> 00:00:08.599 names in wrestling a little bit differently. 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:12.300 And before you jump to conclusions, we're not 00:00:12.300 --> 00:00:14.919 talking about the guy hitting RKOs on your TV 00:00:14.919 --> 00:00:16.879 every week. Although you can't really tell this 00:00:16.879 --> 00:00:18.920 story without him showing up eventually. But 00:00:18.920 --> 00:00:21.859 yeah, he's not the main subject. Exactly. Today, 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:24.899 we're focused on the man who, you know, who really 00:00:24.899 --> 00:00:28.800 paved the way. We are opening the file on cowboy 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:32.759 Bob Orton Jr. And looking at this research, the 00:00:32.759 --> 00:00:35.299 first thing that just jumps out is how easy it 00:00:35.299 --> 00:00:37.719 is to pigeonhole the guy. You ask a casual fan, 00:00:37.820 --> 00:00:39.619 they say, well, that's Randy's dad. Or maybe 00:00:39.619 --> 00:00:42.500 he's the guy with the cast. Yeah. Which, I mean, 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:44.560 it's true. But it's such a disservice to what 00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:46.420 he actually did. When you really dig into the 00:00:46.420 --> 00:00:48.840 sources, the biography, the old match logs from 00:00:48.840 --> 00:00:51.659 Florida, the backstage reports from the 80s, 00:00:51.679 --> 00:00:54.700 you realize Bob Orton Jr. is not just a sidekick. 00:00:55.179 --> 00:00:57.200 He might be the greatest supporting actor this 00:00:57.200 --> 00:00:59.539 business has ever seen. That's the aha moment 00:00:59.539 --> 00:01:02.500 for me in these notes. He's the bridge. He's 00:01:02.500 --> 00:01:05.219 this like missing link between the smoky old 00:01:05.219 --> 00:01:09.060 NWA arenas and the big bright rock and roll spectacle 00:01:09.060 --> 00:01:12.859 of the WWF boom. And somehow he fit into both 00:01:12.859 --> 00:01:15.540 worlds perfectly. He did. And our mission today 00:01:15.540 --> 00:01:18.500 is to figure out how he did it. How does a man 00:01:18.500 --> 00:01:21.379 known for wearing a plaster cast on his arm become 00:01:21.379 --> 00:01:23.640 one of the most important villains in two different 00:01:23.640 --> 00:01:26.359 eras? And maybe does his career prove that being 00:01:26.359 --> 00:01:28.560 the number two guy is actually the smartest way 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:30.540 to play the game? OK, so let's start at the beginning 00:01:30.540 --> 00:01:32.340 because he wasn't born with the cowboy hat in 00:01:32.340 --> 00:01:34.939 the cast. Sources say Robert Keith Orton Jr. 00:01:35.180 --> 00:01:37.879 from Kansas City. And talk about pressure. His 00:01:37.879 --> 00:01:41.269 dad. was bob orton senior the big o right the 00:01:41.269 --> 00:01:43.689 wrestling dna is there from day one but it wasn't 00:01:43.689 --> 00:01:46.790 a handout the records show him starting in 1972 00:01:46.790 --> 00:01:49.150 in championship wrestling from florida you have 00:01:49.150 --> 00:01:51.769 to understand florida in the 70s it was a shark 00:01:51.769 --> 00:01:54.250 tank eddie graham was booking you had these technical 00:01:54.250 --> 00:01:55.969 masters all over the card you couldn't fake it 00:01:55.969 --> 00:01:58.540 there orton actually started as a referee Which 00:01:58.540 --> 00:02:00.260 is such a classic way to break in. You learn 00:02:00.260 --> 00:02:02.180 the pacing, you're in the ring, you hear the 00:02:02.180 --> 00:02:04.060 veterans calling spots, but you're not taking 00:02:04.060 --> 00:02:06.560 the bunks just yet. Exactly. But he moved up 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:08.860 fast. He was teaming with guys like Bob Root, 00:02:08.860 --> 00:02:11.219 Mr. Wrestling 2. And what I found really interesting 00:02:11.219 --> 00:02:14.379 is he wasn't a cowboy yet. He was just this young, 00:02:14.539 --> 00:02:17.629 really solid, technical heavyweight. And here's 00:02:17.629 --> 00:02:20.509 a deep cut for you. Bob Orton Jr. is one of the 00:02:20.509 --> 00:02:23.389 very first guys credited with using the superplex 00:02:23.389 --> 00:02:26.169 as a finisher. I stepped on that note, too. It's 00:02:26.169 --> 00:02:28.330 so hard for modern fans to wrap their heads around 00:02:28.330 --> 00:02:32.020 that because now a superplex is just. It's a 00:02:32.020 --> 00:02:33.960 transition move. You see it five times a night. 00:02:34.039 --> 00:02:36.719 It's like a headlock now, yeah. But back in, 00:02:36.780 --> 00:02:40.599 say, 1978, it was a nuclear bomb. You have to 00:02:40.599 --> 00:02:43.300 understand the psychology. The top rope was like 00:02:43.300 --> 00:02:45.939 forbidden territory. So for a big guy like Orton 00:02:45.939 --> 00:02:48.099 to drag someone up there and just throw them 00:02:48.099 --> 00:02:50.199 backwards, it looked like he was trying to legitimately 00:02:50.199 --> 00:02:53.159 end your career. It's what made him legit. That's 00:02:53.159 --> 00:02:55.759 the word that keeps popping up in these NWA reports 00:02:55.759 --> 00:02:58.080 in the early 80s. He wasn't a cartoon character. 00:02:58.340 --> 00:03:01.560 He was a tough, tough guy. And he got real heat. 00:03:01.699 --> 00:03:04.500 There's this one angle where he and Dick Slater 00:03:04.500 --> 00:03:07.219 broke Ric Flair's neck in storyline, of course, 00:03:07.240 --> 00:03:09.500 with a pile driver. That's the level he was on. 00:03:09.580 --> 00:03:12.020 A main event villain in the territories. So you 00:03:12.020 --> 00:03:14.990 have this credible, dangerous wrestler. But then 00:03:14.990 --> 00:03:17.770 he does a short run in the WWF, leaves, and comes 00:03:17.770 --> 00:03:20.050 back in 84. And this is where everything changes. 00:03:20.229 --> 00:03:23.090 He links up with Rowdy Roddy Piper. An ace is 00:03:23.090 --> 00:03:27.150 born. This is the shift from wrestler to full 00:03:27.150 --> 00:03:29.389 -blown character. We have to talk about the cast. 00:03:29.629 --> 00:03:32.650 It is probably the most famous piece of medical 00:03:32.650 --> 00:03:35.469 equipment in wrestling history. What's so great 00:03:35.469 --> 00:03:37.629 about the research here is that it all starts 00:03:37.629 --> 00:03:40.009 with a real injury. It's the best kind of wrestling 00:03:40.009 --> 00:03:42.610 story where the line gets blurry, the sources 00:03:42.610 --> 00:03:45.509 all confirm it. He broke his left forearm for 00:03:45.509 --> 00:03:48.069 real in a match against Jimmy Snuka. It was at 00:03:48.069 --> 00:03:50.509 the war to settle the score in 85. A real injury. 00:03:50.750 --> 00:03:52.949 But the genius is what he did after it healed. 