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Legendary wrestling booker Dutch Mantell believes WWE's higher-ups made a big mistake when Bray Wyatt was handed his release last year.
On October 8, Wyatt received one of the loudest crowd reactions of 2022 when he returned to WWE at Extreme Rules. The three-time world champion cut a heartfelt promo on Friday's SmackDown before a mysterious masked figure gave him an ominous message.
Mantell appeared on Sportskeeda Wrestling's Smack Talk show with Rick Ucchino and Sid Pullar III. He questioned why someone with Wyatt's popularity was allowed to leave in the first place:
"You remember the big uproar when WWE released him?" Mantell said. "How could you release him? He's one of the [top] merchandise sellers. I don't know if he was drawing that well before." [8:53 – 9:13]
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Mantell enjoyed Wyatt's segment at the end of SmackDown. Moving forward, he thinks fans should expect the unexpected whenever the former Wyatt Family leader appears on television:
"Since he surprised us with that, now there's no telling what he's going to do," Mantell continued. "I think that could have been one of the best moves they could have made at that time with Bray Wyatt, is have him show up as himself." [9:44 – 9:57]
Vince McMahon was still in charge of WWE when Wyatt was let go. Triple H, the company's new Chief Content Officer, has brought back several released superstars since he replaced McMahon in July.
Dutch Mantell on WWE fans' reactions to Bray Wyatt
Mantell disliked Bray Wyatt's promos during his run as the villainous cult leader of The Wyatt Family. He felt that the 35-year-old spoke for too long and often failed to make any sense.
Despite his previous doubts about Wyatt, Mantell is hopeful that the returning superstar can maintain his popularity in the coming months:
"Now he's told his story, so now he can go to work. Now the fans can get back to [cheering him], especially the Bray Wyatt fans or The Fiend fans or The [Wyatt] Family fans, or whatever they were a fan of that Bray Wyatt had a part of, now they can go back to enjoying the show. Good luck to him. I hope it works for everybody." [9:58 – 10:19]
Mantell also gave his take on whether Wyatt broke character during his emotional SmackDown promo.
What do you want to see next from Bray Wyatt? Let us know in the comments section below.
Please credit Sportskeeda Wrestling's Smack Talk and embed the video if you use quotes from this article.
