WWE Got It Wrong: Bobby Roode Is Terrible Choice for United States Champion

It's easy to be thrilled for Bobby Roode the man after his United States Championship win on WWE SmackDown Tuesday night. Roode the character? Not so much.

WWE has done little to explore Roode's persona since his move to the blue brand. It has leaned on the appeal of his entrance and hoped his momentum from his NXT run would carry over with no effort on the company's part.

As a result, The Glorious One has been an underwhelming member of SmackDown's circus, a blase figure in the background for the most part.

So fans should be forgiven if Roode's victory over Jinder Mahal to claim the vacant U.S. title didn't bring them to joyful tears. 

When Dolph Ziggler relinquished the championship following the Clash of Champions pay-per-view in December, WWE set up a tournament to crown a new titleholder. A number of appealing narrative routes waited to be walked down.

This three-round event could have been a showcase for the surging Mojo Rawley. A dominant tourney run would have been an emphatic way to kick off the former Hype Bros member's heel turn.

The tournament could have been the site of a Cinderella story for Tye Dillinger who stumbled in his previous attempts to win the title from AJ Styles.

Or else, this could have been a way to keep Xavier Woods in the spotlight and complicate his relationship with his fellow New Day members in the process. Kyle Fowle of RealSport is among those who wanted Woods to take the crown:

WWE didn't go in any of those directions. It instead went with Roode, the former NXT champ.

He defeated Rawley in a semifinal matchup, a contest he finished with sore ribs. Roode wanted to then skip straight to the finals, pushing the match from next week to Tuesday night. General manager Daniel Bryan obliged.

And The Glorious One outlasted Mahal to win the tournament and the title.

Roode's a passionate, hard worker. He's been in the business for years. He's traveled from state to state and busted his ass trying to get to this point. But WWE didn't effectively tell this story.

The audience who hasn't seen his NXT or Impact Wrestling work didn't have much reason to invest in him. His persona has been cardboard flat. Repeating the word "glorious" in various situations isn't character development. 

A part of that is going from being a gloating, narcissistic, opportunistic heel at NXT to a babyface with no clear motivation for the switch.

Back in December, Uproxx writer Brandon Stroud wondered why WWE hadn't made a character change with Roode:

More than a month later, The Glorious One remains a babyface and a bland one at that. Perhaps WWE really gets to work in telling his story now that he has the gold, but that's doing things backward.

For the moment, Roode is an uninteresting act and a championship doesn't magically change that.

Consider, too, that Ziggler is bound to return at some point and look to take back the strap he never lost. He and Roode had an underwhelming series of matches the first time around. Revisiting that just isn't smart.

Roode's methodical in-ring style requires patience from the audience and a sparkplug on the other side of the ring to push him. We saw that on display twice on Tuesday where he failed to rile up the crowd against either Rawley or Mahal. 

Roode vs. Ziggler. Roode vs. Baron Corbin. Roode vs. Mahal II. None of those potential showdowns have any spark to them.

There's a good chance the U.S. scene for the moment is going to dull, and WWE is to blame for not going with a different choice as champ.