Dutch Mantell has always gotten bad vibes when he was around Vince McMahon and the Memphis wrestling legend thinks with the latest allegations where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
On his “Story Time with Dutch Mantell” podcast, Mantell and his co-host covered the 67-page legal document of the horrific allegations McMahon has been accused of.and Dutch thinks with all the NDAs signed that where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
“If he’s already paid out that much money, he’s guilty.”
Mantell then pulls from his personal experience with Vince McMahon and how he got some different energy from McMahon.
“I think he’s guilty of all of this and Vince is not right. I’ve always detected a vibe around Vince that something is off.
“I didn’t know exactly what it was, but even talking to him sometimes, he’d look at you and you’d think, ‘What the f*** is he talking about?’ And then you get up and leave the room and you may not have even gotten an answer to the question you asked, but you got a lot of Vince’s vibe cause when he would walk into the whole room, the attitude in the room would change.”
Mantell then addresses the allegations that McMahon used sex toys on the victim, Janel Grant, named after WWE Superstars. Dutch believes this certain detail is so unique that nobody could conjure something up like that.
“This is only a detail that she would know. I mean, if I was a woman and I was making up stuff, I couldn’t even make that up so that’s what makes me think it’s real, that it really happened because that does sound like Vince.”
Mantell goes on to add that he doesn’t believe that we’ll see this matter go to trial and a settlement will be reached because other parties don’t want to be implicated and the damage is already done.
Please credit “Story Time With Dutch Mantell” and h/t to SEScoops for the transcription.
‘Dirty’ Dutch Mantell is fortunate to be alive after being given bad odds of surviving a recent medical emergency.
Mantell began his career in wrestling in the 1970s and would achieve success in various promotions, including the NWA. For more modern-day fans, Mantell is best known for his role as a manager. During WWE’s New Generation, he managed the Blu Brothers as Uncle Zebekiah and would manage Jack Swagger in the 2010s as Zeb Colter.
Dutch Mantell is Lucky to be Alive
On the most recent episode of his Storytime podcast, Mantell spoke about being unable to stay awake during his recent birthday and said his daughter Amanda noticed other signs something was wrong.
“She said I kept giving her gibberish answers that made no sense. She was looking at me funny and this continued for like an hour or two. Finally, she said there’s something wrong and she called 911 and they came and picked me up and I don’t even remember that.”
Mantell explained that he was battling E. Coli and sepsis and made it clear that if he hadn’t gone to the hospital, he would not be alive today. Mantell’s condition, which also included a fever, meant he struggled to remember much of what happened, but knew his odds of survival weren’t great.
“I was given medicine every three hours. This is what I don’t remember. I was given a blood transfusion. I don’t remember that, so it had to be serious. They did give me, I think I remember they said a 50/50 chance. I think. Don’t mark me down on that being the truth. I could have just imagined that.”
Mantell concluded by saying he was given a large selection of medicines and instructions on what to take and when. Mantell added that he believes part of the illness may have been self-induced as he has not been taking care of himself. Mantell said he’s hoping to avoid making the same mistake and is currently feeling good.
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.
Thank God They Used The Word Veteran & Didn’t Call You A Legend. Just A Miserable Old Wrestler Trying To Make A Buck. And BTW, You Never Had A Legacy To Begin With. WOOOOO! pic.twitter.com/48uzk2gqas
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.
TNA’s behind-the-scenes shakeup continues, as Dutch Mantell has been named head of creative for Impact Wrestling. He’ll be leading the team of Jeff Jarrett, Scott D’Amore and producer Kevin Sullivan.
– Former head writer John Gaburick is no longer writing storylines. He’ll be staying on board as a consultant, providing feedback to the new writing team and helping out backstage.
– Longtime TNA employeeBill Banks has departed the company. It’s believed that he’ll be moving back to the Northeast. He previously worked on the creative teams in WWE and WCW.
Looking back over the past year, Banks joins Dixie Carter, Billy Corgan, John Gaburick, Dave Lagana, Matt Conway and even Matt Hardy as people who have ‘moved on’ from contributing to TNA’s creative direction.
– Jeff Jarrett is not expected to appear on television in the coming weeks, but there’s a good chance his wife Karen will resurface.
TNA’s next round of television tapings take place this weekend from Universal Orlando. Here’s a look at TNA’s upcoming tapings schedule through the summer:
Thursday, March 2 – Sunday, March 5.
Thursday, April 20 – Sunday, April 23.
Sunday, July 2 – Thursday, July 6.
Thursday, Aug. 17 – Sunday, Aug. 20.
The April 20th and August 17th episodes will air “live.”
– We reported earlier this week that Chris Jericho resurfaced at a WWE live event from Germany. It was Jericho’s first public appearance since Owens betrayed him at the Festival of Friendship. Jericho came out on crutches wearing a neck brace and once again felt the wrath of WWE’s Universal Champion. WWE posted this footage of the latest attack:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ8qEV3At68/
– Bill Goldberg has taken notice of NXT Women’s Champion Asuka’s impressive winning streak.
Congratulations @WWEAsuka on your 149th win in a row! #whosnext ????????
