Veteran points out major backstage problem in AEW, and why Vince McMahon would never allow it (Exclusive)

AEW has been plagued with backstage issues in recent times, and a well-accomplished veteran has proposed why this might be the case. More so, the industry stalwart dived into why such problems would be swiftly dealt with at WWE, under Vince McMahon.

Speaking to Sid Pullar III for Sportskeeda Wrestling's SmackTalk, Dutch Mantell explained how AEW may be facing an issue of too many cooks spoiling the broth, thus having a detrimental impact from a leadership perspective:

“To me, I think that AEW has too many backstage people, and I don’t even know who’s in charge of the agents. Tony [Khan] would be in charge of the guy who’s in charge of the agents, but I’m not there, so I don’t know.” [01:30 - 01:45]

After Sid explained to Mantell that Sonjay Dutt is in charge of the promotion's agents, he said the following:

“Sonjay Dutt, I love that guy. But he doesn’t look like one to snap that whip. [...] They need to give somebody the power, that if somebody does get sent home, that Tony fully backs them. Totally. Otherwise, they’re just like pseudo-bosses. They’re there, but they don’t really do anything.” [01:52 - 02:23]

The young promotion's leadership structure has been called into question several times in the past, particularly when discussing the backstage actions of CM Punk.

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The difference between Tony Khan's AEW and Vince McMahon's WWE

Continuing from his earlier point, Dutch Mantell provided some insight as to how Vince McMahon would handle backstage incidents with talents if ever he was called on to do so:

“That’s the big thing about the difference in WWE, with Vince before, and say with Tony now [in AEW]. When they took it to Vince and he ruled on it, that’s it. There’s no more. [...] He doesn’t want to get rid of them, but he also wants them to do business. When it comes to Vince, if an incident is so severe that it needs Vince to rule on it, when it goes to Vince and he says one way or the other, that’s it. Discussion over. And he does what he wants to do, and life continues.” [03:12 - 03:58]

Given that the AEW has only been around for less than five years, the promotion understandably still has a long way to go, before it can cement itself as the top dog of the professional wrestling industry. Ironing out some of their backstage issues will be an important step in achieving that.

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