The journey of Bobby Roode in wrestling has seen him having successful runs in both TNA and WWE. Roode spent many years in TNA trying to find the right role from his time in Team Canada to Beer Money to a historic world title reign. WWE eventually signed him when leaving the company and looking for a fresh start.
Any wrestler to spend as many years in the industry as Roode is bound to have moments that didn’t make much sense in the big picture. The stories range from poor booking to strange decisions that lacked logic or came off foolish. Without further ado, let's find out just which moments from Roode’s career made no sense in the grand scheme of things.
10 Faction With Baron Corbin & Dolph Ziggler
The feud between Baron Corbin and Roman Reigns in 2019-2020 was viewed as one of the worst in recent WWE memory. Corbin’s King gimmick would see Dolph Ziggler and Bobby Roode randomly aligning with him.
WWE didn’t do a good job explaining their bond outside of just having three heels wanting to get an advantage over Reigns. There was little chemistry there and the ending made it even worse. Corbin detached from them before moving into a group with members of The Forgotten Sons before that failed.
9 Enforcer Nickname In Team Canada
Bobby Roode played a strong role in the outstanding heel faction of Team Canada. Petey Williams was viewed as the best overall wrestler due to his strong X-Division Championship matches and the epic Canadian Destroyer finisher.
The nickname given to Roode in Team Canada was The Enforcer at the start. TNA wanted a comparison to Arn Anderson based on his Spinebuster, but he wore robes like Ric Flair. Team Canada eventually had A1 join as a bigger man who fit the enforcer role better.
8 Forming Tag Team With Austin Aries
TNA found success with the tag team of Austin Aries and Bobby Roode despite the idea not having much strength behind it. Roode saw his record-breaking TNA World Championship end at the hands of Aries when he cashed in his X-Division Championship for a title shot.
The duo would form a bond when Aries lost the title to Jeff Hardy and Hardy retained over both heels. Roode and Aries thrived as a tag team once fans looked past the lack of logic between the former enemies making up so quickly.
7 Mixed Match Challenge Partner Changes
WWE wanted to experiment with new ideas when coming up with the Mixed Match Challenge concept. The tournament would feature a male and female wrestler on each team looking to advance in the mixed-tag matches.
Bobby Roode was initially selected to team with Charlotte Flair with the robe similarities. However, an injury to Charlotte would see Roode teaming up with Becky Lynch as a replacement. Roode and Lynch won to advance, but things grew more confusing when Charlotte replaced Becky when cleared to compete.
6 Unofficial Run In Christian's Coalition
The heel run of Christian Cage in TNA saw him thriving, leading his own faction known as Christian’s Coalition. AJ Styles and Tyson Tomko joined the group in tag team action with Scott Steiner as an enforcer.
Bobby Roode had a forgotten time pairing up with the faction against common enemies. Sting and Abyss had issues with Roode and Christian, leading to various matches and segments together. Roode never became an official member despite fitting in well with Christian’s Coalition.
5 Hulk Hogan Hating His Face Push
One of the most controversial moments of Hulk Hogan’s TNA run came when he publicly buried Bobby Roode during the first main event push of his career. Hogan hated TNA’s segments showing Roode as a family man hoping to make the most of his TNA World Championship shot against Kurt Angle.
TNA made a last-minute change to have Angle retain the title due to Hogan’s opinion. The argument for Hogan being right is there since Roode had a much better run turning heel to win the belt. However, it was strange to see Hogan like a generic face character since Hulk got to be the best with the blueprint for that gimmick.
4 Ending Tag Team With Chad Gable
The tag team run between Bobby Roode and Chad Gable showed the story of two singles wrestlers teaming up to find something new. Fans enjoyed the face duo since they had strong matches and even won the Raw Tag Team Championship.
The Revival eventually ended their run in a strong program before the title change. Gable and Roode had a lot left to accomplish, but WWE decided to split them up in under a year. The move to SmackDown for Gable in the brand split ended the tag run without a payoff or explanation.
3 Paying Off Aces & Eights To Help Him
TNA never found strong consistency with the Aces and Eights faction despite booking them like the top act. Various bikers would attack the TNA wrestlers under masks in what was portrayed as a hostile takeover of the company.
Bobby Roode paid them off to deliver an attack on Jeff Hardy when the two top stars were feuding for the TNA World Championship. The angle set a poor precedent that the Aces and Eights would compromise their overall goal if the right TNA heel wanted to work with them.
2 Picking Traci Brooks Over Iconic Managers
The end of Team Canada would see Bobby Roode getting the biggest push of the wrestlers looking for their next role. Roode always showed promise and TNA sold a story of him trying to find the right manager to take his career to the next level.
Legendary and active managers like James Mitchell, Bobby Heenan, and Sherri Martel appeared in segments trying to win him over. Roode eventually picked Traci Brooks as his manager for the foreseeable future. Brooks was a strong manager, but the idea of Roode turning down Hall of Famers was ridiculous looking back.
1 WWE Main Roster Debut As Face
The NXT Championship reign of Bobby Roode proved he could thrive in the WWE environment. Roode scoring huge victories over Shinsuke Nakamura placed him at the top of the brand for many months until his call-up in the summer of 2018.
WWE placed Roode on the SmackDown brand but made a drastic change to his character. Roode was a face despite having his entire NXT stint as a heel. Fans had no idea what to know was similar or different from his NXT time. Roode never sniffed the upper card partially due to having such a confusing start to his main roster run.