Has WWE Already Botched the Bobby Roode Character Beyond Repair?

Like most high-profile NXT stars, Bobby Roode came in with a head of steam. He's embroiled in a feud with Dolph Ziggler—another NXT-to-WWE trope—but in a matter of weeks, the former NXT champion has gone from "glorious" to lusterless. 

Roode's recent role in SmackDown's "under siege" attack on Raw, where he was just basically a barely recognizable henchman in a blue T-shirt, was a microcosm of how unspectacular he has been on the SmackDown Live roster. 

The disconnect between NXT and WWE is nothing new. Even Asuka, who was hyped for weeks as WWE's premier winning machine, has underwhelmed through a pair of matches where she struggled to defeat the much-maligned Emma Bayley, has struggled after shining down in Full Sail University. The same has been true for Sasha Banks, and to some degree, Finn Balor. 

Meanwhile, on SmackDown, Roode is having similar struggles to Shinsuke Nakamura, who struggled right out of the gate after a lackluster match against Ziggler at WWE Backlash that prompted me to ask a similar question to the one this article is asking about Roode. 

Did WWE screw up yet another promising NXT prospect? 

Roode excelled as a heel for his entire stay on the NXT roster, where his straight-up, old-school wrestling style was a perfect template for more thrilling styles from babyfaces such as Roderick Strong and the aforementioned Nakamura. 

But on SmackDown Live, WWE seems to have been seduced by his theme music, the Queen-inspired Glorious, which has the singalong appeal of a babyface entrance. 

Unfortunately, there may not be a bigger discrepancy between one's music and their in-ring persona than that of Bobby Roode. The man simply doesn't click as a babyface, and this became painfully obvious during a decidedly bland pay-per-view debut against Ziggler that Jason Powell of ProWrestling.net criticized as "a flat match positioned in the buffer spot between the WWE championship match and the main event." 

Roode is in a pivotal position early in his tenure on the main roster, where he has already suffered his first loss. He'll compete with Ziggler in a 2-out-of-3 Falls match Tuesday on SmackDown Live, where the talented pair will have a chance to salvage what's left of their feud. 

Alfred Konuwa is a Featured Columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report and Forbes. Like him on Facebook.