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Austin Theory might be one of the youngest WWE stars on the roster, but he has already drawn a lot of praise for his well-rounded work as a heel. Dutch Mantell recently admitted that he is a fan of Theory's promos and believes that the superstar was doing a great job in his current role as a kayfabe villain.
Mr. Money in the Bank has featured heavily on TV since being anointed as Vince McMahon's protege. While he might be losing of late, Mantell has been impressed by how Theory has fared thus far since WWE began his push.
The former WWE manager said that Theory had developed into a credible antagonist as he genuinely felt like slapping the superstar in the face while watching his segments.
Here's what Dutch Mantell had to say on this week's Smack Talk:
"I liked the setup. Theory is a good talker. You want to slap him, and that's what a good heel is," revealed Mantell. "He is not really a big heel, but you would find a lot of guys that think they'd be able to beat him up, which they can. But somehow, you just want to reach up and slap the taste out of his mouth." [19:11 - 19:32]
Dutch Mantell comments on WWE SmackDown's main event
The latest episode of the blue brand predictably had a chaotic ending, as Alpha Academy & Austin Theory faced off against the babyface team of Drew McIntyre, Johnny Gargano, and Kevin Owens.
McIntyre was even involved in an interesting backstage segment with Austin Theory earlier in the evening, followed by a singles match between the two.
Dutch Mantell felt WWE's writing team had done well to intertwine multiple storylines seamlessly. The veteran also got to see Johnny Gargano wrestle for the first time and was quite pleased with the angles and matches this week.
"And instead of McIntyre laying his hand on his shoulder, I wish he'd have laid his sword across his shoulder," Dutch continued. "That, to me, would have been better. But it was a good setup, and you got Kevin Owens in there and Johnny Gargano. I've never seen Gargano world before; I got to see that. But that was a good segment, pretty good!" [19:33 - 20:00]
After a hard-fought main event, the babyface trio reigned supreme on Friday night. Fans will have to wait and see what's next for these stars heading into Extreme Rules 2022.
Do you agree with Dutch Mantell regarding his review of the latest SmackDown episode? Sound off in the comments section below.
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