WWE News Roundup: Canceled backstage idea for major star, Veteran's problem with controversial segment, Vince McMahon's role in former champion's iconic look (October 31, 2021) 

#3 Dutch Mantell's problem with controversial Becky Lynch-Charlotte Flair segment

It's no secret at this point that Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch's title exchange segment on the October 22 episode of WWE SmackDown reportedly led to a legitimate spat between the two superstars backstage.

The title exchange ceremony came about due to this year's Draft, as Lynch and Flair held top titles for brands they didn't belong to anymore. Wrestling veteran Dutch Mantell voiced his issues with their segment and the WWE Draft rules for top champions on the latest episode of Sportskeeda Wrestling's Smack Talk.

He highlighted how everyone could tell Lynch and Flair were both legitimately "pi**ed off" on live television. In Mantell's opinion, the best outcome would have been for WWE to automatically swap the belts instead of building a segment around that premise.

"If you think about the draft system, how long have they used it? 10-15 years or so? I guess it worked out well in the past but to draft your champion to the other show does not make sense to me. You know it's almost like NFL, you know, you protect certain players, they cannot even be traded. When you protect your champions that they won't be traded off and then when both are changed, they got the other show's belt. The best thing to me would've been to just have them automatically exchanged. I think it has got more cons to it than pros but I didn't like the idea and you could tell they were pi**ed off. You can tell they were mad. That was not a smooth development. It's not what draws money," Dutch Mantell said.

You can check out Mantell's thoughts on the most recent SmackDown show in the video embedded above.

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#2 Big E rejected an idea from WWE in the past

At one point in time, higher-ups wanted Big E to do a "pec dance" - a rhythmic popping of pectoral muscles - on television. For those unaware, Chris Masters did the same back in the day during WWE segments.

Big E recently admitted on the Breakfast Club Power 105.1 FM show that he is known for doing "a lot of silly nonsense." Still, he turned down this backstage pitch.

"Nothing too crazy. Years ago, they asked me if I could do a pec dance. A dude called Chris Masters used to pop his pecs rhythmically, and I do a lot of silly nonsense, but I was like, 'I ain't trying to do all that,'" said Big E.

The New Day member also acknowledged that although Vince McMahon is still heavily involved in pulling the creative strings backstage, several superstars have some creative freedom over their promos these days.