9 Exact Moments TNA Booking Stopped Making Sense
3. Bobby Roode Fails On His Big Night
Though imperfect (a tournament where wrestlers wrestle different numbers of matches against different opponents could only be rife with holes) the 2011 Bound For Glory series did an extremely effective job of preparing Bobby Roode for a singles run as TNA Champion without forcing the split of his beloved Beer Money unit with James Storm.
A summer was spent humanising him for the moment, and when stories emerged in the weeks leading up to it that current titleholder Kurt Angle was in need of time off to heal from injuries. Everything looked well set up for the crowning, but at the eleventh hour, Hulk Hogan went on the radio to do promotion for the show and buried the well-built number one contender six foot deep. Out of pocket, and seemingly out of character, he said; "Nah, he's not ready. He's not the next guy. Ya' know, they might think he is. Dixie Carter might think he is. The whole world might think he is. He's not the next guy...I have a very strong feeling Kurt Angle's going to clean his clock performance wise, and carry the match, and basically remains the champion."
Roode lost. Days later, Angle lost too - to Storm's partner James Storm, who lost to Roode via heel turn and splitting of the team after all.
Many hoped against hope that Hogan's comments were strictly kayfabe, but 'The Hulkster' himself turned babyface exactly one match before Roode's big failure. Why would he need to play villain on the radio when he was a good guy again?
Or...was he..?