"They have more potential than I think Smackdown has" - Dutch Mantell gives his honest opinion on young AEW star
Former WWE manager Dutch Mantell was heavily impressed with young AEW star Dante Martin's performance in this week's AEW Rampage. Martin locked horns with well-experienced Matt Sydal, and Mantell couldn't stop praising the star's potential.
On Rampage, the former tag team partners squared off against each other, with Lio Rush standing by Martin's corner. Both stars showcased their in-ring skills. In the end, Dante picked up the victory with his double springboard moonsault.
That spring though from @lucha_angel1 - Tune in to #AEWRampage NOW on @tntdrama https://t.co/zuFrpRBN4J
During the latest episode of Sportskeeda's Smack Talk, former booker Dutch Mantell disclosed he was highly impressed with Martin's performance. He also pointed out that AEW has much more potential than WWE's Smackdown roster.
"Great match. I didn't know the history between these two but that kid Dante Martin! Im looking at the reserves of AEW and they have more potential than I think Smackdown has. I don't know if this is because of the 3 match format they use. Because 3 matches is a lot more easier to concentrate on and you can get a guy over more with a 3 match format than a seven match format. But...Dante Martin has a great future ahead of him and guys like that are really easy to book. You don't have to really do a bunch of stuff for them. Just say go out and be yourself that’s how wrestling used to be," said Dutch Mantell.
Dutch Mantell gives his honest opinion about the AEW-WWE rating war
On October 15th, WWE and AEW had an overrun for about 30 minutes which became a massive talk of the town. When the ratings came out, AEW beat Smackdown. However, Dutch Mantell recently stated that nobody won the battle.
@darrenrovell Here’s a story nobody leaked to you over the weekend but I’ll give you rn, dog: @AEW got a big victory over WWE after WWE aggressively extended their Friday show 30 minutes & loaded it up head-to-head 10-10:30pm vs #AEWRampage, with AEW Rampage winning 328k to 285k (+15% margin).
"The only thing I'll say about all this, I don't think anybody won, because this is gonna have an asterisk (*) beside it because WWE was on FS1. It's a push, it's a wash. One could say he won, others could they won," said Dutch Mantell
AEW has stepped up with some spectacular wrestling matches. The likes of Sting, CM Punk, Jon Moxley are working with young talents such as Darby Allin, Daniel Garcia, Powerhouse Hobbs and more. These up-and-coming stars are learning from the best in the business, thus making AEW's itinerary stronger than WWE.