00:03:53.250 --> 00:03:55.189 Because anyone else would just take the cast 00:03:55.189 --> 00:03:58.009 off and go back to wrestling. Right. But on television, 00:03:58.370 --> 00:04:01.150 Orton keeps wearing it. He has a doctor's note 00:04:01.150 --> 00:04:03.110 saying the bone isn't setting right, that it's 00:04:03.110 --> 00:04:06.289 still weak. It basically gave him a legal excuse 00:04:06.289 --> 00:04:08.969 to carry a weapon to the ring every night. It's 00:04:08.969 --> 00:04:11.849 such a simple, brilliant mind game. I'm hurt. 00:04:12.189 --> 00:04:14.629 Don't hit my arm. It makes you hesitate for a 00:04:14.629 --> 00:04:17.370 split second. And then whack, he clubs you with 00:04:17.370 --> 00:04:19.829 it when the ref's back is turned. And he admitted 00:04:19.829 --> 00:04:22.769 it. I found this old transcript from WWE Confidential 00:04:22.769 --> 00:04:24.949 where he just flat out says it. He's like, the 00:04:24.949 --> 00:04:27.029 injury was real, but I, well, I said it didn't 00:04:27.029 --> 00:04:29.269 heal so I could keep using it. It's the ultimate 00:04:29.269 --> 00:04:32.009 heel move, turning a weakness into a weapon. 00:04:32.189 --> 00:04:34.589 And that cast takes us straight to the most important 00:04:34.589 --> 00:04:41.209 night in WWF history, March 31st, 1985. WrestleMania 00:04:41.209 --> 00:04:43.790 I. The night everything changed. And Bob Orton 00:04:43.790 --> 00:04:46.470 Jr. is right there. Main event. He's not the 00:04:46.470 --> 00:04:48.589 star, but he's in the corner of Piper and Paul 00:04:48.589 --> 00:04:51.129 Orndorff against Hulk Hogan and Mr. T. And just 00:04:51.129 --> 00:04:53.110 think about the pressure of that night. Vince 00:04:53.110 --> 00:04:55.790 McMahon had bet everything on this show. If that 00:04:55.790 --> 00:04:57.410 main event doesn't work, the company probably 00:04:57.410 --> 00:05:00.129 goes under. And Orton is the key to the whole 00:05:00.129 --> 00:05:02.730 finish. The screw up. The planned screw up. Yes. 00:05:03.129 --> 00:05:06.149 The idea was for Orton to interfere. He gets 00:05:06.149 --> 00:05:08.500 on the top rope. tries to hit Hogan from behind 00:05:08.500 --> 00:05:10.860 with the cast. And Hogan moves. Hogan moves, 00:05:10.980 --> 00:05:13.939 and Orton just blasts his own partner, Paul Orndorff, 00:05:13.939 --> 00:05:16.579 by mistake, knocks him out cold. Hogan gets the 00:05:16.579 --> 00:05:19.819 pin. So you could argue Bob Orton's cast is the 00:05:19.819 --> 00:05:22.279 reason Hulkamania truly exploded. If he connects 00:05:22.279 --> 00:05:24.000 with Hogan, maybe history is totally different. 00:05:24.180 --> 00:05:26.199 It's just classic bad guy storytelling. They're 00:05:26.199 --> 00:05:28.439 so evil, they can't even stop themselves from 00:05:28.439 --> 00:05:30.860 messing up. But he stuck with Piper after that. 00:05:31.220 --> 00:05:34.519 And that bodyguard era... That might be his best 00:05:34.519 --> 00:05:36.819 character work. It was perfect chemistry. Piper 00:05:36.819 --> 00:05:39.319 was the manic energy, the mouth. Orton was the 00:05:39.319 --> 00:05:42.579 silent muscle, the ace. He gave Piper this instant 00:05:42.579 --> 00:05:45.079 credibility because you knew if you finally got 00:05:45.079 --> 00:05:47.420 past the guy in the kilt, you still had to deal 00:05:47.420 --> 00:05:49.459 with this technical killer with a club for an 00:05:49.459 --> 00:05:51.720 arm. And they got into everything. I love this 00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:54.240 little detour in the notes about boxing. Bob 00:05:54.240 --> 00:05:56.740 Orton, do you remember this? Oh, vividly. This 00:05:56.740 --> 00:05:58.660 was for WrestleMania, too. They were building 00:05:58.660 --> 00:06:01.379 a match for Mr. T, who obviously wasn't a wrestler. 