Orlando Jordan

Orlando Mason Jordan (born July 10, 1980 in Salem, New Jersey) is a professional wrestler who is currently working on the independent circuit and recently wrestled for TNT Pro Wrestling. Jordan is perhaps best known for working for World Wrestling Entertainment on its SmackDown! brand under the ring name Orlando Jordan. He was famous for being a skilled amateur boxer and amateur wrestler in his own home-state of Florida.

World Wrestling Entertainment
Jordan made his WWE TV debut on the May 31, 2003 episode of Velocity defeating Jamie Noble. On June 26, 2003, Jordan made his first SmackDown! appearance as a face at Madison Square Garden against heel John Cena. Although he did not win the match he was impressive enough that when Cena attacked Jordan after the match was over The Undertaker came to the ring and helped Jordan to his feet. Undertaker took time to shake Jordan's hand and congratulate him on a good effort; the ultimate sign of respect for a WWE rookie.

Later he would turn heel by joining JBL's Cabinet as his "Chief of Staff". Since then he would later change his look by growing his hair back.

Jordan and fellow cabinet members (co-Secretaries of Defense) Bashams were one of the main reasons JBL managed to keep his title for nearly 10 months, though after WrestleMania 21, JBL stated that his Cabinet had been holding him back, which caused the departure of the Bashams.

On a SmackDown! episode which aired on March 3, 2005 from the Times Union Center in Albany, NY, Orlando Jordan defeated John Cena with the help of JBL to win the WWE United States Championship. He successfully defended his title against Heidenreich in his first pay-per-view defense at Judgment Day 2005 on May 22, 2005.

For a brief time, Orlando Jordan was the top champion on the SmackDown! brand due to the fact that the WWE Champion at the time, John Cena, was drafted to the RAW brand. This, however, was never acknowledged. Orlando Jordan and the United States Title remained on SmackDown!'s secondary program WWE Velocity and although he was the top champion he never got a main event push even though it would have only been for an extremely brief period of time. SmackDown! soon got the World Heavyweight Championship and its holder, Batista via the draft.

At The Great American Bash 2005, Jordan started his biggest feud against Chris Benoit. Orlando Jordan defeated Benoit and retained his United States Championship after removing the turnbuckle pad and shoving Benoit head-first into the exposed steel and covered him for the win.

Feeling cheated, Benoit continued to chase Jordan for the title. He finally defeated Jordan (in 25.5 seconds) at SummerSlam 2005 to win the title. Following this quick match Jordan attempted to win his title back on multiple occasions, leading to 3 consecutive losses with all matches lasting less than a minute.

The first match lasted 23.4 seconds. During the second match, Jordan actually almost knocked out Benoit with a punch in the opening moments but still lost at 22.5 seconds, faster than the first match. During the third match, Jordan cleverly stalled until the time (being displayed on the TitanTron) went over 25 seconds. He got so excited when his time went over 30 seconds that he dropped his guard and Benoit took the opportunity to lock on the Crossface for a win at the 49.8 second mark. After those series of events, Jordan broke away from JBL, and was hardly seen on television.

When Booker T got injured half-way through his Best of Seven series for the United States title, he needed a replacement to face Chris Benoit. As the series was at 3-1 to Booker, Booker T only needed his replacement to win one match in order to become the United States Champion. Orlando approached him about the position but Booker T and his wife Sharmell laughed in Orlando's face and made jokes about Orlando's quick tap outs to Benoit.

Booker would instead ask Randy Orton to substitute for him. Orton, however, would fail to win the deciding match leading Orlando Jordan to once again ask for the position the next week. Booker T and his wife laughed at him and turned him down once again though. During the sixth match in the series Orlando Jordan jumped the rail, grabbed Booker T's crutch and hit Chris Benoit for a DQ finish and Chris Benoit was announced as the winner, tying the Best of Seven Series at 3-3 (Orlando Jordan in fact botched the finish and accidentally hit Orton first but it was edited out of the show). The next week Orlando Jordan ran to ringside to attempt to halt Booker T from winning the Championship but was unable to prevent Randy Orton from eventually beating Chris Benoit and winning the series for Booker T.

WWE was attempting to push Orlando as a face, but when the fans failed to get behind him, he remained heel and his push was dropped after he was easily defeated by The Boogeyman on February 17, 2006 edition of SmackDown!.

Orlando made his final SmackDown! appearance on the May 12th, 2006 edition of SmackDown! in a backstage segment telling Nunzio that he had seen someone who looked an awful lot like his partner Vito dressed in drag at a night club during the recent UK tour. Jordan's final WWE appearance was a loss to Gunner Scott on the May 13 edition of Velocity. Orlando was then released from WWE on May 26, 2006.

He now wrestles for Nu-Wrestling Evolution, a promotion based in Italy.

In wrestling

 * Finishing and signature moves
 * O.J. Leg Drop (Leg drop bulldog)
 * Blackout (Reverse STO) - WWE
 * Black Ice (Double knee backbreaker)
 * Jordan Shuffle (Punching combination)
 * Last Call (Fallaway slam)
 * Orlando Magic (Swinging neckbreaker)
 * Inverted facelock neckbreaker slam
 * Running powerslam
 * Dropkick
 * Spinebuster
 * Shoulder jawbreaker
 * Top rope flying crossbody
 * Missile dropkick

Nicknames
 * "The Policy"
 * "Secretary of State"
 * "Chief of Staff"

Pro wrestling accomplishments

 * Maryland Championship Wrestling
 * 1-time MCW Heavyweight Champion


 * Powerhouse Championship Wrestling
 * PCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)


 * Shytown Wrestling Association
 * SWA Heavyweight Champion (1 time)


 * TNT Pro Wrestling
 * 1-time TNT Tag Team Champion (w/ Heidenreich)


 * World Wrestling Entertainment
 * 1-time WWE United States Champion

Amateur wrestling accomplishments

 * 2-time National Wrestling Champion
 * 2-time All-American Wrestling Champion
 * 3-time Central Region (Richmond, VA) Wrestling Champion
 * 1-time Virginia Commonwealth Games Freestyle Wrestling Champion
 * 1-time Virginia State Wrestling Champion (AAA)

Trivia

 * Orlando Jordan was once a substitute WWE Champion. On an episode of SmackDown! during his time in The Cabinet, JBL was ordered to defend the title. However he was injured at the time. Because of this, he had OJ defend it as a substitute.