Was Roman Reigns Pushed Too Soon?

Recently, WWE Hall of Famer, Bret “Hitman” Hart did an interview with Sports Illustrated Extra Mustard and he discussed “Survivor Series”, Roman Reigns being forced a babyface and the angle between Charlotte and Paige from this past week.

The full interview can be seen right here. Below are a few of  the highlights:

Is Roman Reigns being rushed as a babyface?

“[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 throats, 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.”

On WWE using Reid Flair during Raw segment:

“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.”