00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:03.079 You know, he's a tough guy, but he's not going 00:06:03.079 --> 00:06:05.519 to do a grappling match. So they had to rebrand 00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:07.839 Orton. And the cast finally came on. For a little 00:06:07.839 --> 00:06:10.879 while, he became Boxing Bob. He even had a worked 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:13.459 boxing match on TV against some guy named Jose 00:06:13.459 --> 00:06:16.180 Luis Rivera just to establish that he could throw 00:06:16.180 --> 00:06:18.480 punches. It just shows you how versatile he was. 00:06:18.579 --> 00:06:21.040 He could be a technician, a brawler, a boxer, 00:06:21.079 --> 00:06:23.220 whatever they needed. But in wrestling, nothing 00:06:23.220 --> 00:06:26.089 good lasts forever. Piper goes off to Hollywood, 00:06:26.290 --> 00:06:29.709 comes back as a good guy, and Orton. Hmm. Well, 00:06:29.769 --> 00:06:32.410 Orton joins adorable Adrienne Adonis. That was 00:06:32.410 --> 00:06:35.110 quite a different look. The pink cowboy hat, 00:06:35.310 --> 00:06:38.050 the makeup, a total 180 from Piper. And, of course, 00:06:38.069 --> 00:06:40.430 he betrays Piper, leads to a really hot feud. 00:06:40.589 --> 00:06:42.529 But let's jump ahead a little because the late 00:06:42.529 --> 00:06:45.269 80s get weird for him. I mean, truly strange. 00:06:45.410 --> 00:06:47.829 The research mentions a stop in Japan I had no 00:06:47.829 --> 00:06:50.589 idea about. Ah, yes. You're talking about 1988 00:06:50.589 --> 00:06:54.610 in New Japan. I am. So Orton leaves the WWF, 00:06:54.689 --> 00:06:57.550 goes to New Japan Pro Wrestling, and he's teaming 00:06:57.550 --> 00:07:00.250 with Tyler Main. But they're not Orton and Main. 00:07:00.470 --> 00:07:03.230 The notes here say they were the Gaspar brothers. 00:07:03.670 --> 00:07:06.129 Billy and Gully Gaspar. Okay, explain this. What 00:07:06.129 --> 00:07:08.750 is a Gaspar? I'm picturing Bob Orton, the cowboy, 00:07:08.990 --> 00:07:12.040 as a pirate. That's exactly it. They were hockey 00:07:12.040 --> 00:07:14.839 -masked pirates. Bob Orton was Billy Gaspar. 00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:17.500 It's a really deep cut, but it's just a reminder 00:07:17.500 --> 00:07:20.600 that for these guys, work is work. If the promoter 00:07:20.600 --> 00:07:23.259 in Tokyo says, I need a monster foreign team 00:07:23.259 --> 00:07:25.600 in hockey masks, you put on the mask and you 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:28.079 collect the check. Wow. From the main event of 00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:31.180 WrestleMania to a pirate in Tokyo. He gets back 00:07:31.180 --> 00:07:33.920 to the States, though, and lands in WCW in 89. 00:07:34.379 --> 00:07:36.220 And he's back to being a cowboy, thankfully. 00:07:36.339 --> 00:07:38.740 He's managed by Gary Hart. And this run is actually 00:07:38.740 --> 00:07:40.759 pretty underrated. He has this great feud with 00:07:40.759 --> 00:07:43.019 his old partner, Dick Murdoch, and it leads to 00:07:43.019 --> 00:07:45.379 a bull rope match at Russell War 89. I read the 00:07:45.379 --> 00:07:46.720 description of the finish. It sounds incredibly 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:48.899 violent. It was old school. They're tied together 00:07:48.899 --> 00:07:51.579 by this rope with a cowbell in the middle. Orton 00:07:51.579 --> 00:07:53.879 loses the match, but afterwards, he uses the 00:07:53.879 --> 00:07:57.180 cowbell to literally hang Murdoch over the top 00:07:57.180 --> 00:08:00.759 rope. choked him out with it. It was that gritty, 00:08:00.759 --> 00:08:04.019 believable violence from his NWA days. It just 00:08:04.019 --> 00:08:05.899 shows he could always tap back into that dark 00:08:05.899 --> 00:08:08.399 place. He wasn't just a sidekick. And speaking 00:08:08.399 --> 00:08:11.519 of wild, we kind of have to mention the