Dutch Mantell Recalls Learning Wrestling History on the Road
Dutch Mantell says some of his most useful wrestling lessons came from driving older wrestlers between towns. The conversations taught him the history of territories and how to conduct himself in the business. Mantell has shared other memories of life on the road in earlier interviews.
On the original Story Time with Dutch Mantell video, Mantell recalled staying quiet while the veterans talked in the car. He said those trips introduced him to wrestlers he had never met and to the people who held influence in each territory.
“That’s the way I learned the business, really riding in a car. … I would just shut up and the old-timers would start talking. And that’s how I learned about the history of this business. They would go back, I don’t know, 30 years or whatever, and then they’d say, ‘Well, you know, this guy,’ and I’d never heard of the guy. But by the time that trip was over, I was pretty well acquainted with the guy’s past and his name, even though I’d never met him.”
Mantell said his role was often to drive while the veterans talked. As they became more comfortable, they shared practical lessons about wrestling’s unwritten rules.
“That’s the way most guys learn the business, is riding with the old-timers and the old-timers telling the kids to shut up so they could talk and drink beer. My job most of the time was driving. … They would start talking to me after the second beer would go down, and great stories. And that’s how I learned actually how to act in this business, what to do, what not to do, and who was the head guy in a certain company or territory, as we called them then.”
He contrasted that close-quarter travel with the buses used by many performers today. Mantell acknowledged that a bus is more comfortable, while saying its layout offers fewer of the conversations he remembers from the road.
“There’s not as much conversation that goes on in a bus as would go on in a car, because with a car, you’re sitting right next to the person and you’d learn a lot more. Now, it’s easier traveling because if you want to stretch out, just stretch out. And you got a licensed driver that’s going up and down the road and watching out for you.”
