12 Things We Learned From Dark Side Of The Ring: Saving Paul Orndorff
10. That Bled Over Into His Own Family Life
Later, when Paul had kids of his own, he tried to do the best he could by providing for them financially and with material possessions. On 'Dark Side', Travis revealed that his mother was “constantly talking bad about my father - it was rough”. Paul was out on the road and didn’t really know what he was doing as a young father - he just wanted to drag his family out of the doldrums, but there was a lot of anger and frustration.
“My dad was never perfect, but as a father he was unconditionally loving and I never felt like he was that far away”. That's a lovely sentiment from Trav, to be fair.
Ronda (Orndorff's wife) liked the money that wrestling provided once Paul reached the promised land of the WWF, but it’s pretty clear from listening to all of the talking heads on ‘Dark Side’ that they didn’t have a strong personal relationship most of the time. There was no talk of domestic abuse on VICE's documentary, but it wasn't a fairytale love story from start to finish between the couple.
Various family pictures show a real disconnect between the personalities of Paul and Ronda. He was a vain pro wrestling megastar who probably found it difficult to be off the road kicking around the house, and she was someone just about to step into real personal hardship. There was more on that deeper into the episode.
Somehow, Travis still remembers having a decent enough childhood despite all of those worries happening around him.