Dutch Mantell calls 35-year-old SmackDown star a "generational talent" (Exclusive)

Dutch Mantell believes in old-school storytelling of pro wrestling, i.e., having a clear-cut heel and a clear-cut babyface. For him, this is well represented by Intercontinental Champion Gunther, for whom Mantell is full of praise.

Few have expected the meteoric rise of Gunther. While some may credit Triple H's regime, the Austrian superstar was already thriving during Vince McMahon's regime.

To many, he has been one of the dark horse contenders for Superstar of the Year due to his consistency with match quality.

Speaking to SP3 and Kevin Kellam on the latest episode of SmackTalk, Dutch Mantell emphasized the importance of the classic wrestling dynamic between heels and faces:

"I agree that you need to have a babyface, a clear-cut babyface, and a clear-cut heel. Because that 50-50 down the middle booking and all, splitting the crowd… because if you do that no matter who you beat, you’re still p**sing half the crowd off. That’ll work for a while. It will work maybe twice a year, but that’s about it. But if you’re making them pick who they are going to cheer for, you may be surprised sometimes. You try to read those people, you might read them wrong.”

Explaining a story of his own involving the great Jerry Lawler, Mantell would go on to call SmackDown Superstar Gunther a "generational talent":

"I did a series with Lawler in Memphis but we split the crowd. I heard cheers for him, I heard cheers for me because we were both babyfaces. When we got to Nashville, I was like an 80% babyface. Lawler went out that night, they tore his antenna off the car. He told me later, 'I’m usually going out kissing babies, signing. I went out in Nash, I was dodging rocks, and they tore the antenna off my car.'"

He went on to say:

"That’s the beauty of wrestling. Sometimes you can’t read them, sometimes you can. Hopefully, you read them the right way. But Gunther, I’m a big big fan of his. Talk about a generational talent, I think he could probably fall into that category.” (9:39-11:04)

You can watch the full video of Dutch Mantell below:

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Dutch Mantell is happy with the way WWE has handled Gunther

Dutch Mantell has been vocal for a while about WWE's handling of Gunther. He has felt positive, and on an episode of SmackTalk last month, Dutch Mantell revealed that he is happy with the way the 35-year-old star has been handled on the main roster.

"I'm a big fan of Gunther because they've handled him right. They haven't given him a lot of bullc**p stuff. He goes in there, he just beats them up and they beat him back. Now people associate getting the c**p beat out of you with Gunther and he'll get over that way."

It will be interesting to see what lies ahead for Gunther and Imperium in 2022.

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