Bob Orton Jr.

Robert Keith Orton Jr. (born November 10, 1950), known by the ring name "Cowboy" Bob Orton, is an American semi-retired professional wrestler.

He is a son of professional wrestler Bob Orton Sr., the brother of professional wrestler Barry Orton, and the father of professional wrestler Randy Orton.

He is best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation, (WWF, now WWE), including his involvement in the main event of the inaugural WrestleMania.

He has also wrestled for several promotions in the United States, Japan, and other countries.

Robert Keith "Bob" Orton Jr. was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and is a son of professional wrestler Bob Orton Sr.

Orton trained with Hiro Matsuda, after dropping out of college, and at the age of 22, Orton made his debut in the promotion Championship Wrestling from Florida in 1972 with the ring name of Young Mr. Wrestling wrestling in instances with his father Bob Orton Sr. They won the tag team title from the promotion.

Orton was one of the first wrestlers to use the Superplex as his finishing maneuver.

Orton, in his early days in wrestling, used a gimmick of a masked wrestler known as The Invader.

He often used this gimmick, until 1976.

Orton spent time in Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association in 1976 and 1978, a large portion of it under the tutelage of AWA MVP Manager Bobby Heenan.

Orton feuded with Greg Gagne among others.

A match featuring Orton vs Gagne was a featured match on the AWA undercard for the Muhammad Ali-Antonio Inoki mixed martial arts match.

Following experiencing success in the Florida, Central States, and Mid-South regions, Orton competed in the National Wrestling Alliance in 1980-1981 using a cowboy's gimmick.

While he competed in the NWA, he won several matches and earned a reputation as a hard worker and legit tough wrestler.

In 1982, he left the NWA to sign a contract with the World Wrestling Federation.

In 1982, Orton competed in the World Wrestling Federation.

He challenged Bob Backlund for the WWF Heavyweight Championship in Philadelphia, winning by count-out (the title cannot change of hands by disqualification or count-out).

They had a lumberjack match a month later again in Philadelphia, but Orton was again unsuccessful.

Their matches ran in some of the largest cities on the WWF circuit.

He returned to the NWA again in 1982 and captured the tag team title with Don Kernodle.

The duo held the title for two months before succumbing to Wahoo McDaniel and Mark Youngblood.

Together with Dick Slater, he had a feud with Ric Flair.

Orton and Slater interfered in Flair's return match against NWA World Champion Harley Race, who had beaten Flair for the title.

They attacked Flair with an aided piledriver, which caused Flair a severe injury in the neck and put Flair out of wrestling for several months, thus collecting a bounty placed on Flair's head by Race, who was reluctant to wrestle Flair in return matches for the title.

In the run-up to this incident, Orton had been portrayed as a babyface and a longtime friend of Flair - his participation in the attack was thus portrayed as the betrayal of that friendship.

Flair would eventually return in late 1983, attacking both Orton and Slater with a baseball bat (before going on to win back the title from Race at Starrcade '83).

Orton re-joined the WWF in March 1984 for what would be the most famous run of his career.

He was often addressed as "Ace" Orton by Roddy Piper, and was Piper's bodyguard.

In 1984, Orton was the #1 contender to the WWF Intercontinental Championship, eventually wrestling then-current champion Tito Santana.

Orton was successful in winning untelevised matches and events against Santana, but Orton mostly won by either count-out or disqualification.

Orton would also be successful in defeating Santana in non-title bouts, but Santana ultimately remained as the champ, and Santana eventually got the upper hand in the feud.

His other gimmick, wearing a cast during his matches, stemmed from legitimately having his left forearm broken in a match with Jimmy Snuka at the 1985 event The War to Settle the Score in Madison Square Garden.

Although the injury healed in real life, the "cast" gimmick involved Orton—on "doctor's orders"—continuing to wear the cast, claiming the injury had not healed; Orton instead would use the cast to his advantage, striking his opponents behind the referee's back.

He won several matches, with the cast and without the cast.

Orton would also engage in a bitter feud with Jimmy Snuka through 1985 and 1986.

Orton, just like with Santana, managed to achieve victories over Snuka but mainly in untelevised shows.

Just like his feud with Santana, Snuka would get the upper hand in the feud.

Orton was involved in the main event of the first WrestleMania at Madison Square Garden in 1985, being in the corner of Piper and 'Mr. Wonderful' Paul Orndorff in their match against Hulk Hogan and Mr. T.

Orton accidentally cost his team the match after an attempted cheat backfired, resulting in him hitting Orndorff with the cast.

Orton had a brief stint back in the AWA in early 1988 following his November 1987 dismissal from the WWF, during which he renewed his alliance with Adrian Adonis from the WWF.