Dutch Mantell may be a “miserable old wrestler” according to Ric Flair, but the Nature Boy has now been branded an “ungrateful a**.”
Last July, Flair competed in what was promoted as his last match, which was heavily criticized by fans and those in the industry.
After Mantell recently criticized the match when speaking to Sportskeeda, Flair took to Twitter to fire back at the former Zeb Coulter.
The Response
Taking to Facebook, Mantell responded with the following open letter to the Nature Boy.
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE NATURE BOY
Ric…I have great respect and admiration for your contribution to the wrestling profession. I never meant to ruffle your feathers on my podcast but I was just speaking the truth about your last match.
That was almost 10 months ago but you’re still touchy about it? But I wasn’t the only one who mentioned it was subpar. All the dirt sheet writers said it…in print and on their podcasts. Did you say anything to them? To set the record straight, very few fans got upset over my critique of your match. Truthfully, they agreed with me.
If I had just said the match is sucked, that would’ve been an upgrade. But Ric…you came out of nowhere to attack me personally. Why? Telling the TRUTH? It was a bad showing. Period. Everybody damn near universally agreed that it was an abortion.
What I want to know is who agented that match if anyone? You were in there with one of the top wrestlers in the world, Jeff Jarrett. If you can’t look good with him, then the issue is you.
How hard is to lay out…RIC FLAIR’S LAST MATCH. All you had to do was do a strut, yell some WHOOS in the air and slap on the Figure 4 for the finish…hit the bell, music, confetti, fans cheer and that’s it. My 12-year-old granddaughter could follow that formula. But, I heard Ric laid it out then I heard he faked a heart attack because he thought the match was ending too soon?? WTF?? It should’ve ended 10 minutes sooner than it did.
But Ric you said that I’m just an old wrestler trying to make a buck. I don’t disagree with that. Yes I am an old bastage and yes, I do try to make a buck. Just because I’m not involved in the wrestling game anymore doesn’t forego my bills. I have to pay money out every month just like everybody else in the world does. But that has absolutely nothing to do with your seriously flawed match.
Another thing Ric, is that “faking a heart attack was believable because fans thought you were having one. Did you go over that with Jeff before the match by “saying hey Jeff, I might fake a heart attack out there somewhere”? It was so believable that I even thought you were in trouble.
But, of course, you said you’d been drinking, partying, had no sleep and you looked like hell. And that’s being generous.
Nobody wants to see their hero on a stage where they’re concerned about their health or possible death. But then, you made yourself look worse, if that’s possible by telling your own fans to go get F’ed if they didn’t believe you made 300K. That was total disrespect.
You can disrespect me, hell that’s happened a lot in my career but why disrespect the fans who love our sport? Those fans are the ones who make this country work, who get up every day to go to work, raise families, pay bills and taxes and keep this country running and buy tickets and PPV’s to see your ungrateful ass.
Nobody wants to see us settle this in a public forum such as Twitter or here. But for now Ric…I’m in total agreement. We’ll end this. But I’ll still speak of you Ric because you’ve created an audience for it. We don’t set the rules…fans do. They’re the reason either one of us is here. If they ask, I’m going to reply. Without them Ric, we both might be driving trucks or Ubers making $300 Grand a day. What a country we live in, huh? Have a great day sir.
Comments below: No Ric…you’re not allowed to comment. Tell your social media manager to STFU.
