Daniel Stephen Rodimer (born May 22, 1978), also known by his

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name or nickname used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons ...

Dan Rodman, is an American retired

professional wrestler Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to real-life wrest ...

, former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player, and former political candidate. In 2006, he signed a one-year developmental contract with

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

. Rodimer won the Republican primary for

Nevada's 3rd congressional district Nevada's 3rd congressional district is a congressional district occupying southern Las Vegas and much of unincorporated Clark County, Nevada, Clark County. The district was initially created after the 2000 United States census, 2000 census. Thi ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

. He lost narrowly to Democratic incumbent

Susie Lee Suzanne Marie Lee (née Kelley; born November 7, 1966) is an American politician who has served as the U.S. representative for Nevada's Nevada's 3rd congressional district, 3rd congressional district since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party ...

in the November 2020 general election. He has garnered endorsements from

President Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

Ted Cruz Rafael Edward Cruz (; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States senator from Texas since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Cruz was the solicitor general of Texas from 2003 ...

, the

National Rifle Association The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent Gun politics in the United States, gun rights ...

(NRA), and the

National Right to Life Committee The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) is the oldest and largest national anti-abortion organization in the United States with affiliates in all 50 states and more than 3,000 local chapters nationwide. Since the 1980s, NRLC has influenc ...

(NRLC). Just minutes before the March 5, 2021, filing deadline, he announced his candidacy for Texas's 6th congressional district special election. On March 6, 2024, an arrest warrant was issued for Rodimer in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

on a charge of open murder. Rodimer surrendered to police the following day.

Early life and education

Rodimer grew up in

Rockaway, New Jersey Rockaway is a borough in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 6,598, an increase of 160 (+2.5%) from the 2010 census count of 6,438, which in turn reflected a decl ...

, and attended Seton Hall Preparatory High School in West Orange. He attended the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States, and other campuses in St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg and Sarasota, ...

and played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

South Florida Bulls The South Florida Bulls (also known as the USF Bulls) are the athletic teams that represent the University of South Florida. USF competes in NCAA Division I and is a member of the American Athletic Conference for all sports besides sailing, a n ...

. He was a member of

Lambda Chi Alpha Lambda Chi Alpha (), commonly referred to as Lambda Chi, is a fraternities and sororities, collegiate fraternity in North America. With over 300,000 initiates as of 2024, it is the third-largest social fraternity in the world by number of initia ...

fraternity. Rodimer attended the

Ave Maria School of Law Ave Maria School of Law is a private Roman Catholic law school in Naples, Florida. It was founded in 1999 and is accredited by the American Bar Association. History and governance Ave Maria School of Law was founded in 1999, accepting its fir ...

in Vineyards, Florida, where he graduated in 2013.

Career

Rodimer played semi-pro football for the Tampa Bay Barracudas and in the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

. He also worked as a personal trainer.

World Wrestling Entertainment (2006–2007)

Rodimer got into wrestling by becoming a contestant in the 2004 Tough Enough competition. On July 12, 2006, Rodimer was signed to a developmental contract with

World Wrestling Entertainment World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

and was assigned to

Deep South Wrestling Deep South Wrestling (DSW) is a professional wrestling promotion in the state of Georgia. Deep South worked in tandem with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as a developmental territory from September 1, 2005, until April 18, 2007. Deep South w ...

. His first match came on September 7, when he defeated

Heath Miller Earl Heath Miller Jr. (born October 22, 1982) is an American former professional football player who was a tight end for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons from 2005 to 2015. Miller played college foot ...

. On September 24, he had his first televised match in DSW as Dan Rodimer, defeating Tommy Suede. Rodimer spent the first half of 2007 wrestling primarily in

Ohio Valley Wrestling Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) is an American professional wrestling promotion, professional wrestling promotion and former developmental territory based in Louisville, Kentucky. The company is currently run by Al Snow, Matt Jones (radio host), Ma ...

, WWE's other developmental territory. He feuded with Atlas DaBone throughout February and March. Rodimer made his debut on ''

Heat In thermodynamics, heat is energy in transfer between a thermodynamic system and its surroundings by such mechanisms as thermal conduction, electromagnetic radiation, and friction, which are microscopic in nature, involving sub-atomic, ato ...