Fresno 00:08:11.519 --> 00:08:13.160 incident. I knew you were going to bring that 00:08:13.160 --> 00:08:15.500 up. It's the stuff of wrestling legend. How could 00:08:15.500 --> 00:08:18.990 I not? The police report from Fresno in 86 reads 00:08:18.990 --> 00:08:21.250 like a movie scene. It's just unbelievable. It 00:08:21.250 --> 00:08:22.889 definitely shows you what life on the road was 00:08:22.889 --> 00:08:25.189 like back then. The police were called to a hotel 00:08:25.189 --> 00:08:27.430 and the report says they found Orton and Piper 00:08:27.430 --> 00:08:31.529 causing disturbance. It ends with Orton naked 00:08:31.529 --> 00:08:34.690 and drunk on the hotel roof. And he was shot 00:08:34.690 --> 00:08:39.750 three times with police tasers. Three times. 00:08:40.429 --> 00:08:42.250 And was apparently still on the roof yelling 00:08:42.250 --> 00:08:44.070 at them. Yeah. I mean, that's just a different 00:08:44.070 --> 00:08:46.289 kind of tough, I guess. Yeah. But it really puts 00:08:46.289 --> 00:08:48.789 that whole era in context, doesn't it? It does. 00:08:48.870 --> 00:08:51.370 We look back at the 80s now and it's all nostalgia, 00:08:51.409 --> 00:08:53.990 but it was a brutal lifestyle. Driving hundreds 00:08:53.990 --> 00:08:56.470 of miles, wrestling almost every night. Things 00:08:56.470 --> 00:08:58.570 went off the rails. It just reinforces that these 00:08:58.570 --> 00:09:01.779 guys were... They were outlaws. To put it mildly. 00:09:01.799 --> 00:09:04.419 But what's so amazing is the longevity. The guy 00:09:04.419 --> 00:09:06.580 just never stopped working. Even after the big 00:09:06.580 --> 00:09:08.940 companies, the notes show him on the independent 00:09:08.940 --> 00:09:11.840 circuit constantly from 1990 all the way through 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:14.820 the 2000s. He was taking bumps into his 60s. 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:17.500 Which brings us to the next big chapter, the 00:09:17.500 --> 00:09:20.299 legacy. Because by the early 2000s, the story 00:09:20.299 --> 00:09:22.519 wasn't just about Bob anymore. It was about Randy 00:09:22.519 --> 00:09:25.840 Orton. Yeah. The legend killer. And Bob was instrumental 00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:28.679 in getting Randy established. He gets inducted 00:09:28.679 --> 00:09:30.980 into the Hall of Fame in 2005, which for most 00:09:30.980 --> 00:09:32.799 guys, that's it. You give your speech, you go 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:35.000 home. Not Bob. He got right back in the mix. 00:09:35.080 --> 00:09:37.620 He was a huge part of Randy's feud with The Undertaker 00:09:37.620 --> 00:09:39.299 that year. And he wasn't just standing there. 00:09:39.399 --> 00:09:41.960 Oh, no, he was active. It was brilliant. He'd 00:09:41.960 --> 00:09:43.919 be begging for mercy to cause a distraction. 00:09:44.259 --> 00:09:47.000 He interfered at WrestleMania 21. And of course, 00:09:47.019 --> 00:09:49.610 he used the cast again. And the druid disguise. 00:09:50.009 --> 00:09:52.929 I totally forgot about that. On SmackDown, he 00:09:52.929 --> 00:09:55.509 comes out dressed as one of Undertaker's druids 00:09:55.509 --> 00:09:58.029 holding the urn just to set up a sneak attack. 