Kevin Nash Credits Paul Orndorff and Rick Rude for Career-Changing Lesson Early in WCW Run

Kevin Nash has opened up about the backstage moment that fundamentally changed how he approached professional wrestling, pointing to the late Paul Orndorff and Rick Rude as the veterans who helped it click.

Speaking on his Kliq This podcast, Nash pushed back on the notion that Orndorff was a difficult personality, describing him instead as passionate and knowledgeable. Nash recalled a television taping during his early WCW days when he was working with Ricky Steamboat and finally began to grasp how to control the pace of a match and draw the right reactions from the crowd. It was a breakthrough moment — and Orndorff spotted it immediately.

“I remember Orndorff came up to me, and it was one of those things where guys that know just come and grab you by your forearm,” Nash said. “It was like the light bulb finally went off. He was so excited.”

Rick Rude also took notice and reinforced the lesson, with both veterans helping Nash understand something essential about working with a savvy performer like Steamboat. The point, Nash explained, was that Steamboat would always protect his own momentum and fire back at the right time — which freed Nash to focus entirely on getting the most out of his own performance rather than worrying about carrying both sides of the match.

“Ricky will talk, Ricky will make sure Ricky stays strong, Ricky will fight back when Ricky needs to fight back. That’s one of those things you just learn in the business,” Nash said.

For the WWE Hall of Famer, it was a defining turning point. Nash described the moment as the first time everything truly made sense — capping the reflection with a self-deprecating laugh: “Did I waste the last two years of my life?”

The anecdote offers a rare window into the informal mentorship that shaped one of wrestling’s most enduring careers, and stands as a tribute to two veterans — Orndorff, who passed away in 2021, and Rude, who died in 1999 — whose influence clearly ran deeper than their on-screen personas suggested.