See, that's where I don't think you're getting it.
Had Roode v. Storm happened right away it would have been rushed and ultimately would have been just another feud. Yes, the matches would have been excellent, and the personal nature of the program could have helped it stay interesting, but in the end it would have done nothing major for the company.
How can you say the time has passed for a Roode/Storm, feud?? What TNA did was realize that they had all the makings of a big money, big draw feud, but it was between two guys who had yet to be put in a position to be seen as main eventers by the general wrestling public, who still just saw them as two halves of a successful tag team. We crucify wrestling companies for rushing storylines in this monthly PPV/instant gratification-era, then when a company decides to buck that trend and build two guys up into a program so that they can get the most out of it, some want to criticize that too.
Roode has done a good job with AJ and Jeff, and they have done their jobs too, but ultimately those programs are meant to do the exact same thing that James's program with Kurt is meant to do- which is nothing except build each guy into position for their next major meaningful story-arch, which is obviously with each other.
Both men needed to be solidified as main event talent before they could work what may prove to be TNA's most important main event feud in the last three years or so. And, as such, they needed to be built into the characters that creative wanted them to assume in that encounter, which is obviously the old-school matchup of sly, do-what-it-takes, high-life heel versus the relatable, likeable, southern, bar-fighting babyface. Each is qualified to play his role well, and the feud has a high success likelihood IMO, but they had to seperate them and fully get them over in their persona's first.
I think you missed my point. Perhaps I didn't explain it right, so let me try again.
The number one thing I'm suggesting from the beginning is that the chain of events from BFG through Storm's "injury" was terrible in my opinion. First off, you built up Roode as this blue collar babyface who worked really hard to win a 3 month long tournament. He even went through his best friends to prove that he was ready to beat the guy who was considered the best in the game. All of that says to me that he needs to win at BFG to make the build mean something. If you do that, Roode is established as a great babyface that has dethroned the great Kurt Angle. Instead, Roode loses in a ridiculous finish. Now, I know some people have argued for this finish, but keep in mind that this is your biggest show of the year. You sold a decent amount of seats for it and hopefully some PPV buys because people ideally wanted to see this happen. So instead of rewarding those fans for paying to see this, you screw them and have Roode lose.
Now, if the "plan all along" (which it wasn't as you can see Angle's recent interview) was for Roode to be a heel, then why not have Storm win the BFG series and win the title at BFG to give the fans the moment. Everything makes a lot more sense that way. Instead, you get Storm winning your most prestigious title in 90 seconds off Angle and then Roode, who didn't take ANY shortcuts in the entire BFG series, cheat to win the title. Here's the problem.
You established the guy as blue collar, someone who works hard for everything he has. Without even teasing that he's frustrated with his friend winning the title, and without him failing even once to beat his friend, he cheats to win and then goes full blown heel and steps on him with the title in hand. That is simply not believable. What I meant by "doing it right away" was that you don't put it on the backburner and have Storm feud with someone else. Use more time to let the Storm win resonate and have Roode officially turn after a month or two. Letting it fester makes the turn actually mean something, whereas the way it played out now, it was very forced and meaningless.
The difference is that my way you'd have a guy whose motives you understand and who finally snapped on his best friend. Then you have a vicious feud, whether for the title or not, that should be compelling TV. Instead, you turned him way too soon and then had to take significant TV time simply trying to get people to buy that the guy you pushed for months as the babyface is actually not a nice guy. It's backwards and just doesn't work, especially when he's the champion and should be focused on feuds. Most of the focus has been on "Bobby is bad" so the feud with AJ meant nothing and the feud with Jeff Hardy means less. Had it been the other way, Bobby doesn't become champion until he's over as a heel as a result of months of frustration becoming a dastardly heel.
So for me, the main problem is that the storyline was rushed from the beginning and the way it played out made no sense. You could have had literally months of TV revolving around the Beer Money implosion but instead we've forgotten about it for months and we might go back to it. Most likely we will, but is the heat still there? They'll mention what happened months ago, but the moment is gone. Both guys have been busy with other people and haven't interacted. It won't be the same and no matter how hard they try and how they'll probably have a few good matches, the heat just won't be there the way it could have been.
I hope that makes a bit more sense. I see problems with this heel run and the predominant one is the way it began.
Also, just an aside, but heels champions get over better when the beat an unbeatable babyface that the fans like. Thus, TNA needs to get over this fear of babyface champions. Had Storm gotten at least a month or two run before Roode screwed him (either to win himself or to help someone else win), that alone would have helped the turn to mean more.
There are a lot of factors at play here but the bottom line is that Roode's run is marred by hot-shot booking and I'm not sure that it will recover. All I can suggest is that TNA let things develop in the future rather than rush through ideas. Emotion hits home more than shock value.
