Wrestling veteran impressed by Jade Cargill and another SmackDown star on WWE's "maintenance show" (Exclusive)

Former WWE manager Dutch Mantell recently spoke about superstars like Jade Cargill and Dakota Kai coming to the forefront on SmackDown this week.

The blue brand was missing major superstars with Roman Reigns, The Rock, and Cody Rhodes not appearing this week. However, the show marked the official main roster debut of Jade Cargill. Dakota Kai also had a strong showing in the main event against Bianca Belair.

While speaking in an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda Wrestling's Smack Talk podcast, wrestling veteran Dutch Mantell mentioned that the show was a filler on the Road to WrestleMania XL. However, Mantell spoke highly of the female talent who put on an amazing show in the absence of some of the main event stars. The veteran especially praised Dakota Kai, stating that the Damage CTRL member was an underrated talent and she held her own against Bianca.

"Well, Jade Cargill looked great, she looked good, and Dakota Sky [Kai]. I hadn't paid a lot of attention to Dakota Kai. That girl is really good, really good. She can hold her own with all of them, and Jade Cargill looked great. There were parts of the show that just put me to sleep. That's what maintenance shows do. They just remind you, hey this is what we got coming up, but we can't give all of it away here on this TV show. It was a good maintenance show, I guess, but I almost went to sleep in the middle of it," Dutch Mantell said. [1:55 - 3:12]

You can watch the full video below:

This week's episode of the blue brand was an important pitstop on the Road to WrestleMania XL. It will be interesting to see what developments happen in the final week before The Show of Shows.

---

If you use the quotes from this article, please embed the exclusive YouTube video and add an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.