Bobby Roode's Title Reign

[Guest Jamster26]

Bobby Roode is the longest reigning World Heavyweight Champion in TNA history, and, after a period where the World Title was being thrown around between wrestlers, Roode managed to bring stability to the main event scene and made the Title seem important.

 

Roode's reign was all about survival, and using whatever means necessary in order to get the victory, where that be using the ring ropes, referees, weapons, count outs, illegal moves etc.

 

It was a great run, helped make the Title more prestigious, and it felt like no one could "one up" Roode and take the belt from him. Obviously that would all come to fruition at Destination X, where Aries managed to survive all of Roode's games and get the big win.

 

My question is, out of all of the title defenses of Bobby Roode, which one was your personal favourite? There's allot of great matches here in my opinion, from the Lockdown match with Storm, to the match at Destination X against Aries, but I'm going to go for the match at Final Resolution; the 30 minute Irion Man match with AJ Styles. A great story was played out between Roode / Styles, both working on the shoulder / leg respectively, and at the end when it looks like Styles has picked up all of the momentum and deliver the Styles Clash, AJ's Knee gives way and it allows Roode to slither outside and wind the clock down to 0:00.

Edited June 30, 2013 by Jamster26

[Guest Jimmy Redman]

Trying to remember which ones I actually saw. Was the RVD one a ladder match?

 

I remember being like the only person who liked the Jeff match at Genesis. I wouldn't call it great, but it was worked really well and smartly, which is certainly something for a Jeff Hardy TNA match. Didn't particularly like the Sting match.

 

The Storm cage match was boss. Whether or not it was the right result (and I absolutely hated it live) the match itself was just a total war.

 

It's either that or the Aries match. I feel like watching that again actually, as at the time I didn't like the body of the match as much as I expected. It was carried by the finish and the moment, and their rematch was better.

[Guest John Hancock]

Yeah, I'll say the cage match. The booking suuuuuuuuuuucked because, well, TNA, but the in ring stuff was pretty great.

[Guest Jimmy Redman]

Just watched the AJ Styles record breaking match. It was good because, well, AJ Styles. He was his usual incredible self taking all manner of ridiculous bumps. However I don't feel like the match ever got out of first gear. Finish was anti-climactic too. Is Roode still using the Perfectplex as a finish? Because as a finish it kind of sucks.

 

Also ROFLed heartily at the TO THE BACK~! in the middle of this tremendously important world title match.

[Guest Jamster26]

Yeah, the RVD match was a ladder and I remember enjoying it at the time, although I haven’t watched it back since.

 

I thought the finish to Lockdown was good, although whether Roode should have beat Storm is debatable, as I remember expecting that match to be Storm’s revenge against Roode by taking back the title. It was a brutal match, and with the finish, it was just another tale of Roode survives AGAIN!

 

I’m also not a fan of the fisherman suplex that Roode uses as a finish. I much prefer the Spear, or the cross-face he does.

 

The Genesis match against Hardy was a strange one for me in that, nothing spectacular happened in terms of moves which I’m normally interested in but as Jimmy pointed out, I thought the story of the match was great. I watched this last night and you can see Roode getting more and more frustrated as the matches goes on, at trying to retain his title. Nothing he tried was working for him here, where that being using the ring ropes as extra leverage for a pin cover, or walking away from the match all-together, and trying to get the count out victory that way, so, the last scheme up his sleave, after being backed into the corner by Hardy (literally), was to low-blow the referee and get the DQ loss. A really good ending, I enjoyed this match allot, and is probably second on my Roode title matches, just behind the AJ match at Final Resolution.

 

The Destination X match has a really good finish, but not that much stuff in the middle of the match to be honest. Great ending in that we thought “could this be the match where Roode finally loses the title aganst small under-dog Aries?” The sequence at the end with the dropkick from Aries to Roode in the corner, followed by the build up to the brainbuster finish was immense.

 

I’m going to have to watch the other title matches tonight, as I’m sure there are some decent matches here that I just have a faded memory of at present

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I’m not sure what both of your opinions are, but the Roode title reign for me, is probably my favourite ever, and definitely my favourite TNA title reign of all time.

[Guest Jimmy Redman]

I’m not sure what both of your opinions are, but the Roode title reign for me, is probably my favourite ever, and definitely my favourite TNA title reign of all time.

 

Favourite world title reign ever? Or any title?

 

In terms of TNA, I'm not sure I have a favourite TNA World Title reign off-hand, since their world title is so badly booked for the most part, and I don't watch it regularly enough to enjoy a reign in a 'pure volume of workrate' sense either. Frankly Roode having a long reign with mostly good matches every month, and a couple approaching great, pretty much puts him up there in comparison to everyone else. I'd have to think about it some more.

[Guest Jamster26]

Favourite world title reign ever? Or any title?

In terms of TNA, I'm not sure I have a favourite TNA World Title reign off-hand, since their world title is so badly booked for the most part, and I don't watch it regularly enough to enjoy a reign in a 'pure volume of workrate' sense either. Frankly Roode having a long reign with mostly good matches every month, and a couple approaching great, pretty much puts him up there in comparison to everyone else. I'd have to think about it some more.

