Vince McMahon is not as smart as we all think he is, WWE veteran says (Exclusive)

Netflix's Vince McMahon docuseries covered the story of the former WWE Chairman buying several wrestling territories in the 1980s. Dutch Mantell, a booker and wrestler in Memphis at the time, believes the 79-year-old could have handled the development of WWE's future talent differently.

In 2013, WWE opened the Performance Center training facility in Orlando, Florida. The idea was the brainchild of current WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H, who oversaw the company's NXT developmental system at the time.

On Sportskeeda Wrestling's Smack Talk with Sid Pullar III, Mantell questioned why NXT was created as a WWE developmental brand. Had McMahon remained on good terms with other territories, the former WWE on-screen personality believes future stars would have been better prepared:

"This is where I say sometimes Vince is not as smart as we all think he is," Mantell said. "If he just waited a little bit, he wouldn't have needed NXT because he had all the territories back in those days, like Memphis and Mid-South and Florida and Atlanta and Georgia and Alabama. He had those little in-the-field training companies. They were a business but he wasn't paying for them. He was just putting them in there and letting them train." [14:50 – 15:21]

Watch the video above to hear more of Mantell's thoughts on the Vince McMahon Netflix series.

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Dutch Mantell on Vince McMahon's unique approach to creating new talent

During the Mr. McMahon docuseries, Vince McMahon accused WCW of trying to put WWE out of business in the 1990s. Questioned on whether he did the same thing with other companies a decade earlier, WWE's former boss claimed he only wanted to compete.

Dutch Mantell believes McMahon's territory purchases left the wrestling business without enough future stars. As a result, he thinks WWE had no choice but to work with developmental companies before setting up the Performance Center:

"But when he put them out of business, it took him about a year to say, 'Wait a minute, these guys [new wrestlers] are the s**ts,'" Mantell continued. "He said, 'I gotta train them somewhere, and that's what got started the training centers, more or less. He started in Memphis first, then he ends up at Ohio Valley, and I think he had one in Atlanta, and then that moved to Orlando." [15:22 – 15:47]

In January, former WWE employee Janel Grant accused McMahon of sexual assault and trafficking. He denied the allegations before resigning from WWE's parent company TKO.

What are your thoughts on the Vince McMahon docuseries? Hit the discuss button and let us know.

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