During the latest edition of Smack Talk, pro-wrestling legend Dutch Mantell explained one of the problems he believes WWE’s current product has. Mantell reflected in the territory days, and compared to the maiden version of WWE, telling listeners:
"My overriding thought about SmackDown, they got a big angle, they got Roman Reigns. But you know what they don't have? They don't have a big babyface. That's what they are looking for. Now, years ago that was the formula. You kept a resident babyface. Look at Florida, they kept Dusty [Rhodes] and they would bring the heels in. Every six months, you'd have another monster heel come in and Dusty would take care of him. Look at Memphis, it was Lawler, here come the heels one right after the other. In New York, the old WWWF, you kept Bruno [Sammartino] because he was champion there for seven years so he had to have those big monster heels coming in.”
Dutch continued to talk about the way things have changed, and explained why WWE Hall of Famer Bruno Sammartino had such a lengthy reign as World Heavyweight Champion. Mantell said:
"They did things slower there because the territory area was so big and they had some massive towns - Philadelphia, New York and Pittsburgh and Boston and Baltimore and all those huge towns that drew well," added Mantell. "But they had to have somebody who was, in the fans mind, that had a chance of beating Bruno. That's why they kept the title on his so long, there was no need to change it, because business was so good and the people believed in Bruno.”
Dutch finished by talking about Vince McMahon’s policy on creating new Superstars, and explained why McMahon has stopped promoting at least one major star. Mantell stated:
"I heard this a long time ago because you had Hulk Hogan, and he was actually bigger than WWE. Then you had Stone Cold and he was bigger than WWE. Then you had The Rock, he was bigger than WWE. When you went to see matches you'd say, "I'm going to see The Rock," not the WWE or "I'm going to see Stone Cold." I'm not going to see WWE, I'm going to see one person. Well, Vince McMahon got rid of that. He wants everybody to go see the show, not one guy and there is a bit of business thought to that because if anything happens to this one person, you're finished.”
(H/T and transcribed by SKWrestling)
