WWE putting on maintenance shows ahead of WrestleMania, claims Dutch Mantell after this week's SmackDown (Exclusive)

Modified Apr 12, 2025 08:46 GMT

Triple H is the current creative head in WWE [Image: WWE.com] — Triple H is the current creative head in WWE [Image via: WWE.com]

Former WWE manager Dutch Mantell recently shared his thoughts on this week's SmackDown. The show emanated from the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington.

This week's SmackDown was an important pit stop ahead of WrestleMania. The show featured several stars, such as Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, Charlotte Flair, and Drew McIntyre. However, with the three-hour time slot, WWE found it difficult to fill out the time, especially with no appearances from major stars like Roman Reigns, John Cena, CM Punk, and Seth Rollins.

This week on BroDown with host Mac Davis, Mantell claimed this was a maintenance show, indicating that WWE was on autopilot till WrestleMania. He pointed out that most of the matches for Mania were booked, and the shows were being utilized to build the story. The veteran writer also noted that very little time was allocated to wrestling, given that the stars were taking too long with their entrances.

"All they're doing now, they're doing maintenance on the shows. The card is booked. They're doing maintenance." He added, "How many matches can you watch? And they're killing as much time as much as they can by getting in the ring, singing to their songs. My God, the wrestling is almost down. How much time they got Vince? 40 minutes? They spent about 10 minutes of that in just entrances." [From 5:55 onwards]

This week on SmackDown, WWE announced another match for WrestleMania, where Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez will defend the Women's Tag Team Championship against Lyra Valkyria and Bayley.

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About the author

Prityush is a WWE news writer for Sportskeeda Wrestling who started watching wrestling in the later part of The Attitude Era. Although he holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Prityush was a creative writer for his college, and his flair for creativity and love of pro wrestling eventually led him to the journalism field. After an initial stint in 2016-2017, he has been writing regularly for Sportskeeda since 2021.

As someone who loves and respects the business, he prides himself on factual, clean, and ethical reporting, free of plagiarism and AI usage. One of the ways he ensures this is by transcribing videos that he reports on.

Prityush had the privilege of interviewing superstar Matt Hardy in his career so far. Although, his favorite wrestler is CM Punk, as he relates to his Straight Edge philosophy.

When he is not reporting news, he loves reading and collecting WWE action figures. He currently owns over 500 wrestling figures and merchandise.

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Edited by Prityush Haldar