WWE Hall of Famer Bret “The Hitman” Hart recently spoke with Sports Illustrated about if he thinks Vince McMahon regrets letting CM Punk go and if WWE is rushing Roman Reigns. Here are the highlights.
On if he thinks Vince McMahon regrets letting CM Punk go:
“Vince is sorry that they lost Punk,” said Hart. “Vince has a better sense of wrestlers’ look and their work, and Triple H is more prone to bodybuilders. If a guy is 6’5” and has a bodybuilder’s physique, that’s all that matters to him. But he’s wrong.”
On if WWE is rushing Roman Reigns:
“[Roman] Reigns is just like Kevin Nash. If you look back at Reigns, his character was getting over really good on his own. Then they rushed him into a babyface turn and crammed him down everybody’s thoughts, and people rejected him. It wasn’t his fault. It was kind of like with Kevin Nash. He was slowly getting over, and I wrestled him at [the 1994] King of the Ring and we had a really good match. All of a sudden, by August, they were ready to make him the new champion. And I’m going, ‘He’s not ready yet. Give him a little time and let him get even more over.’ Why is there a rush? Reigns got dealt a bad set of cards. It has nothing to do with his work rate–he’s a really good worker and his style is really good. He just needs to be himself.
“They tend to rush guys too soon, and that makes me think of Steve Austin. Vince wanted to turn him baby face much sooner than he did. I remember Steve stopped it. Austin said, ‘No, let me get over more.’ And it paid off to be a little smarter and not rush. Some of the mistakes have more to do with the bookers instead of the actual wrestlers. Reigns is a victim of bad booking.”
“How could they not see the slight there? That’s really insensitive to Ric and his family, and I totally sympathize with Ric. You didn’t see them doing that after Jerry Lawler lost his brother. Maybe someone just made a poor judgment call, but I was flabbergasted to see they did that to him. It was totally wrong.”
You can check out the full interview by clicking here.
