Wrestling veteran Dutch Mantell has weighed in with his thoughts on the ever-growing animosity in Tony Khan's AEW locker room.
For the first time in the promotion's short history, it seems that not everything is sunshine and rainbows backstage in All Elite Wrestling. This led to a meeting backstage at the recent Dynamite event where the likes of Tony Khan, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks all cleared up issues regarding communication, booking and frustration.
Speaking exclusively with Sid Pullar III on Sportskeeda Wrestling's "SmackTalk," Dutch Mantell spoke openly about how the locker room leaders in AEW need to get their act together.
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"Well it may not be any more than usual in AEW, but that drama would not be allowed in WWE because, I would say Vince [McMahon] but Vince since is gone that’s not allowed. I think the AEW dressing room, I don’t know who runs it, I don’t know who even controls it or tries to maintain order over it, but apparently whoever is trying to do it, they’re doing a crappy job.” [5:00-5:31]
Mantell also mentioned the likes of CM Punk and Jon Moxley being leaders in their own right, and the fact that if they divide the locker room, it will be bad for everyone in AEW.
“But CM Punk’s the leader, so is [Jon] Moxley, they’re leaders. So if they don’t lead that dressing room, who’s going to lead it? So if everybody’s mad at everybody else, what you’re doing you’re dividing your dressing room and usually when you divide a dressing room, it’s not good for anybody." [5:32-5:59]
You can watch the full episode of SmackTalk right here:
Tony Khan recently broke his silence regarding CM Punk's call-out to Hangman Page
There is always drama and tension in the wrestling business, but in AEW it was mostly kept under wraps. However, the main thing that caused the public to notice the tension was when CM Punk called out Hangman Page.
Due to the fact that Punk's call-out to the former AEW World Champion was unplanned, it caused a lot of people to be unhappy backstage. However, Tony Khan stated that it was simply just unresolved anger.
"It's unresolved anger, I think, from the world title match at Double or Nothing and we had not really tied up all those issues. CM Punk made one appearance to wrestle after Double or Nothing and it was immediately after that he got injured and was forced to step away. There was clearly some stuff that never got resolved at Double or Nothing," said Tony Khan. (H/T Fightful)
How do you think AEW will handle all of this drama? Let us know in the comments section down below!
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