Wrestling legend Dutch Mantell is firing back at journalist Dave Meltzer.

Mantell has experienced several serious health issues, emergencies this year.

“The first time I was in the hospital there was a complete week there that I don’t even remember anything. They even gave me a blood transfusion that I don’t remember. Now, how do you not remember that? I didn’t really know how close I was to dying. I’m back but I don’t remember a lot of it,” he said on his podcast, YouTube show.

“You get a review of your hospital stay and I’m reading E. coli, sepsis. I didn’t know I had all this stuff until I read my review. It says what happened to you in the hospital in case you go to another doctor and he can read it and tell you what happened. I came very close to not making the cut, not making the turn. I never found out where the sepsis came from, or the E. coli. I never found out and they don’t know where it came from. I had a thorough cleaning of my house and hopefully if it was a germ or a virus lingering they could clean it up,” he continued thanking those who contributed to the GoFundMe set up to assist him.

In reporting on Mantell’s troubles Meltzer wrote:

“They had raised $64,200 with most of the top donors being anonymous and the largest known donors were Tony Khan at $5,000 and Chris Jericho at $1,500. 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,” he wrote.

Meltzer has been criticized for inserting editorial comments into the report.

Mantell responded to those comments on his podcast taking aim directly at Meltzer and not apologizing for being the critic he is supposed to be.

“I try not to give anything Dave Meltzer writes any believably or credence but that kind of pissed me off. 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 saying I blasted him,” said Mantell.

Mantell explained that he took offense to Meltzer’s comments.

“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. 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 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 s–t out of him. Some things deserve a good hard slapping, not a punch, but a good hard slapping,” he said.

 

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