"Is he the joke or are you the joke?" - WWE's booking of SmackDown star slammed by Dutch Mantell [Exclusive]

Wrestling legend Dutch Mantell recently gave his take on how Cesaro's current run has been booked by WWE.

The opening segment of WWE SmackDown led to a tag team match pitting Seth Rollins and Jey Uso against the Swiss Cyborg and Daniel Bryan.

Bryan and Cesaro were successful against the duo of Rollins and Uso. Both men then challenged Roman Reigns to come down and accept the Swiss Cyborg's challenge for a Universal Championship match.

The Tribal Chief did finally give his answer on this week's SmackDown. However, things did not go according to Cesaro's plans as Reigns pulled a swerve on everyone.

Dutch Mantell reviewed SmackDown on Sportskeeda's SmackTalk last night. Mantell said he was unhappy with how WWE has booked Cesaro in the past few weeks. He also suggested that the SmackDown star should have been made to look stronger.

"Nothing wrong with the match. It just went so long. To me the story is not that strong, to go that long. This is another thing that p*sses me off, if you're pushing Cesaro, push the guy. He said nothing in that opening interview and Seth Rollins just came out and buried him, after Paul Heyman had buried him last week."

"If you want to make a guy look strong, don't you want to make him look like he belongs in the same ring with you? If you're calling him a joke, why's he even there? Is he the joke or are you the joke?"

"He's the strongest guy in the WWE, the strongest and probably the fastest. He's probably the best athlete there, as far as athletic ability is concerned. They kind of dropped it here and made him look like a knuckle-dragging neanderthal from Europe and they're not building him up."

"Listen, if I were to work with the guy and he was going to at some point go over, I would want to make him look as strong as I can make him because if I called him a joke and the joke beats me, who's the joke on then? But if I make him strong and he beats me then okay. I don't get that," said Dutch Mantell.

Cesaro will not be Roman Reigns' next challenger for the WWE Universal Championship

The final segment of this week's WWE SmackDown saw Cesaro and Daniel Bryan waiting in the ring for Roman Reigns to answer the Swiss Superman's challenge. Reigns did eventually come down to the ring flanked by Jey Uso and Paul Heyman.

However, Roman Reigns ended up challenging Daniel Bryan to a Universal Championship match next week instead of Cesaro. Bryan accepted the match after the Swiss Cyborg persuaded him to make the right call.

Before the show ended, Reigns raised the stakes by adding an interesting stipulation to the match. If Bryan loses the match next week, he will be banished from WWE SmackDown.

At the moment, it does feel like Cesaro will have to prove his worth before The Tribal Chief to get a shot at the WWE Universal Title.

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