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RANDALL ORTON AKA BARRY O AND THE ZODIAC PASSES AWAY

Randall Orton, who wrestled under a number of guises including Barry O in an enhancement role for the WWF in the 1980s and the masked Zodiac in Stampede Wrestling in the late 1980s, passed away yesterday according to The Cauliflower Alley Club.  Orton was the son of Bob Orton Sr., the brother of WWE Hall of Famer Cowboy Bob Orton and the Uncle and namesake of WWE star Randy Orton.  Orton was 67 at the time of his passing.

Orton debuted in the business in the late 1970s after training with WWE Hall of Famer Tito Santana.  He was very much a journeyman in the business and at times credited that he didn't have a stronger success consistently to the fact that music was his true first love.  He bounced around a number of territories early, including Don Owens' Pacific Northwest, Bob Giegel's Central States promotion, Amarillo for the Funks and Mid-Atlantic Wrestling for The Crocketts.  In the ring, he was always a very credible performer.

He had some early success in tag team roles, winning The Southeastern Tag Team Championship in the Poffo family's promotion, ICW,  with his brother Bob Orton.  In Los Angeles, he and Hector Guerrero were the NWA Americas Tag Team Champions.  For the Crocketts, he was in a version of the masked Assassins tag team with Jody Hamilton. 

Most WWF fans would recognize him as long-time heel enhancement talent Barry "O", making a giant O with his fingers on weekly syndicated television.  Orton would get a little offense in before the inevitable happened and the hero would be hailed victorious.  He was a regular in the mid '80s and then again in the early 1990s.  Unlike most enhancement talents, he was also working a regular house show schedule.

In between WWF runs, Orton found some success working under a mask as The Zodiac, a heel for the revived Stampede Wrestling promotion in Canada, a character that the Pro Wrestling Illustrated family of magazines at the time would get some mileage out of while writing about that time period, which featured a crew of Owen Hart, Brian Pillman, Makhan Singh, Bruce Hart, Don Muraco and The British Bulldogs, among others.  Teaming with Jason The Terrible, who Zodiac allegedly controlled, the heel duo feuded with Hart and Pillman.  Jason would eventually break free of Zodiac's control and the two would feud.

Despite the family pedigree, it would be an incident that took place in the Amarillo territory that later defined his career publicly and likely ended his in-ring run when he came out publicly about it.  During the early 1990s WWF sex scandals that went public, leading to CNN's Larry King Live, Geraldo Rivera's Now It Can Be Told and The Phil Donohue Show (a massive afternoon talk show at the time) covering the stories, which blew up in a major way.

On the Donohue Show, Orton told a story of the late Terry Garvin attempting to pressure him into having sex while he and Orton were in a car traveling in the Amarillo territory together.  Garvin was already accused of trying to do the same to a ring crew member named Tom Cole out of New York, who WWF would later come to a settlement with, and Orton's story lent credibility to the Garvin allegations.  Cole passed away earlier this year, having taken his own life.

Obviously, this led to the end of Orton being used in any fashion at the time by WWF, but was not the end of his career.  He made some appearances for Herb Abrams' UWF but eventually moved on from the business.  After his time in professional wrestling, Orton shifted to acting, appearing in small roles in several movies. 

He made at least one convention appearance in recent years and in 2011, performed in the ring for what is believed to be the last time, competing at the 2011 WrestleReunion Legends Battle Royal in Los Angeles.

PWInsider.com sends our deepest condolences to the Orton family as well well as Orton's friends and fans.

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