John Cena’s Backlash main event spot safe as WWE veteran says other match is “not hot enough” (Exclusive)

Former WWE manager Dutch Mantell recently spoke about his most anticipated match not headlining Backlash. The legendary manager was excited to see Gunther square off against Pat McAfee.

The Ring General went off the rails on the RAW after WrestleMania, attacking Michael Cole. McAfee tried to interfere and got caught in the exchange. Gunther put him to sleep with a chokehold. General Manager Adam Pearce suspended the former heavyweight champ, but Pat wanted revenge, so the match between the two was made official for Backlash.

This week on the BroDown podcast with host Mac Davis, Mantell revealed that he was excited for the matchup. He felt this encounter had a stellar buildup. However, the veteran manager felt the matchup lacked the steam to be the main event at Backlash since bigger stars like John Cena and Randy Orton would be headlining the event.

"The match I'm interested the most is McAfee and Gunther. I want to see what they do in that. McAfee gave a pretty good interview. He said, 'I don't think you people know who I am, or realize who I am.' I think they'll have a good one. But that's not the main event, that's not hot enough to be the main event." [From 8:55 onwards]

WWE Backlash will emanate from the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri, this Saturday. The main event will feature hometown favorite Randy Orton against John Cena for the Undisputed WWE Championship.

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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