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Dutch Mantell recently showered praise on rising AEW star Powerhouse Hobbs.
The wrestling manager also shared his opinion on the latter's match against Keith Lee, which went down on AEW Rampage this week. The two men went hard at each other in successfully putting on a barnburner in the main event of Friday night's show.
In the closing moments, fans witnessed AEW's Ricky Starks and Shane Strickland interjecting themselves to assist their respective partners. However, the distraction didn't cause any hindrance to Keith Lee, as he delivered his Big Bang Catastrophe on Powerhouse Hobbs to clinch yet another singles victory.
Speaking on the latest edition of Sportskeeda's Smack Talk, Mantell revealed that he's been more impressed with Hobbs than Lee. The wrestling manager discussed Vince McMahon's penchant for bigger men in the business over the years and asserted that Will Hobbs has all the tools that could impress the WWE Chairman:
"I'm not impressed by Keith Lee that much, but I am impressed by Hobbs. I think Keith Lee they [WWE] took him to NXT. I think they warehoused him for too long. Vince doesn't like it. Vince doesn't like guys like that. They should have known that. But he would like a guy like Hobbs because he's a big guy and he's an athlete, and I'm impressed by Hobbs. I'm not too impressed with Keith Lee because he's naturally big. So that takes no talent. He's just naturally big." (from 1:25:50 to 1:26:25)
While Mantell knows Lee naturally possesses indomitable strength, he considers Hobbs "an animal" who is multi-talented as a performer. The former WWE manager further added that he liked the first-time-ever clash between Lee and Hobbs:
"He's [Powerhouse Hobbs] an animal. He can do all kinds of stuff. It kind of impressed me, and hearing that interview tonight, it actually matched his personality (..) I liked the match. I didn't watch all of it because I had to get up and get ready to come in here, but I did liked the match." (from 1:26:51 to 1:27:23)
You can watch the entire Smack Talk episode below:
Keith Lee and Shane Strickland suffered a massive beatdown on AEW Rampage
While Keith Lee scored a victory over Powerhouse Hobbs, the night didn't belong to the former WWE Superstar.
Hobbs and Starks launched a brutal post-match assault on Lee and Strickland as they put the two men through separate tables.
After taking a massive beatdown at the hands of Team Taz this week, Lee and Strickland will be looking for some payback. Given how their storyline has evolved thus far, a tag team match between the two teams could be on the cards down the road.
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