Dutch Mantell believes WWE made the right decision by crowning Sami Zayn as its new world champion, arguing that the title change opens the door to multiple major storylines while capitalizing on one of the company’s most popular stars.
Speaking on Story Time, Mantell reflected on Zayn’s championship victory, noting that while he previously supported WWE keeping the title on Roman Reigns during Sami’s hometown showdown in Montreal, the timing was finally right to pull the trigger.
“The Cody Rhodes story was the overriding story. This is just a side piece to it.
But they did it in such a way that they knew that if they put the title on Sami Zayn, he would be accepted even though he’s not a big, muscled guy. He’s not Gunther. He’s not Andre the Giant.
But the people just like him because I think he’s your brother, he’s your neighbor, he’s your friend, he’s your boyfriend or whatever. He fit a lot of roles.
Now that I find out that he is the world’s champion and he beat Cody Rhodes… I have said this before. See, if he beat Gunther? Nah. He doesn’t need to beat Gunther. He needed to beat Cody.”
Mantell also laid out how he would book Zayn’s championship reign, saying the title shouldn’t immediately go back to Cody Rhodes. Instead, he believes WWE can maximize the situation by creating multiple programs before eventually transitioning the championship to Gunther.
“Now him and Cody, they can run a short angle and Cody can try to get it back.
What I don’t subscribe to is Cody Rhodes being a really, really short champion. Just a swap-over champion. I’m not really pushing that idea.
But if they let Sami go a couple of months as the champion so it doesn’t look like a fluke, then I think the next one to take it back would be Gunther.
Let him get by Cody. They’ll have some bangers.
Then Gunther has to enter the picture somewhere, and I’d say two months from now let him drop it to Gunther.
Now you still have the Gunther-Sami thing going. Now you still have the Cody-Gunther thing going.
So actually you end up with three angles out of one.
That’s what you really need to look at because you’re looking for different ways to go. If you go certain ways, it cuts the other one off.
Overall, I think they did the right thing.”
Mantell also praised the finish of the championship match, saying a clean victory elevated Zayn without hurting Cody Rhodes in defeat.
“I liked the finish. I really did because it’s a straight-up finish.
Cody was in a vulnerable position and somehow he just didn’t kick out in time.
I don’t think it hurts anybody.
It does help Sami Zayn. It puts a different look on it.
He was over before, and I think he’ll be over more this time than he was last time.
Now they can explore Sami a little bit more and they’ll put him in some different matchups because Sami is the type that’s easy to get heat on.
The fans know he’s vulnerable because his size doesn’t work for him.
He has to rely on his smarts or his crowd support, and if the people think he needs crowd support, they’ll give it to him.
I think they can do a lot of things with Sami.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Story Time with a h/t to WrestlingHeadlines.com for the transcription.
