This month we will look at Bob Orton Jr.’s memorable stint in the Mid-Atlantic area.

Bob entered the area after a successful stint in the WWF in the Winter of 1982. Bob immediately became a midcard babyface who was mostly a tag-team wrestler with guys such as Rufus R. Jones, Johnny Weaver, Jimmy Valiant and so on. Needless to say, Bob didn’t really make an impact in the area until the summer of 1983.

In late July of 1983, then NWA champ Harley Race placed a $25,000 bounty on Ric Flair’s head. Of course all of the heels in the area tried to collect it and also Flair had all the babyfaces watching his back, especially his good friend Orton. Orton and Flair were really tight and one of the few times Flair had his family on TV at the time, Orton held a little David Flair during the promo. We now fast forward to early September of 1983, Harley Race is defending his NWA belt against Flair on TV. It was a very good match like it always was between these two, and Flair has Race ready lose his belt, when Dick Slater jumps Flair. Flair and Slater start going at it, when all of sudden, Orton shows up and everyone expects him to even the sides. Boy were they wrong, as Orton decked Flair and helped Slater stuff piledrive Flair in the mat. It became 3-on-1 until the babyface dressing room cleared to make the save, and David Crockett was selling it on commentary like someone died and that just helped the angle get over. The next week, they show a camera in the heels’ locker room and Race gives Slater & Orton the $25,000 to split up in between themselves. A couple of weeks later, Flair sends in a taped speech in which he says he is retiring from the sport because of everything that happened. Then later on in the show while Orton and Slater were wrestling in a squash match, Flair comes out of the crowd,  in a neckbrace and carrying a baseball bat to chase the heels out of the building. Then, Flair cut one of the greatest promos ever on Orton and Slater, because it was so intense and he sweared revenge on them and the crowd went nuts.