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NXT TakeOver: San Antonio: The Problem with Bobby Roode's Win

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 4:55 p.m. ET

Fansided, Michael Smith/FanSided via Daily DDT

Holding a belt isn’t all a guy needs to look like a champion, which is the case with Bobby Roode at NXT TakeOver.

After NXT TakeOver: San Antonio, Bobby Roode is the new NXT Champion. Unfortunately, his big win will be overshadowed by Shinsuke Nakamura’s knee injury.

Towards the end of the match, Nakamura jumped off the middle rope to the outside, and hit a Kinsasha on Roode, who was standing on the apron. The knee connected, but the champion fell all the way to the floor and began grabbing for his knee. He was able to get in the ring and hit another Kinsasha, which would’ve won him the match, but his knee prevented him from getting the cover. When Roode recovered, he went after the knee incessantly, but Nakamura wouldn’t stay down.

Roode did look brutal going after the knee, but it took him way too long to secure the victory. After the knee injury, Nakamura survived a Glorious DDT, and a single leg Boston crab, while Roode was whacking at the locked-in, injured knee. That was all after a long match to begin with, then it still took one more Glorious DDT, and, finally, Roode was champion.

The issue with all this is that, while it protected Nakamura, it slightly cheapened the moment for Roode. Instead of looking like a star on Nakamura’s level with a clean win, or getting some heat by taking the injury and using it to cheat, Roode played it fairly clean and struggled to get a win. It made Nakamura look like he was definitively better than Roode, and that the challenger needed everything to go right to become the champion.

There’s very little doubt that we will see a rematch, but they did nothing to make fans believe that Roode could one-up Nakamura in a fair fight.

Top talent have to be protected, but your new main event champion also has to look like a main event champion, and Roode did not last night.

The other issue is that the NXT Championship has now changed hands three times in the past two months. NXT has done an excellent job of protecting their titles over their short history, but the past few months have been a complete mess in the main event scene.

The NXT Championship is very prestigious, considering how short its history is. All the NXT titles have been treated very well in their time. However, when the title is constantly changing hands, it gets devalued.

When Sami Zayn won that title a few years ago, it had been built up by champion Neville, and the challengers he faced, like Zayn, Tyson Kidd and Tyler Breeze. Seeing Zayn holding the belt made him look like more of a star than he had already proved himself to be, and that was not the same feeling that Roode elicited last night.

Roode’s title reign will probably be saved. He’s an entertaining character with good promo skills. His reign might follow the recent pattern though, and he may no longer be champion after his rematch with Nakamura.

NXT has avoided these kind of mistakes since the Network era started almost three years ago. It’s okay to think that the people in charge are human and are capable of making mistakes, but now it’s time to limit them.

They know there’s a problem. It’s time for them to fix it.