00:09:58.289 --> 00:10:00.909 It was fantastic television. It really helped 00:10:00.909 --> 00:10:03.289 pass that villain heat from the father to the 00:10:03.289 --> 00:10:06.250 son. But this is where we have to talk about 00:10:06.250 --> 00:10:09.019 the controversy from that feud. Right. The tone 00:10:09.019 --> 00:10:10.799 in the notes definitely shifts here. This is 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:13.620 about the hepatitis C situation. It is. And we 00:10:13.620 --> 00:10:15.659 need to be really careful and precise with the 00:10:15.659 --> 00:10:17.919 facts here because this is a very serious medical 00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:20.620 issue. Okay, so lay out the timeline from the 00:10:20.620 --> 00:10:22.720 sources. So according to the reports, Orton was 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:24.899 diagnosed with hepatitis C when he was a teenager. 00:10:25.379 --> 00:10:27.980 But he apparently had no symptoms. And over the 00:10:27.980 --> 00:10:30.399 decades, he said he basically forgot about it. 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:32.340 He just didn't believe he was still a carrier 00:10:32.340 --> 00:10:34.840 after all that time. But then 30 years later, 00:10:34.960 --> 00:10:38.480 in 2005, he gets retested during the feud. Correct. 00:10:38.620 --> 00:10:40.799 And the test confirms he does still carry the 00:10:40.799 --> 00:10:44.019 disease. This is a huge deal because of the match 00:10:44.019 --> 00:10:46.139 they were building to, Hell in a Cell. Which 00:10:46.139 --> 00:10:49.820 means blood is almost guaranteed. Exactly. At 00:10:49.820 --> 00:10:53.100 the pay -per -view inside the cell, Orton bleated, 00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:56.259 cut his own forehead to bleed for dramatic effect. 00:10:56.399 --> 00:10:59.639 It was common then. And in doing so, his blood 00:10:59.639 --> 00:11:01.980 got on The Undertaker during the match. And the 00:11:01.980 --> 00:11:05.779 big question is, did The Undertaker know? No. 00:11:06.220 --> 00:11:08.259 The sources are clear on this. The undertaker 00:11:08.259 --> 00:11:10.480 did not know. And when he found out later, he 00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:12.799 was furious. What about the company? Did management 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:15.279 know? That's the other part of it. The reports 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:17.279 state that the head of talent relations at the 00:11:17.279 --> 00:11:20.240 time, John Laurinaitis, did know about Orton's 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:22.039 condition. But he still allowed the blading to 00:11:22.039 --> 00:11:25.509 happen. He did. Wow. That's that's just a massive 00:11:25.509 --> 00:11:27.850 breach of trust in a business where your health 00:11:27.850 --> 00:11:30.009 is literally in your opponent's hands. Yeah, 00:11:30.110 --> 00:11:32.289 that's a huge problem. It really is. It shows 00:11:32.289 --> 00:11:34.070 you how different the health and safety protocols 00:11:34.070 --> 00:11:36.929 were even as recently as 2005. That would never 00:11:36.929 --> 00:11:39.210 happen today. But it's a documented part of the 00:11:39.210 --> 00:11:41.110 story and it caused a lot of backstage tension. 00:11:41.250 --> 00:11:44.789 No doubt. But it seems like in wrestling, time 00:11:44.789 --> 00:11:48.090 heals most wounds because even after all that. 00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:51.000 Bob just kept showing up. He's like the wrestling 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:53.019 Terminator. He was at Money in the Bank in 2017. 00:11:53.539 --> 00:11:55.980 I remember that. He's just sitting in the front 00:11:55.980 --> 00:11:58.039 row looking like somebody's grandpa. But he was 00:11:58.039 --> 00:12:00.360 part of the angle. The Singh brothers, who were 00:12:00.360 --> 00:12:02.620 with Jinder Mahal, assaulted him at ringside 00:12:02.620 --> 00:12:05.039 to distract Randy, which cost Randy the championship. 