Public Funeral Being Held For Paul Orndorff, WWE Pays Tribute, Actor On Orndorff's Passing

By Marc Middleton

A public funeral will be held for the legendary Hall of Famer "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff later this week in Fayetteville, Georgia.

As noted, Orndorff passed away on Monday at the age of 71. You can click here to read the original message from his son Travis.

In an update, Travis posted a photo of Orndorff wearing his rings for the WWE Hall of Fame 2005 Class, the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame 2017 Class, and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame 2009 Class. Orndorff was also inducted into the 2009 NWA Hall of Fame Class and the University of Tampa's Football Hall of Fame, Class of 1986. He noted that Pastor Ike Reighard of the Piedmont Church will be speaking at Orndorff's memorial, which will be held at New Hope First Baptist Church in Fayetteville, GA. Additional details on the public service will be announced soon.

Travis has also shared a few family photos with his father, which you can see below. He indicated on social media that he brought his father home to live with him during the first week of July as they prepared for his farewell.

WWE paid tribute to Orndorff last night with a graphic in memory of Mr. Wonderful as RAW hit the air on the USA Network. The tribute will also likely air before tonight's WWE NXT. WWE was unable to do any kind of ten-bell salute with the roster on last night's RAW because the show was taped. You can see the RAW graphic below, along with a video looking at Orndorff's career, and a video looking at the WrestleMania I main event that featured Orndorff and WWE Hall of Famers Roddy Piper, Hulk Hogan and Mr. T. WWE has also paid tribute to Mr. Wonderful on other social media channels.

For those who missed it, you can click here for social media tributes to Orndorff from WWE, AEW, Impact Wrestling and the Cauliflower Alley Club. You can click here for more Orndorff tributes from Hall of Famers and Superstars such as Hogan, Triple H, CM Punk, Ric Flair, Mick Foley, Tommy Dreamer, Jim Ross and many others.

Many more wrestlers paid tribute to Mr. Wonderful this week. Actor and comedian Bill Burr, an old school wrestling fan with The Nature Boy in his Twitter profile photo, also paid tribute to Orndorff on Twitter.

"Just heard about the passing of Paul "Mr 1derful"Orndorff. One of the greatest of all time! Thanks for all the laughs and great matches. R.I.P. #PaulOrndorff," Burr wrote.

The GoFundMe campaign to help with expenses is still going live at this link. The campaign currently has raised $9,185 of a $18,000 goal, with 342 donors. The goal was originally set at $25,000.

Stay tuned for more on Orndorff and his public service. You can see the related posts below:

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