Dutch Mantell praises unexpected WWE title change (Exclusive)

Dutch Mantell worked in various on-screen and off-screen roles during his five decades in the wrestling industry. The 74-year-old recently gave his thoughts on how Motor City Machine Guns were booked in their first month as WWE Superstars.

On October 18, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin defeated A-Town Down Under and Los Garza on their SmackDown debut. A week later, they beat #DIY before surprisingly dethroning Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa to capture the WWE Tag Team Championship.

Mantell was a TNA creative team member and producer when Sabin and Shelley worked for the company. Speaking to Sportskeeda Wrestling Smack Talk host Kevin Kellam, he reacted positively to the unexpected tag title change:

"Now, of course, this could just be a way to break them in, get the belts off the Tonga kids, and let them run with somebody else, but I like the way they brought them in," Mantell said. "Now the people are gonna take notice of them. They came in with really no get-over time that much, and they put the titles on them and now big things are expected of them and I think we're gonna get it." [2:37 – 3:07]

Watch the video above to hear Dutch Mantell reveal one thing that could hold Motor City Machine Guns back in WWE.

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Dutch Mantell compares WWE tag title change to Memphis days

WWE fans know Dutch Mantell best for his performances as the Uncle Zebekiah and Zeb Colter characters. Outside of WWE, he had a lot of success as a booker and wrestler in Memphis, Puerto Rico, and many other territories.

Motor City Machine Guns' tag title win reminded Mantell of how wrestling storylines used to begin in past generations:

"That's the way we used to do it in the wrestling business. When you bring a guy in, sometimes he would win the title first night in. Nobody knew him from Adam's house cat. But, and I think Memphis started this, Memphis started doing those before-you-get-there videos. Like when we sent The Rock 'n' Roll Express to Mid-South, they had a solid month of little two-minute videos, 'Coming soon, coming soon, coming soon.'" [4:50 – 5:26]

Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin defeated A-Town Down Under in a non-title match on the November 8 episode of SmackDown. On November 15, they will defend their titles against The Street Profits.

Did you like WWE's booking of Motor City Machine Guns? Hit the discuss button and let us know.

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Dutch Mantell and his wife Cathy have battled life-threatening health issues in recent months. You can show your support by leaving a donation via GoFundMe.

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