Bob Roop | |
---|---|
Birth name | Robert Michael Roop |
Born | [1] Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S. | July 22, 1942
Alma mater | Southern Illinois University |
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | All-American Bob Roop The Enforcer The Gladiator Maya Singh Maha Singh Star Warrior |
Billed height | 6 ft 2 in (185 cm) |
Billed weight | 270 lb (123 kg) |
Billed from | Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S. |
Debut | 1969 |
Retired | 1988 |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States |
Service | United States Army |
Robert Michael Roop [2] (born July 22, 1942) is an American retired amateur wrestler and professional wrestler whose career spanned high school, college, the United States Army, amateur and professional wrestling. He was an American heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler at the 1968 Summer Olympics.
Robert Roop began wrestling in the eighth grade in East Lansing, Michigan. [3] In High School, Roop was varsity heavyweight as a freshman, with an inauspicious 0-22-1 record. With the guidance of coach Joe Dibello, his record improved in ensuing years, with a 27-0-0 record his senior year, in which he also won the State Championship.
He entered Michigan State University on a football scholarship. [3] After a year and a half, he left school to join the Army. [3] He received paratrooper training, and signed on to become a Special Forces medic. He competed on the All-Army wrestling team and, later, the All-Services wrestling team. There was one other heavyweight on the All-Services team, Jim Rasher, who had won a bronze medal as the U.S. Greco-Roman Heavyweight at the World Games prior to entering the Army. Rasher was influential in Roop's decision to pursue amateur wrestling.
After his three-year stint in the service, he entered Southern Illinois University, and began pursuing amateur wrestling. He attended from 1965 through 1969, majoring in political science, [3] and was a collegiate wrestling standout with a win–loss record of 66-18, including a 16-3 record during his senior year.
While in college he won four National Amateur Athletic Union All-American rankings, earned by placing in the top four spots in the national tournament, and an NAAU Championship as a light-heavyweight. During his last year of college, his coach at Southern Illinois convinced him to train down to a lighter weight of 220 pounds.
Roop was 25 years old, 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall and weighed 270 pounds (120 kg) entering the Games in Mexico City in 1968. [3] The team was coached by legendary wrestling coach Henry Wittenberg. Roop finished in seventh place, losing to Aleksandr Medved, who went on to win the gold medal. [3]
Roop began his professional career in 1969 after a meeting with his long-time friend Larry Heiniemi, better known as Lars Anderson. [3] Heiniemi's tales of global travel and financial success appealed to Roop who began working for Eddie Graham, the promoter of Championship Wrestling from Florida and who traiend Roop. [3] Working as an arrogant villain and flaunting his genuine amateur wrestling credentials, Roop challenged for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship on five occasions. [4]
In 1976, Bob Roop received a possible career ending knee injury while wrestling Eddie Graham. The move which supposedly caused the injury, the figure-four, was banned as a crippling hold. While Roop was supposedly recovering, a new wrestler, The Gladiator, appeared on the Florida wrestling scene. The masked Gladiator used the shoulderbreaker, Roop's signature finishing move, and crowds shouted Roop's name when he appeared in the ring. During a Gladiator match on the Championship Wrestling from Florida TV program, Eddie and Mike Graham ran in on the match and removed the mask. The Gladiator was revealed as Roop. This incident is listed as number 24 in the CWF's "The Twenty-Five Greatest Angles In CWF History". After the unmasking, the figure-four was reinstated. This angle was used in 1977 in Roy Shire's San Francisco NWA territory as Roop was "injured" by Kevin Sullivan and then a masked wrestler named The Star Warrior showed up around the same time Roop was injured; later, Sullivan unmasked Star Warrior, who was Roop.
Roop also wrestled and sporadically commentated for a time in Mid-South Wrestling, and he is often incorrectly credited for being the man who created the reversal to the figure four leg lock, the hold that "injured" him in Florida. "Cowboy" Bob Ellis used the maneuver against Buddy Rogers back in the early 1960s.[ citation needed ]
In the 1980s, Roop wrestled in Angelo Poffo's International Championship Wrestling (ICW) promotion out of Lexington, Kentucky. [5] The promotion at the time featured such future wrestling superstars as 'The Macho Man' Randy Savage, [6] 'The Genius' Lanny Poffo, [7] "Cowboy" Bob Orton Jr. [8] and Ronnie 'Hands of Stone' Garvin. [8]
Roop later became part of the Army of Darkness stable in 1982 which included Kevin Sullivan, Purple Haze, Luna Vachon and Lock, Kharma/Molokai and Fallen Angel. Roop adopted the ring name Mayha Singh, shaving off the hair and beard on half his head and putting face paint on the shaved side. [4]
Roop retired from wrestling in 1988 due to a neck injury suffered in a car crash. [3] At the time he also handled booking duties and trained wrestlers at a school in Davie, Florida. [4] An early student of his was Lawrence Pfohl, the future Lex Luger, [4] who Roop broke into the business before turned over training duties to Hiro Matsuda. Looking back on his career in 2000, Roop stated "I had a hell of a lot of fun doing it, and it was quite an education." [4]
Since retirement, Roop has lived in Michigan and worked as a Boy Scouts troop leader. [3] [4]
On July 15, 2006, Bob Roop was inducted into the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. The ceremony was held at the International Wrestling Institute and Museum then in Newton, Iowa (now in Waterloo, Iowa). [9]
Roop made a cameo appearance in the 1978 Sylvester Stallone movie Paradise Alley . [10]
Roop was married twice and has three sons. [4]
Aloysius Martin Thesz, known by the ring name Lou Thesz, was an American professional wrestler. Considered to be one of the last true shooters in professional wrestling and described as the "quintessential athlete" and a "polished warrior who could break a man in two if pushed the wrong way", Thesz is widely regarded as one of the greatest wrestlers and wrestling world champions in history, and possibly the last globally accepted world champion.