Wayne Maurice Keown, better known to wrestling fans as Dutch Mantel or Zeb Colter, has signed with Impact Wrestling. Colter went public with the news this week:
NEWS: Finally, I can OFFICIALLY announce that I have signed with @IMPACTWRESTLING in a creative/advisory capacity. Changes underway.
The 67-year old Colter first debuted in wrestling’s territorial system in the early 1970s. Originally he was known as Wayne Cowan, but adapted the “Dirty” Dutch Mantel gimmick by 1980.
By the 90s, Mantel had dabbled as a commentator for WCW but was eventually signed as a manager by WWE. He adopted the gimmick “Uncle Zebekiah” and managed Justin “Hawk” Bradshaw.
In 2003, Mantel started a six-year stint working on the TNA creative team. He left due to “creative differences” in 2009.
From 2013-16, Colter was under contract to the WWE again as a manager. It was during this stint that he played the role of an anti-immigration crusader. The storyline, which also featured Jack Swagger and Alberto Del Rios, stirred up a little controversy and garnered some mainstream media attention.
Colter’s signing is the latest in a string of backstage changes that Anthem and Jeff Jarrett have been making in recent weeks.
The following are highlights of a new VOC Nation interview with Scott D’Amore:
On his favorite promotion to work for, WCW, & TNA: “I mean, if you’re talking about as far as for the professional fulfillment, it would have to be TNA. Because, obviously, I was pretty deeply involved there, having headed the creative team & been pretty deeply involved for the better part of wrestling for about 8 years. So certainly professionally & financially, that was by far the best run of my career. Everyone says they want to be a booker. That’s when I learned I really enjoyed the TV aspect of it. I had Jody Hamilton. He kind of the first person to really help teach me something as far as what goes on & into producing a wrestling TV show.”
On the Canadian Destroyer [flip piledriver]’s origin & his student, Petey Williams: “Well, it’s kind of funny in the wrestling business. There’s all this talk about how everybody steals things & everybody takes credit for this or that. It always seems it’s never the guy that gets the credit. Personally, I did not ‘invent’ the Canadian Destroyer. From my understanding of things, it was basically created because Chris Sabin, who’s another one of our graduates, used to take like a Frankenstein-er but backwards. The guy would actually jump off the rope backwards & basically backflip moonsault into taking a hurricanrana. So, then the thought process was, from there, they came up with it on a road trip. It was a move that basically anybody could do to Chris Sabin because he liked taking that backflip bump. When we got Petey Williams to TV, the guys were talking about different things as far as how to get Petey stand out. If i deserve any credit for creating the Canadian Destroyer because I wanted people to look at Petey & have people give a “holy sh*’ reaction, have him do the flip piledriver.”
On trust & today’s wrestlers in wrestling industry: “There’s a lot of things in wrestling that are trust-based. You’re giving your body to your opponent & trusting that he’s not going to knock you out or really hurt you or injure you. Certainly, a move like the Canadian Destroyer, there’s a lot of faith. That’s basically what our business is built on. You give somebody your body & they give you theirs & when you do it right, you put on a fantastic athletic demonstration & entertain the Hell out of people. It’s amazing when you think about the unbelievable athletic feats that wrestlers pull off on a nightly basis. A lot of trust to have to go out there & perform. It’s amazing the wrestlers don’t get hurt. It’s a testament to the business. The guys right now are such phenomenal athletes. I think there are guys out there performing in the top level now are as good as an athlete as there’s ever been in wrestling. Much better than in some years past. I think as good as other athletes in different sports. Great caliber athletes right now.”
On creating TNA’s Knockout Division and working with Dutch Mantell: “We had a terrific group of girls who formed the Knockout Division. I really enjoyed working hand-in-hand with Dutch Mantel [WWE’s Zeb Colter] on the creative & producing side & helping structure & created that division from scratch. That was an amazing experience. I wasn’t in TNA from Day 1 so I didn’t get to experience that. I was there when we launched on Fox. I was the director of Creative when we went on Spike. That was awesome. Creative there to me was me & Dutch taking something that some people laughed at, which was saying we were going to present Women’s Wrestling in a serious tone… & it was going to be well-received. 97% of the credit goes to the girls & then probably 2.8% goes to it Dutch, & I’ll take the other .2%. I had a blast doing it. I enjoyed it. I worked my butt off trying to work for those girls & make sure we presented quality matches because some of them weren’t overly experienced so we really had to work. Learn everyone’s strengths & work really hard to hide their weaknesses. I think that me & Dutch & the whole group there did a fantastic job at doing that there for a couple of years when we first launched. ”
On Edge: “Adam [Edge] was very gracious in his DVD to even think of my name, that’s the kind of guy he is. Edge & Christian. Edge is a TV star now. He’s not going to be in the wrestling school teaching hip tosses but he’s always been supportive. He’s supporting wrestling & the community. I mean I remember Edge when he was at the height of WWE, calling a boy here in Windsor who went through some pretty heinous stuff & Edge couldn’t make it here to see the kid… That would have been fantastic but he couldn’t do it. He sent stuff to the kid & then, more importantly, spent time on the phone & talked to him”
Check out the complete interview at VOCNation.com.