Bobby Roode discusses WWE, his early life, Val Venis, and more
– Bobby Roode has been the mainstay at Total Nonstop Action Wrestling for a very long time. Roode has won 10 Championships during his long career in TNA and is considered as one of the TNA Originals.
Roode was speaking with his long-time friend Colt Cabana on the recent episode of the Art of Wrestling. He spoke about trying out for the WWE on numerous occasions, his influences, TNA and more.
On his early life and influences
Bobby Roode comes from a small town called Peterborough in Ontario, Canada. He reminisces his days when he received a front row ticket to a WWF show.
He spoke about watching superstars such as Macho man Randy Savage, Bret Hart and the others but thought that Peterborough never got a lot of big stars due to its small size. He said that he was a die-hard wrestling fan since his childhood and has tons of wrestling action figures.
On Val Venis
Bobby Roode admitted that he was extremely drawn towards pro wrestling. He said that he had a passion for it and was not open to anything else other than pro wrestling. Bobby Roode played hockey throughout his primary and secondary school education.
He stated that he did not have the passion for hockey as a career and after failing to find any wrestling schools, Bobby met Val Venis. Venis used to work out at the gym where Bobby did.
He said that Val Venis gave him important basic wrestling lessons in the ring in his backyard. He added that Venis had just been signed with the WWE and was one of his first teachers of the art.
On the WWE
The WWE has been the most dominant promotion in the pro wrestling world. After Bobby quickly picked up the art of wrestling, he started to try out for the WWE as early as 1999.
Cabana said that Bobby Roode must have been the wrestler with the most number of matches on Velocity without being signed. Velocity was sort of a tryout area for the WWE where aspiring stars were paid in cash to perform.
Roode stated that he was paid around 250$ for a show, which was good money.
Bobby gave various tryouts for the WWE – which was his ultimate goal. He said that the final nail in the coffin was when John Laurinaitis asked him to ‘get over’ at some other promotion and come back to the WWE.
On working on TNA
Bobby Roode has been a TNA legend of sorts. He has won 10 championships and has been working with them for 12 years.
Roode said that he started working with TNA in 2002 and said that he feels optimistic about the promotion. Bobby added that he was the only person to take on any wrestler who newly came into the TNA such as Rikishi, Booker-T and Christian.
He stated that he won the TNA Heavyweight Championship for the first time in 2011 and felt as though he earned it after all these years.