Writers risk losing jobs due to unpopular trend, Dutch Mantell thinks (Exclusive)

Dutch Mantell performed as the Uncle Zebekiah and Zeb Colter characters during his days as a WWE manager. The 75-year-old recently gave his thoughts on "50/50 booking" in today's wrestling business.

The term "50/50 booking" refers to a wrestler who wins and loses a similar number of matches. It can also be used to describe a match where both competitors have an equal share of offense.

Mantell worked as a booker in Puerto Rico and several other territories during his legendary wrestling career. On Sportskeeda's The Wrestling Time Machine, he said too much "50/50 booking" can lead to writers getting fired.

"Not no, but hell no," Mantell answered when asked if "50/50 booking" works. "Actually, what you'll do doing 50/50 booking is actually get your a** fired. They'll run you off. They won't run the talent off. They'll run you off." [5:01 – 5:15]

Reporter Bill Apter, host Mac Davis, and WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long also appeared on the latest episode of The Wrestling Time Machine with Dutch Mantell. Watch the full conversation in the video above.

---

Dutch Mantell explains logic behind "50/50 booking"

In the 1980s and 1990s, WWE's top stars often defeated enhancement talents in quick televised matches to enhance their reputation with the audience. Nowadays, most bouts on WWE programming are competitive contests, meaning many wrestlers have 50 percent win ratios.

According to Dutch Mantell, booking the loser to look strong in almost every match is not a good way to create new stars:

"You might make the opponent look better, but you might make the guy you're trying to push look like cr*p, and he won't draw you a dime, so what is the lesser of two evils? The guy you're pushing just beat the cr*p out of the guy, so the people think, 'Well, I could see that coming.' It's fine, though. Still the right guy won in the fashion you wanted him to win in." [4:25 – 4:49]

In the same episode, Teddy Long reacted to Kevin Nash's recent criticism of Raquel Rodriguez.

---

Please credit Sportskeeda's The Wrestling Time Machine and embed the video if you use quotes from this article.

Edited by Danny Hart