Professional Career
After the Olympics, Roop turned to professional wrestling. He began his professional career in 1969 and wrestled until 1988, when a car accident damaged his neck.
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 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.
It should also be noted that Roop wrestled for a time in Mid-South Wrestling and is credited for being the man who created the reversal to the figure four leg lock, the hold that "injured" him in Florida. Until then, getting to the ropes was the only way to break the hold other than tapping out.
Roop later became part of the The Army of Darkness stable which included Kevin Sullivan, Purple Haze, Luna Vachon and Lock, Kharma/Molokai and Fallen Angel. Roop adopted the ring name Maha Singh, shaving off the hair and beard on half his head and putting face paint on the shaved side.
He made a cameo appearance in the 1978 Sylvester Stallone movie Paradise Alley.
Roop trained Lex Luger in the basics of professional wrestling shortly after meeting him. He then turned over training duties to Hiro Matsuda.
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).
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