"They keep that Aliyah girl for seven years" - Veteran feels Harland's WWE release makes no sense (Exclusive)
WWE recently released ten NXT stars, and the list of outgoing talent included a few surprising names such as Dakota Kai, Dexter Lumis, and Harland (Parker Boudreaux).
Dutch Mantell reacted to the most recent budget cuts on this week's Smack Talk and could not justify the company's decisions.
Mantell noted that WWE has retained Aliyah on the roster despite her slow progress over the past seven years and felt Harland could have been given more time to improve his in-ring work.
Parker Boudreaux spent a little over a year in WWE, and Dutch Mantell stated that company officials might have just not liked the Brock Lesnar look-alike:
"They keep that Aliyah girl for seven years, and they keep this guy, you say, for a year, and you said he was coming along. Well, Aliyah didn't come along, she is still not there after seven years, and they brought her up. So, there is no trying to make sense of the corporate moves this company makes because it's just based on whether they like you or not. And if they don't like you, well, we'll get somebody up because all the parts are interchangeable anyway." [From 4:50 onwards]
Mantell explained that almost every talent in WWE is replaceable and predicted that former stars like Harland would resume their careers outside the company.
Dutch has been in the wrestling industry since the 1970s but was still shocked to see how stars were being treated in the present era.
"It doesn't matter if they get rid of him," added Mantell. "They will replace him, and he will go somewhere else; he will probably be forgotten, but there is no way I can make sense of it, and I couldn't even make sense of it 20 years ago when they were doing this stuff. At least it had more of a; you could kind of figure out, they had a reason for it." [From 5:28 onwards]
Dutch Mantell on Nick Khan being responsible for the WWE releases
Nick Khan is not the most well-liked figure amongst wrestling fans. He has brought about a few controversial changes in the promotion as its President & Chief Revenue Officer.
Dutch Mantell seemed confident that Khan is calling the shots backstage and also addressed whether Vince McMahon has any input regarding the budget cuts. The former WWE personality bluntly claimed that the promotion no longer focuses on creating wrestlers and is just a content-churning machine.
"This is just when they put that guy in there, Nick Khan, I think he's calling all these shots now, and I don't know how much Vince has to do with it, but, I mean, Vince is the top dog. Well, he don't have to own up to nothing; I mean, he could just fade in the background and let Nick answer it," stated Dutch. "But it makes no sense at all because I don't think they were making wrestlers, they were making content, and that's all they are doing." [From 5:50 onwards]
Could WWE have been more patient with Harland (Parker Boudreaux)? Sound off in the comments section below.
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