 

Yeah, world title reign. The issues for me in the past when it comes to TNA, is that, from when I started to watch in 07/08, the title never really felt like it was that important. The title was passed around to everybody and no-one had a good length of time with the belt in the way Roode did. While Roode held it, it made it seem like a big deal, so when he did finally loose the belt, it was a very big deal. Just think of the title reigns in TNA: Mr Anderson, Angle, Hardy, Storm (if we can count that), AJ, Sting. For me anyway, they just werent that great. I suppose Aries run with the title was quite good, and he had a good couple of matches with Hardy from what I remember, but Roode is by far the best world champion in TNA.

[Guest Jimmy Redman]

You know, I was about to say "well yeah, if you limit it to the last five years..." but then thinking about it, there aren't really any better reigns from before then either. It's just Jarrett's insufferable Triple H reigns, and whoever had a sh*tty reign in between Jarrett reigns. Joe's reign was a bust. Don't think Christian did anything with his. AJ held it for like a month at a time. F*ck A Kurt Angle. Sting's yearly token reign. And so on. Pfft.

 

There might be potential in AJ Styles' 2009-10 reign though, just in terms of matches. He dragged one out of Sting at BFG, had the INCREDIBLE three-way and then the Daniels PPV match, had supposedly good matches with Angle in January as Mini Flair, and the exciting TV match with RVD where he dropped it. Plus whatever else in between.

 

That is all I can think of off-hand. TNA don't really do title reigns.

[Guest Jamster26]

Ah, I'll have to give AJ's reign another look next then. I forgot all about his run with Flair too.

[Guest Jayfunk]

Favourite world title reign ever? Or any title?

 

In terms of TNA, I'm not sure I have a favourite TNA World Title reign off-hand, since their world title is so badly booked for the most part, and I don't watch it regularly enough to enjoy a reign in a 'pure volume of workrate' sense either. Frankly Roode having a long reign with mostly good matches every month, and a couple approaching great, pretty much puts him up there in comparison to everyone else. I'd have to think about it some more.

 

 

 

I wouldn't say the TNA title is any worse booked than any other company, they have decent world champions for decent reigns, and the world title means something in the TNAverse

[Guest terrythunk]

Is it me, or does it seem like Bobby will never be near that belt again. Like, ever...

[Guest Jamster26]

I think Roode will be back in the title picture after Aries and Bully Ray have their match(es).

[Guest Jamster26]

Just watched the four-way.

 

Just a standard match to be honest. Cool tower of doom spot, and finish was good. Roode getting in the face of Sting (the enforcer), Sting tries to remain calm, then Roosw spits in his face, Sting then goes to strike Roode with the title but hits Hardy instead.

 

Loved Roode's expression as Sting was forced to make the pin-count. Roode just smiling in Sting's face whilst Sting is shouting at Jeff to get up as he slaps his hand to the mat for the three count. :lol

[Guest Jimmy Redman]

Watched Roode/Aries I last night.

 

We were right in that the surrounding angle and the finish/moment are much better than the match itself. The match is good, it has a really good opening and a really good finish, but the majority of it just doesn't hit the heights you want it to. Mainly because Roode is boring as f*ck on offense. Stomp...stomp...stomp. You ain't Demolition Ax motherf*cker, get out with that sh*t.

 

That is the other thing I wanted to say before regarding Roode's title reign. How good can we consider a guy's title reign to be when the guy in question doesn't have all that much to do with it being any good? When I think of his reign I think "TNA actually treated the title as important for once" and "Wow Jeff Hardy/Austin Aries/AJ Styles/etc. was good in that match that Roode was also in". Not a lot of it was because of Roode himself being good. I mean, I credit him for the Storm feud and match, no doubt. And he was good in his role character-wise. But when I said yesterday the selling point was him having good matches consistently, and it is usually his opponent making the match good while he dulls it up in the heat section...do we credit Roode for that?

 

I mean, I'm just comparing it to title reigns that I really liked for performance, and you can clearly see the agency in them. Cena was the best on the planet in 2007, was the best guy in every match and dragged everyone up to his level. Sheamus was the best match worker on the planet in 2012 and made every great match he had with his selling and offense. Henry's reign was a career peak, he carried the show with his promos and was working out of his skin in the ring. And so on. You can point to the things that they did to contribute to the greatness, in the ring and out, whereas I can't really for Roode. He was more just "the other guy", in the same way that Hunter is often just "the other guy".

[Guest Jamster26]

Yeah, I won’t argue that his opponent on the matches are the ones bringing most of the decent offense in; however like you mention, there are matches where he matched his opponent, like the Lockdown brawl.

 

However; do you not think, character-wise, the plan during his reign, was to make the other guys look good and then make it look like Roode just barely escapes from the matches with this title ,whether he gets DQ’d, count out loss, referee distraction etc?

 

After watching some of the title matches, I felt after each one, AJ / Hardy / Storm were very unlucky not to get the title win and Roode survived again? Would we have the same feeling of "cowardly Roode gets out of jail again", if he had more of the offense in the matches?

Edited July 2, 2013 by Jamster26