Lanny Mark Poffo better known by his ring names "Leaping" Lanny Poffo and the Genius, was a Canadian-American professional wrestler, motivational speaker, poet, and actor. Poffo was a second generation professional wrestler, his father being Angelo Poffo. His brother Macho Man Randy Savage was also a professional wrestler.
Robert Keith Orton Jr., known by the ring name "Cowboy" Bob Orton, is an American semi-retired professional wrestler. He is a son of professional wrestler Bob Orton Sr., the brother of professional wrestler Barry Orton, and the father of professional wrestler Randy Orton. He is best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation,, including his involvement in the main event of the inaugural WrestleMania. He has also wrestled for several promotions in the United States, Japan, and other countries.
Yasuhiro Kojima, best known by his ring name Hiro Matsuda, was a Japanese professional wrestler and trainer.
Brian Leslie Blair is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring name B. Brian Blair as one half of the tag team The Killer Bees in the 1980s.
James Morrison is an American retired professional wrestler and manager, better known by his ring name, J. J. Dillon.
Floyd Gerald "Jerry" Brisco is an American retired professional wrestler. Brisco is best known for his time in the wrestling promotion WWE, where he was a backstage producer, and, during the 1990s, an on-screen character, working alongside Pat Patterson as the "stooges" for the Mr. McMahon character. He was most recently a WWE talent scout where he focused on exclusively recruiting amateur wrestlers into the company.
Dorrance Wilhelm Funk was an American professional wrestler. He is the father of wrestlers Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk, and was a promoter of the Amarillo, Texas-based Western States Sports promotion.
Claude Patterson is an American retired professional wrestler, known by his ring name Thunderbolt Patterson. He began his career in 1964 and wrestled primarily in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. During the early 1970s, he was blacklisted by the National Wrestling Alliance for repeated appearances with outlaw promotions, his complaints of institutional racism and attempts to form a wrestlers' labor union.
Michael DiBiase was an American professional wrestler also known by his ring name "Iron" Mike DiBiase. The adoptive father of professional wrestler "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, he was married to Ted's mother Helen Hild, and was the grandfather of Mike, Ted Jr., and Brett DiBiase.
Lawrence J. Simon, better known by the ring name Boris Malenko, was an American professional wrestler and professional wrestling trainer. He is best known for his appearances with Championship Wrestling from Florida and Big Time Wrestling in the 1960s and 1970s as a Russian heel. He was the father of professional wrestlers Joe and Dean Malenko.
Raymond Fred Gunkel was an American amateur and professional wrestler and promoter in the state of Georgia. Gunkel was a two-time AAU national champion and, as a professional, a three-time NWA Texas Heavyweight Champion. He died of heart trauma after a match in Savannah, Georgia, in which he defeated Ox Baker.
Richard Heron Avis Hutton was an American amateur and professional wrestler. He was a three-time NCAA champion and, as a professional, held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, making him a one-time world champion in professional wrestling.
Continental Championship Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion based in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Dothan, Alabama, from 1985 until 1989, owned by Ron Fuller. The promotion evolved out of the NWA-affiliated Southeastern Championship Wrestling and Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling territories owned by Fuller, who purchased the Knoxville territory from John Cazana in 1974 and the Alabama/Florida territory in 1977. When Fuller sold the promotion to David Woods in 1988, the name was changed to Continental Wrestling Federation.
International Championship Wrestling was an independent professional wrestling promotion based in Lexington, Kentucky, which operated from 1978 until 1984. It was run by Angelo Poffo, the father of Randy Savage and "The Genius" Lanny Poffo. Throughout its history, ICW was considered an "outlaw" promotion, as it was not a member of the National Wrestling Alliance and promoted shows in direct competition against NWA regional territories. The rights to the ICW library are currently owned by WWE.
Donald B. Curtis was an American professional wrestler, best known for being a member of a tag team with Mark Lewin in the 1950s and 1960s. During his partnership with Lewin, they won the NWA World Tag Team Championship. Curtis was a wrestling promoter in Jacksonville, Florida, until 1981.
Dale Folsom Lewis was an American wrestler who competed in the Greco-Roman heavyweight division at the 1956 and 1960 Summer Olympics. He won the 1959 Pan-American Games in Greco-Roman wrestling. Lewis was also a two-time NCAA wrestling champion at Oklahoma.
Jeff Smith, better known as Izzy Slapawitz, was an American professional wrestler, manager and color commentator, best known for his time with International Championship Wrestling.
All-Star Championship Wrestling (ASCW) was a professional wrestling promotion that was founded in Knoxville, Tennessee by Ron Wright, Ronnie Garvin, Bob Roop, Bob Orton, Jr. and Boris Malenko in 1979. The group, informally known as "The Knoxville 5", broke away from Southeastern Championship Wrestling (SECW) and fought a six-month war against National Wrestling Alliance promoter Ron Fuller over control of the NWA's Knoxville territory. Although the "outlaw" group was successful in its efforts to oust Fuller, the promotional war is blamed for "killing" pro wrestling in Knoxville for several years during the 1980s wrestling boom.
Manny Saine is a retired American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Terry Gibbs. He wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation in the 1980s, American Wrestling Association, World Wrestling Council, and the National Wrestling Alliance.