Roman Reigns seems to be booed louder every week on Monday Night Raw. Bret the "Hitman" Hart has seen this before.
Recently speaking with Notts TV, the WWE Hall of Famer likens the company shoving Reigns as its World Heavyweight champion down fans' throats to its failed push of Lex Luger back in 1993-94. Vince McMahon was so hellbent on getting Lex over that he had Hart and Luger as co-winners of the 1994 Royal Rumble. However, by WrestleMania X two months later, Mr. McMahon had come to his senses and had Luger lose his main event match to Yokozuna. Hart then defeated Yokozuna for the World Heavyweight title later at the same event.
"There is a parallel," Hart said, comparing Reigns' current position with Luger's. "They tried, I think, to keep CM Punk down and they tried to make him seem [like] he wasn't big enough or wasn't what they wanted to be the star of the show and the company and gave all the main event spots to all the musclebound guys — Batista and all these other guys, years ago and he quit. Luckily for them, they had Daniel Bryan come right up to fill that void because they're both wrestlers. They're both wrestling wrestlers that do wrestling really well. I mean, I tip my hat to both those guys for being phenomenal wrestlers. And Daniel Bryan got hurt and they've tried to kind of prop up Roman Reigns."
It's not that the "Hitman" doesn't like Reigns, because he thinks he has potential, but he isn't quite sure how far he can carry the company's weight on his back.
"Whether he [has] got the potential to carry the company, I don't know," Hart additionally offered. "It doesn't seem like the fans are into that too much, but I think a lot of it is bad booking, just really lousy booking, like, when I look at WrestleMania and look at how they built him in the Royal Rumble ... they booed him all the way in it for the short time he was in there."
Hart will be in the corner of his niece, Natalya, at Payback on Sunday night, when she challenges WWE Women's champion Charlotte with her father Ric Flair at ringside. Though the timing isn't ideal, with Hart having just defeated cancer and coming off of wrist surgery, he wants to support his niece.
"I do it to honor Nattie. I have no desire to be there, no desire to be on TV," Hart told Total Wrestling Magazine. "I'm happy to be there for Nattie, but I've just had wrist surgery, so it's not a great time. It'll be great to put Flair in the Sharpshooter, though."
That would be great, especially if Nattie traps Charlotte in the Sharpshooter inside the ring and the "Hitman" locks Flair in the same move on the outside.
