Former WWE champion should have slapped Cody Rhodes on SmackDown, according to wrestling veteran (Exclusive)

Former WWE manager Dutch Mantell feels AJ Styles should have slapped Cody Rhodes this week on SmackDown.

The two stars came face-to-face as they signed the contract for their blockbuster clash at Backlash. After exchanging a few words, they put pen to paper to make their matchup official.

On this week's episode of Smack Talk, Dutch Mantell claimed that Cody Rhodes was trying to get a cheap pop by calling out the city they were in and hyping the fans.

He felt Styles should have slapped him when Rhodes said, 'What do you wanna talk about?' He detailed that it was stupid for the champ to do this gimmick when his opponent stood right before him.

"What a cheap pop! Just bring out the town's name. 'Cincinnati, yay!' Guaranteed. They're gonna cheer for this. Then he said, 'What am I gonna talk about?' If I'm AJ, I would've slapped him right there. What am I gonna talk about? What do you think you're out here to talk about?" [From 34:20 onward]

AJ Styles and Cody Rhodes made it clear this week that they had a lot of mutual respect, but that would go by the wayside when they were standing across the ring from each other in a week.

Styles is an accomplished star and a two-time former WWE Champion. It will be interesting to see if he can end Cody's fairytale run at Backlash.

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