Roman Reigns' rivals should not have moved to WWE RAW, according to veteran

Veteran wrestling booker and manager Dutch Mantell has given his thoughts on Roman Reigns' rivals Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn moving to WWE RAW.

Earlier this year, Reigns defeated Owens and Zayn at the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber, respectively, to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. The Canadian duo will team up with Matt Riddle to face Reigns' fellow Bloodline members Solo Sikoa and The Usos at Backlash on Saturday.

Mantell said on Story Time with Dutch Mantell that Owens and Zayn should not have been drafted to RAW in the 2023 WWE Draft. He believes the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions should have joined Reigns on SmackDown for the sake of storyline continuity:

"Well, I think Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens should have stayed at SmackDown," Mantell stated. "They should keep their angle intact on SmackDown because it's the same company, they can take it back and forth anyway, so keep their main competitors – to me, this is to me – I would keep them on the same show." [10:34 – 10:59]

Reigns defeated his other main rival, Cody Rhodes, at WrestleMania 39. Rhodes also moved to RAW in the 2023 WWE Draft, leaving The Tribal Chief without an obvious opponent moving forward on SmackDown.

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Dutch Mantell reacts to Gunther moving to WWE RAW

After a year on SmackDown, Gunther was drafted to WWE RAW alongside fellow Imperium members Giovanni Vinci and Ludwig Kaiser.

Dutch Mantell watches WWE SmackDown every week as part of Sportskeeda Wrestling's Smack Talk coverage, but he does not tune into WWE RAW. The wrestling legend is disappointed that he will not see the Intercontinental Champion on the blue brand when the roster changes take effect next week:

"Also, SmackDown losing Gunther to RAW, it may be a good thing because now he'll have different opponents, because I am a huge, huge Gunther fan, and I think that he may have gone just about as far as he can go on SmackDown at this point," Mantell added. "I'm gonna miss him." [11:00 – 11:30]

Mantell also predicted that WWE could book a match between Gunther and Reigns at WrestleMania 40 next year.

Do you think Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn should have been drafted to WWE RAW or WWE SmackDown? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Please credit Story Time with Dutch Mantell and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.