Every Wrestling Rookie Of The Year: Where Are They Now?
21. 2002: Bob Sapp
Bob Sapp's name is everywhere in the 2002 Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards issue.
He won Rookie of the Year and (quite rightly) Best Box Office draw, as the newsletter conflated wrestling and MMA during award season (years later, faced with weekly horrendous scripted WWE promos, Conor McGregor did the Best on Interviews threepeat between 2015 and 2017).
The gregarious, hyper-charismatic Sapp was a cultural icon in the east, a fittingly massive one: an impulsive monster of a fighter who just thrashed opponents in lieu of any real skill, literally racing against his poor stamina by rampaging to the ring, he is best remembered for delivering a powerbomb to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
In a shoot fight.
He's not up to much these days, having destroyed his credibility and even drawn accusations of throwing fights for easy money - but he lived several hundred lifetimes before fading from the public eye.