7 Booking Steps For Bobby Roode On WWE's Main Roster
Debut draws closer for The Glorious One.
Bobby Roode surrendered his NXT Championship on Saturday at TakeOver: Brooklyn III, and if recent history is anything to go by, that's usually as good a sign as any that his main roster bow is imminent.
The Glorious One has made a name for himself in the developmental ranks as a classic WWE heel, and the company's hierarchy reportedly view him as a potentially huge asset at the very top of their card.
If those reports are correct, then you can probably expect Roode's path from rookie to headline act to be a pretty short one. The Canadian is 40-years-old - fairly late in the game to be getting your big break - and there's no time to waste.
A few questions are still to be answered though. Will Roode find himself on Raw, or SmackDown? Will he go straight for a world championship or head into the US or IC title division first? And how about his entrance? They wouldn't do anything to change that, right?
Roode and main roster success go together like America and apple pie - on paper - but there have been too many examples of WWE dropping the ball with NXT grads for us to take it for red...
7. NXT Swansong
Logically speaking, Brooklyn seems like an appropriate time for Roode to take his NXT leave. He lost the title cleanly in the night's main event, and with Adam Cole attacking his conqueror thereafter, it seems there will be no opportunity for him to win it back.
But the obvious way to bring him into the main roster fray - the rumoured Superstar Shake-Up we keep hearing so much about - has yet to be formally announced, so perhaps we should keep a lid on our excitement for now.
Roode could do worse than to stick around in Florida for just a little while longer - long enough for him to have another match with Roderick Strong, ideally - so that he can bow out with the sort of decisive win befitting a man who has outgrown the developmental ranks.