Former WWE manager Dutch Mantell did not like this week's six-man tag team matchup involving Austin Theory.
The United States Champion kicked off SmackDown this week. He was then joined by Pretty Deadly as the trio got ready for a match against The Brawling Brutes. It was an action-packed match to start off the show, and Theory got the win for his team after pining Ridge Holland, who had been laid out with the Spilled Milk finisher from Kit Wilson and Elton Prince.
This week on the Smack Talk podcast, Mantell explained that the likes of Austin Theory, Pretty Deadly, and Grayson Waller all had similar gimmicks, and they wouldn't blend together. He also didn't like Theory's pairing with the NXT call-ups this week.
"I didn't much like it. But they wanted a six-man trio match as people call it now, and it fit in. What concerns me is you got Austin Theory and you got Grayson Waller, they're almost similar to each other. Same size, kinda talk the same way. Then you throw Pretty Deadly in there, not the same but still, they're close to each other. You got four guys with almost not identical gimmicks but gimmicks that are close to each other. So I don't know, I don't much like that." [From 47:33 to 48:21]
You can watch the full video here:
You can catch the full results of SmackDown here.
Austin Theory defeated Sheamus last week on SmackDown
The United States Championship was on the line last week on SmackDown as Austin Theory defended the gold against Sheamus.
The two stars put on a banger for the coveted title. At one point, The Celtic Warrior had Theory lined up for the Brogue Kick, but Pretty Deadly showed up at ringside and attacked Ridge Holland and Butch. This distracted Sheamus, allowing the US Champ to roll him up for the win.
It will be interesting to see if Theory continues this alliance with Pretty Deadly in the future.
What did you think of Theory's match on SmackDown? Let us know in the comments section below.
If you use the quotes from this article, please embed the YouTube video and add a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcript.