Ex-Pro Wrestler, Political Bust From NJ In Custody On Murder Charge

MORRIS COUNTY, NJ — A Morris County native and former Republican Congressional candidate, who also had a professional wrestling career, surrendered to police in Nevada last week after being charged with killing a man.

Las Vegas police said Wednesday that a warrant had been issued for the arrest of 45-year-old Daniel Rodimer, a Rockaway native.

Rodimer was wanted on a charge of open murder in the death of Christopher Tapp, 47, who died last year from a head injury at a Las Vegas hotel.

Detectives believe Rodimer attacked Tapp for allegedly offering his stepdaughter cocaine during a hotel party, said a report by Las Vegas's KLAS-TV. Tapp had spent 20 years in prison for a homicide he did not commit, the report said.

As the Associated Press reported, Tapp was treated on Oct. 29 by medical personnel responding to a call for help after he was found at the hotel and taken to a hospital, where he later died.

Detectives opened a suspicious death investigation after they received new information Nov. 22 about the injuries Tapp had suffered “as a result of a purposed accident," according to police.

“Through the course of the suspicious death investigation ... detectives have learned Tapp was in an altercation inside a room at the resort before being located and transported to the hospital,” police said.

The Clark County, Nevada Coroner’s Office subsequently ruled his death a homicide, as a result of blunt force trauma to the head. Rodimer's attorneys said he intends "on vigorously contesting the allegations and asks that the presumption of innocence guaranteed all Americans be respected."

Rodimer grew up in Rockaway before attending Seton Hall Preparatory High School in East Orange. He played college football at the University of South Florida and also graduated from the Ave Maria School of Law in Florida.

Rodimer was also a personal trainer and semi-pro football player for the Tampa Bay Barracudas, according to a 2004 article from Pro Wrestling Torch.

Under the ring name Dan Rodman, Rodimer competed in several World Wrestling Entertainment matches between 2006 and 2007.

Rodimer also ran as a Republican candidate in both Nevada and Texas, and former president Donald Trump had endorsed him before the 2020 election. In 2020, he lost his bid for Congress against Democratic Rep. Susie Lee by about 13,000 votes, as the AP reported.

In 2021, after he moved to Texas, Rodimer was among 23 candidates who ran in a special congressional race to fill the seat of Republican Ron Wright. He finished in the middle of the pack with less than 3 percent of the vote, per the AP.