Bob Roop Bob Roop ( born 1942 ) is a retired amateur and professional wrestler whose career has spanned high school , college , Army , amateur and professional wrestling . He was an American Heavyweight Greco - Roman wrestler at the 1968 Summer Olympics . Amateur career . Robert Roop began wrestling in the eighth grade in East Lansing , Michigan . 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 took State Championship . He entered Michigan State University on a football scholarship . After a year and a half , he left school to join the Army . 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 an 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 , 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 . " That spring , I entered my last national tournament before turning pro , the national AAU at Greco - Roman at 220 , and I won that one . It was the first one I even won . I had taken second and third a couple of times , " Roop said . In 1968 , Roop won a position on the U . S . Olympic team as Greco - Roman heavyweight . Roop was 25 years old , 6 ' 2 " tall , and weighed 270 pounds entering the Games in Mexico City in 1968 . The team was coached by legendary wrestling coach Henry Wittenberg . Roop finished in seventh place in Mexico City , losing to Anatoli Roschin , who went on to win the silver medal . 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 ) .