In 1987 I covered the convention in Los Angeles of the Cauliflower Alley Club, an organization of retired wrestlers, for a story for People magazine that was not published. There I met Bob Orton Sr.: father of Cowboy Bob Orton (one of the stars of the first WrestleMania in 1985); father of Barry Orton (who in the early 1990s alleged that he failed to get a “push” in the World Wrestling Federation because he resisted the sexual harassment of Vince McMahon’s top talent aides); grandfather of Randy Orton.
“I always told my kids that they should become dentists,” Bob Senior joked to me. “When you’re a wrestler, you get chairs smashed over your head. When you’re a dentist you don’t get hurt, except maybe for a kid biting your finger.”
Irvin Muchnick