00:12:05.620 --> 00:12:08.399 Even in his late 60s, Bob Orton Jr. is still 00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:10.720 taking bumps to get the main event over. It's 00:12:10.720 --> 00:12:13.299 just unbelievable consistency. And he's still 00:12:13.299 --> 00:12:15.379 getting his flowers. He was inducted into the 00:12:15.379 --> 00:12:18.019 St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2024. He's 00:12:18.019 --> 00:12:19.799 getting an award from the Cauliflower Alley Club. 00:12:20.059 --> 00:12:22.659 The respect from inside the business is clearly 00:12:22.659 --> 00:12:24.830 there. And it's well -deserved. I mean, you look 00:12:24.830 --> 00:12:28.509 at his career, the NWA, the AWA, the WWF, Golden 00:12:28.509 --> 00:12:32.090 Era, WCW, New Japan, then showing up in the modern 00:12:32.090 --> 00:12:34.509 WWE with his son. He's literally touched every 00:12:34.509 --> 00:12:37.090 major corner of the business. So when you step 00:12:37.090 --> 00:12:39.929 back and look at the whole file, what does Bob 00:12:39.929 --> 00:12:42.129 Wharton Jr. represent? To me, he seems like the 00:12:42.129 --> 00:12:44.070 ultimate utility player. You need a cowboy. Got 00:12:44.070 --> 00:12:48.169 it. Bodyguard. Got it. Pirate. Weirdly, yes. 00:12:48.450 --> 00:12:51.620 Manager. Done. I think that's it. He represents 00:12:51.620 --> 00:12:54.879 adaptability. In a business that is just so full 00:12:54.879 --> 00:12:57.320 of ego, where everyone wants to be the top guy, 00:12:57.480 --> 00:12:59.460 Bob Horton Jr. built a Hall of Fame career by 00:12:59.460 --> 00:13:01.980 making other people look better. He was the ultimate 00:13:01.980 --> 00:13:04.899 professional. Think about it. He made Piper more 00:13:04.899 --> 00:13:08.179 dangerous. He made Hogan a bigger hero at WrestleMania. 00:13:08.659 --> 00:13:11.139 He even made The Undertaker look more sympathetic. 00:13:11.539 --> 00:13:14.179 He was the guy who would take the fall or swing 00:13:14.179 --> 00:13:16.519 and miss with the cast so that the star could 00:13:16.519 --> 00:13:18.519 have their moment. He understood that a hero 00:13:18.519 --> 00:13:20.960 is only as good as his villain. Yeah. Or his 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:23.559 villain's henchman. Exactly. And that kind of 00:13:23.559 --> 00:13:25.220 leads me to a final thought for people to chew 00:13:25.220 --> 00:13:28.919 on. We always focus on the top guy. The Hogans, 00:13:28.940 --> 00:13:30.879 the Austins, the Randy Ortons. We count their 00:13:30.879 --> 00:13:33.210 titles. Right. Who's on the poster? But Bob Wharton 00:13:33.210 --> 00:13:36.230 Jr. had a career that lasted five decades. He 00:13:36.230 --> 00:13:38.389 was almost never out of work. He's a Hall of 00:13:38.389 --> 00:13:41.850 Famer. So the question is this. In an industry 00:13:41.850 --> 00:13:44.929 built on being the man, does Bob Wharton Jr.'s 00:13:44.929 --> 00:13:47.210 career prove that being the ultimate number two, 00:13:47.309 --> 00:13:50.149 the perfect supporting character, is actually 00:13:50.149 --> 00:13:53.309 a smarter, more sustainable path than destroying 00:13:53.309 --> 00:13:55.350 your body trying to be the main event? That's 00:13:55.350 --> 00:13:57.610 a really interesting way to frame it. Maybe Ace 00:13:57.610 --> 00:14:00.940 really did play the best hand after all. That's 00:14:00.940 --> 00:14:02.860 all the time we have. Thanks for listening, and 00:14:02.860 --> 00:14:03.980 we'll see you on the next deep dive.