'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Erick Rowan was released from the WWE in April, and the former Wyatt Family member has since appeared in a handful of interviews to talk about his time in Vince McMahon's company. Rowan was a guest on Pro Wrestling Junkies' Q&A session with the fans, and he was asked about The Fiend gimmick.
Erick Rowan feels WWE 'jumped the gun' with The Fiend
Rowan revealed that while he loves The Fiend, WWE jumped the gun with the gimmick, which hurt the character. Erick Rowan explained that WWE booking The Fiend to get 'killed' by Goldberg and expecting him to bounce right back wasn't the smartest of decisions.
Erick Rowan hoped that The Fiend doesn't appear too often in the future to prevent a case of oversaturation. He also felt that Finn Balor's Demon King character suffered a similar fate.
However, Rowan praised Bray Wyatt for doing a phenomenal job and was confident that his former stablemate would find a way to make it all work.
"We were all like brothers. That also includes that some were closer than others, and some got on each other's nerves, but it was a wrestling family. Some of the good stuff and the creativity that we had mostly didn't make it to the screen. I'm glad [Wyatt] is still getting his chance to show it weekly. I loved the Fiend thing, but [WWE] kind of jumped the shark with it. You can't have a bad guy that just gets killed and ran through a steamroller [in loss to Goldberg] and comes right back. You can't expect that to have longevity. I'm hoping all of this going in and out of the Fiend character and the Bray Wyatt Firefly Funhouse character - I hope that Fiend character only shows his face every now and then. It's kind of oversaturation with it. Kind of like the Finn Balor problem. You can't have a guy that comes out as a Demon and make him lose, because that doesn't make him special. So, in that point, I'm sure he'll work his way around it. He's been doing a phenomenal job."
Rowan also said that the Wyatt Family was a special group that could not have been portrayed by other guys.
"Wyatt Family was a one-of-a-kind thing, man. To be part of it was surreal. The way all the pieces came together, it just couldn't have happened with other dudes, in my opinion. We formed a piece, and it just happened to work." H/t WrestlingInc
Erick Rowan, who now goes by the name Erick Redbeard, recently caught up with Sportskeeda's Stephanie Chase for an hour-long interview which you can view below:
Rowan is enjoying a well-deserved hiatus from professional wrestling, but he is expected to resume his in-ring career sooner rather than later. Could Rowan join his former tag team partner Brodie Lee fka Luke Harper in AEW? Would you like to see that happen?
