"I didn't have any long-term thoughts on his success" – Wrestling veteran comments on Ricochet as Intercontinental Champion (Exclusive)
Former WWE manager Dutch Mantell recently spoke about Ricochet losing steam as the Intercontinental Champion and WWE's inability to manage midcard championships.
This week on SmackDown, Angel picked up a huge win over Ricochet thanks to interference from his partner Humberto. The Intercontinental Champion then challenged Humberto to an impromptu matchup. However, things didn't go according to plan for the champion as he lost via countout to Humberto as well.
Dutch Mantell was on this week's episode of Smack Talk to discuss the latest episode of WWE SmackDown. The veteran stated WWE is bad at booking the midcard titles, like the Intercontinental and the US title, for WrestleMania. Mantell added that the creative probably wouldn't even know who the champions are:
"I think they confuse themselves. They have confused themselves over these titles. I think if you ask the creative who has the titles, who the champions are, they might not even know." (from 44:45 onwards)
Mantell also said he was happy when Ricochet won the Intercontinental title but knew WWE could ruin his momentum:
"I was happy for him but I didn't have any long-term thoughts on his success. They can screw up anything."
You can watch the full episode here:
Ricochet will defend the Intercontinental title in a triple-threat match next week
Ricochet fell victim to the nefarious means of Los Lotharios and lost two matches in quick succession on SmackDown. In the aftermath of the matchup, the champ asked WWE official Adam Pearce to allow both members of the Lethal Lovers to compete in the Intercontinental title match next week at WrestleMania SmackDown.
.@KingRicochet defends the #ICTitle against @AngelGarzaWwe and @humberto_wwe in a Triple Threat Match next week on #WrestleMania #SmackDown! https://t.co/hQgPbTHaI8
As of this writing, there's no matchup announced for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 38, while United States Champion Finn Balor will participate in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal next week on SmackDown.
You can view the results of this week's SmackDown here.
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