Every wrestler knows that a good manager can take their game to the next level, and when WWE decided to pair Jack Swagger with Zeb Colter their act really started to heat up.
Dutch Mantell recently spoke to Sportskeeda about the politically charged Zeb Colter character he revealed that there were some things he just didn’t feel comfortable saying. Colter noted that at one point WWE wanted him to say “affirmative action” while cutting a promo about Darren Young and Titus O’Neil, and he voiced his concerns.
“Zeb Colter was supposed to be the right-wing radical, but the way I was doing my interviews, it made sense, and a lot of people were agreeing with me. They wanted me to go out one time and I was talking to Titus and Darren Young. [WWE management] wanted me to say what I got against them is ‘affirmative action’ and I went ‘Guys, I don’t wanna say that.'”
“They said ‘Oh yeah, that’s what they want you to say.’ I asked ‘Why?’ I said ‘I guarantee you, when I go out there and I say that, now I’m racializing – I’m just making Zeb Colter a straight out racist.’ They said ‘Well, do this,’ and I then went to Triple H and said ‘Hey man, you’re gonna kill this character,’ and he did say this: ‘Okay, say it. If they don’t respond then take it out.’
According to Mantell he did test out the line because the instructions came from “the top” but after it was met with silence he went backstage and told Triple H he knew it wasn’t going to work.
“I said ‘Get ready to take it out because they’re not gonna respond to this’. Nobody wants to hear it. I don’t care who you are. They don’t want to hear it. I went out there, and I said that; you could here not a pin drop. It got eerily quite. I know what they’re saying, you could read their mind. They’re saying ‘Oh God don’t take it this way, Please don’t lean into it.'”
