“They do arm drags wrong because they teach it wrong” – WWE veteran says Performance Center is overrated (Exclusive)

Dutch Mantell spoke at length about the WWE system during the latest episode of Smack Talk with co-hosts Rick Ucchino and SPIII. The WWE veteran even shared his criticism of the Performance Center.

Mantell stated that WWE’s developmental facility in Orlando, Florida was “highly overrated” and felt that the company unnecessarily “warehoused” talent for several years at the Performance Center.

Mantell highlighted that WWE Superstars still get the basics wrong and added that even simple moves such as arm drags have not even been properly taught.

“Okay, that Performance Center in Orlando is overrated. Highly, highly overrated. They will take people down there and keep them there. They warehouse them for not one year, two years, maybe three years, four years. Some of the things they do, they still do wrong. They do arm drags wrong because they teach it wrong,” Mantell said.

Dutch Mantell put forth multiple examples while explaining the technical inefficiencies of the roster and detailed how the wrestlers were wrongly executing a biel throw and a running hip toss.

The former WWE manager was not impressed with babyfaces over-using clotheslines during their comebacks and expressed his desire to see some innovation in wrestling.

“That’s one of the things you don’t see. Another thing you don’t see, the arm drags are, if a babyface makes a comeback, what’s the first thing you see, it’s running clotheslines, running clotheslines,” Mantell said. “I’m saying, ‘damn, is that all you know.’ I mean, you would learn that in the first two weeks at a damn wrestling school, and they are still doing it.”

“You’ve got to do it their way, or there’s going to be no way” – Dutch Mantell on WWE’s system

Tay Conti’s name came up during the latest Smack Talk as one of the most notable examples of talent that has thrived since leaving WWE.

Conti’s WWE career never took off as the Brazilian star spent a long time at the Performance Center (now known as the Capitol Wrestling Center).

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Dutch Mantell revealed that the AEW star had to strictly adhere to a fixed style in the WWE, which is not often great for a talent’s development. The veteran said that wrestlers from the independent circuit aren’t entirely polished either as they too pick up a few bad in-ring habits along the way.

Mantell, however, stressed that any wrestler who arrives in Vince McMahon’s company is drilled in the WWE way of wrestling.

“Because she can do what she wants to do,” Mantell continued, “Because, in the Performance Center, you’ve got to do it their way or there’s going to be no way. So they learned one system, they learned the WWE system, and there are no other systems to learn from. I mean, you can’t learn from the independent system.

“Some of them are good, some of them are not, but you pick up more bad habits than you do good habits. So when you get to a position, say in the Performance Center, and you’re trying to do that. They will tell you, ‘Where did you learn this?” and you’re getting more embarrassed than anything else because they didn’t learn the correct way to do it.”

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