WWE SmackDown: Will Bobby Roode Feud With Dolph Ziggler?

When Bobby Roode made his “Glorious” main roster debut on WWE SmackDown Live, he picked up an easy win over Aiden English in a squash match. But could a feud with a bigger name, who may even be on the way out, be in the cards?

Bobby Roode is the exact type of superstar the WWE likes to push. He wrestles a safe, clean style that is interesting, he looks the part, and he can cut a quality promo as either a babyface or a heel. Roode is a seasoned veteran of the business who carries himself like a star, and he has all the mannerisms down to a “T”. Due to his popularity and the infectiousness of his theme song, Roode is currently on WWE SmackDown Live as a babyface, which means his first real feud on the main roster could come against Dolph Ziggler.

The WWE likes to put new NXT call-ups in feuds with Ziggler, as they did this with Shinsuke Nakamura earlier this year. The result was a few awkward promos, a good-but-not-great match at Backlash, and an underrated showing to finish the feud on a regular episode of SmackDown.

So far, Roode has been given matches with Aiden English and Mike Kanellis, who are two heels lower on the card. That’s a nice way to build him up, but I wonder if the WWE will send him into a feud with someone higher up in the card (but still not in a title picture). It won’t be long before Roode is competing for either the United States Championship or the WWE Championship, but both fields are already set for the near future. In the time being, a filler feud with Ziggler could be a way for the company to get more of a feel for Roode on the main roster, and it’s easy to work with Ziggler to figure out some of the nuances of the main roster product.

The rumors that Ziggler could leave in the fall are still swirling, especially since the longevity of his current gimmick seems short. Ziggler has been coming out on SmackDown Live, cutting promos about how the WWE Universe doesn’t respect him and only cares about silly gimmicks that get wrestlers “over”. He believes that the fans don’t care about actual wrestling ability, which Ziggler obviously has in spades. “The Show-Off” went so far as to impersonate John Cena, Randy Savage, and even Naomi on the last episode of SmackDown.

Clearly, Ziggler’s latest “repackaging” has done him no good, and to call it a repackaging would be laughably misleading. It’s the same old, same old for Ziggler, which means that he’ll suffer the “same old” fate of pushing a newcomer to the main roster.

At this point, the WWE hasn’t made any plans clear for either man, and the current landspace of feuds on the “Blue Brand” seems set. Baron Corbin and AJ Styles are feuding, Rusev still presumably has beef with Randy Orton, Shinsuke Nakamura and Jinder Mahal have their match for Hell in a Cell, and Sami Zayn is locked up with Aiden English. That leaves Ziggler and Roode as the notable superstars without any set programs, so it stands to reason that they’ll tangle soon.

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I mean, Ziggler has been going out of his way to hate on cookie-cutter gimmicks, and Roode’s combination of a robe and song is as cookie-cutter as it gets. He’s been calling out Roode in his promos, and I wonder if they’ll set up a feud by having one of the two superstars openly taking exception to the other. This feud won’t last long at all, but hopefully this stopgap program results in a good match between them.