'', beating

Eugene Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Gene Eugene, stage name of Canadian born actor, record producer, engineer, composer and musi ...

. He then returned to OVW. Daniel appeared on Heat twice more that year. Rodimer was then transferred to the new

Florida Championship Wrestling Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) was a professional wrestling professional wrestling promotion, promotion based on the former National Wrestling Alliance member promotion, Championship Wrestling from Florida, which operated from 1961 until ...

territory. However, he was released from his contract on August 22, 2007.

Campaigns for public office

In 2018, Rodimer ran for

Nevada State Senate The Nevada Senate is the upper house of the Nevada Legislature, the state legislature (United States), state legislature of U.S. state of Nevada, the lower house being the Nevada Assembly. It currently (2012–2021) consists of 21 members from sin ...

. He lost to Valerie Weber in the primary election by 142 votes, despite outspending her nearly two-to-one. In 2019, Rodimer announced his bid for

. He narrowly lost to incumbent

in the general election. In March 2021, Rodimer announced his candidacy for Texas's 6th congressional district special election. He was noted for dramatically changing his accent and persona in his campaign ad compared to his run in Nevada the previous year. He placed eleventh in the crowded jungle primary, attaining 2.6 percent of the vote share. During his campaign, Rodimer cast doubt on the integrity of the 2020 presidential election, saying "I think that we had some serious issues with this election and we've got to make sure that doesn't happen again," in response to whether he believed the election was "stolen". Rodimer also said of the storming of the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, "On January 6, people come to me all the time, they say, 'Big Dan Rodimer, what would you have done differently?' Well, you know what? I wouldn't have been hiding under my desk like all the other folks. I would have been out there, walking to the very, very front, top of the stairs saying, 'hey, the fact is we are all Americans. We want fair and free elections."

Personal life

Rodimer and his wife Sarah reside in

Mansfield, Texas Mansfield is a suburban city in the U.S. state of Texas, and is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The city is located mostly in Tarrant County, with small parts in Ellis and Johnson counties. Its location is approximately 30 miles from Dalla ...

, where he moved with his family in 2021. Prior to this, the family lived in

, where Rodimer was a member of the

Clark County School District The Clark County School District (CCSD) is the public school district serving Clark County in the U.S. state of Nevada. It is the largest school district in Nevada and the fifth-largest school district in the United States with 304,565 enro ...

Safety Advisory Committee in 2018. They have six children.

Legal issues

Assault accusations

Rodimer has been accused three times of

assault In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or consent, unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may ...

but has no convictions. After an arrest on charges of battery in 2010, Rodimer entered a deferred prosecution agreement. In that agreement he admitted to committing the offense, and upon completion of a six-week

anger management Anger management is a psycho-therapeutic program for anger prevention and control. It has been described as deploying anger successfully.Schwarts, Gil. July 2006. Anger Management', July 2006 The Office Politic. Men's Health magazine. Emmaus, PA: ...

training course the charge was dropped. He was also accused of assault in 2011 and 2013, according to records from the Collier County (Florida) Sheriff's Office; however, in both cases no charges were filed.

Murder allegation

On March 6, 2024, an arrest warrant was issued for Rodimer on an open

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

charge in

in connection with the death of Chris Tapp in Las Vegas the previous October. Tapp was himself convicted of murder but later exonerated and served two decades in prison before being exonerated. Rodimer surrendered to police the following day. Rodimer has plead not guilty to the charge.

References

External links

OWoW profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodimer, Daniel 1978 births Living people 21st-century male professional wrestlers 21st-century American professional wrestlers American male professional wrestlers Ave Maria School of Law alumni Candidates in the 2020 United States House of Representatives elections Candidates in the 2021 United States elections Nevada Republicans People charged with murder People from Denville Township, New Jersey People from Mansfield, Texas Players of American football from Morris County, New Jersey Professional wrestlers from New Jersey Seton Hall Preparatory School alumni South Florida Bulls football players Sportspeople from Las Vegas Texas Republicans Tough Enough contestants