Dutch Mantell Fires Back at Dave Meltzer Over Comments on GoFundMe Support from Tony Khan

Earlier this month, it was reported that former WWE personality Dutch Mantell has been grappling with significant health and financial challenges. To help cover expenses, a GoFundMe page was created. Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com shared some notable details about the campaign's progress and Mantell’s situation.

“They had raised $64,200 with most of the top donors being anonymous, and the largest known donors were [AEW President] Tony Khan at $5,000 and Chris Jericho at $1,500,” Meltzer stated. “With Khan, many have pointed out that Mantell as a podcaster was brutal to Khan, even being critical of him when the promotion was at its popularity peak, and recently criticized him for the contract terms Swerve Strickland got in his recent deal.”

Meltzer went on to add, “It is something when a former wrestler gets mad at a promoter who clearly can afford it for what he pays the top talent. And he was doing it after he knew the new deal was put together that was going to make the company exceedingly profitable. Wrestlers using the old school ‘he doesn’t draw money’ argument, not understanding that this isn’t a mom-and-pop week-to-week business based on live event numbers but one that in a worst-case scenario year would generate $250 million next year. And that most of that revenue is guaranteed ahead of time.”

Mantell responded to Meltzer’s comments on his own podcast, offering a passionate rebuttal.

“Well, I try not to give anything Dave Meltzer writes any believability or credence, but that kind of pissed me off,” Mantell said. “I think this actually speaks more to Tony Khan’s humanity than it says anything about me. Yes, I’ve been critical of him, but isn’t that my job? To come on here and talk about the business? I’ve said he needs more story and he doesn’t just need to put matches together for 15 minutes for no apparent reason other than they’re going to have a good match. I’ve seen acrobatics and I’ve seen gymnastics. I’ve seen the greatest moves in the world – everybody has if you watch enough wrestling on TV. But tell me a story. I’m doing my job but he [Meltzer]’s saying I blasted him [Khan] and I think it says much more about Tony Khan than it does about me.”

Mantell continued, “You can knock me, Dave, but you’re knocking my family now, and that is a no-no almost in any business. I almost died; my wife almost died. But yet you, to make a point that you don’t like me, you got to come out and you got to blast me for that. So yes, I did say not-flattering things about Tony Khan but Meltzer, you’ve done a lot worse because you’ve had your thing going a lot longer than I have. I was just basically doing my job. He pisses me off; I can’t quite get my thoughts together, I’m still recovering from what he said. I would like to walk up on him – I can’t now, I’m too old now – but I would just like to walk up on Meltzer and just slap the dog shit out of him. Some things deserve a good hard slapping, not a punch, but a good hard slapping.”