Former TNA World Champion Bobby Roode left TNA Wrestling earlier this year after he finished up a round of tapings for them. He along with Eric Young left to leave only a few TNA Originals on the roster, which was sad to see. The problem for TNA was that they could not meet payment needs for Roode. While Roode did fit the mold better than most out of TNA, rumors out of The Wrestling Observer stated that WWE was more interested in Eric Young than Roode.
Despite this, it does appear Bobby Roode was signed first. Wrestling Inc. confirms that Bobby Roode has signed with WWE. As we all know now, Roode was used on camera at the WWE NXT Takeover: Dallas event. WWE then put an article up on their website talking about him possibly signing with the company. Now that we know he has signed, it all makes sense. At the time, most fans knew once they saw him that he had signed a deal.
Wrestling Inc. claims he signed about a week before the Takeover event. That means he and WWE had talks just days after he left TNA. Roode was a free agent and able to sign without any no compete clause added in. Most believe he had talks with WWE and officially signed when he was in Dallas for Takeover last Friday. Regardless of when he signed, this is a big deal.
Apparently Roode introduced himself to many people backstage at WrestleMania 32. He was also spotted on the WWE NXT bus with other NXT stars. It is expected that he will be used in the next round of NXT tapings. It is uncertain if he’ll be on later episodes due to TNA still having him on air for a while. However, it can be assumed that he’ll get a chance to work the next bit of events.
It will be interesting to see if Bobby Roode will be the last TNA star signed. One can imagine that Young will have a shot, but Roode did make the most sense to sign first due to the fact he is the total package for WWE to use.
