Lillian Garcia welcomes Bobby Roode to the show.

Roode mentions that he’s been working in the wrestling business for over 20 years now and he wouldn’t change a thing about his career in the business thus far. He notes that he first worked for WWE in 1998, as an enhancement talent in a match against Perry Saturn on an episode of Sunday Night Heat. After that he spent the next 5 or 6 years sporadically appearing at WWE live events, networking and occasionally working in dark matches.

He recalls working as an enhancement talent in a match with Chuck Palumbo one evening. He woke up the next day and wondered if he should go to Smackdown that night because he wasn’t booked in a match. He decided to go and was one of the first people at the building. He met Vince McMahon in a hallway and McMahon said he enjoyed the way he sold in the previous night’s match.

Roode was rewarded with another match that night at Smackdown but it didn’t go so well. He would continue to go to WWE tapings but from that point on there was always something that prevented him from working a match, specifically his look according to WWE Officials.

In 2004 he received a call from TNA Wrestling, who offered him a fill-in spot for a couple of tapings and he jumped at the opportunity. As it turned out those tapings went well and he was ultimately offered a contract with the company. He would resultantly spend 12 years in the company.

Roode informs that he’s actually a shy introvert in real life. Like a lot of other wrestlers, Roode is forced to draw upon an alter-ego when the red light goes on, in order to entertain the WWE Universe. He’s proud to say that he hasn’t made any enemies during his career in the business, and he tries to be professional every single day.

He says that people always think he’s an asshole at first because he doesn’t really talk to people or socialize, but after some time people begin to realize that he’s a nice guy who simply doesn’t like being around groups of people. Approaching people, shaking hands and making small talk all feel awkward to him.

Roode informs that he doesn’t like change. Although he’s in a different town most nights, he does his best to make sure his routine stays the same. He notes that the TNA work schedule wasn’t too bad, and he even had some weekends off while he worked in NXT, but since jumping to the main roster he hasn’t really had any weekends off so that makes family life tough. In that sense, he’s glad his kids are a little bit older so they can understand why he’s gone so often.

He thinks that TNA gets a bad wrap, but some of it is deserved. There were some issues with performers getting paid late, and there were also some issues with the way certain people were treated there. Nonetheless, he had more good experiences than bad there, and he learned a lot of things in and out of the ring while working there.

He left TNA because he didn’t have the passion to perform there anymore. A lot of very important people within the company had left, like Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles, and he could see the writing on the wall. He was still under contract at the time but he asked for his release, and they granted him that.

The day after he finished up with TNA he received a call from Matt Bloom. Bloom patched him through to Triple H and his heart immediately started racing. He notes that he’s watched and studied Triple H for years, so that was very cool for him. Triple H asked him what he wanted to do in NXT and offered him a coaching position, but Roode told him he had lots left in the tank and wanted an opportunity to wrestle. Triple H said he’d give him that.

He thinks that working as a singles wrestler is good for him right now, and although it seems like his momentum has dwindled he knows working for WWE is all about timing. He has done a lot of cool things since arriving in WWE, even main-eventing Money in the Bank just a couple of months ago, and he’s sure when the time is right he’ll get to do more.

Roode considers himself to be a career heel, and he admits that it has been challenging for him working as a babyface since moving up to the main roster. He notes that only one WWE Official saw him as a babyface and that was Vince McMahon, the only one that matters. Roode adds that while McMahon appears to be happy with his progression as a babyface, he thinks the money in his character is as a heel so he hopes we’ll see that soon.

That sums up this week’s episode of Chasing Glory. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!