On Friday, WWE.com announced that WWE has parted ways with Dylan Postl, best known as Hornswoggle. The 29-year-old wrestler started wrestling in 2004 and has been with WWE since 2006. The company later announced in the same news post that Alex Riley (real name Kevin Kiley) and Zeb Colter (Wayne Keown, although best known as “Dirty” Dutch Mantel) have also been released.
Hornswoggle, Zeb Colter, El Torito and Alex Riley have been released by WWE
Hornswoggle, a former Cruiserweight Champion, has parted ways with the company after a decade of employment.
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Bill Hanstock is a writer, author and Emmy Award-winning producer. He began writing for SB Nation in 2011.
Later on Friday, WWE updated the post to announce that El Torito had also been released. El Torito, formerly Mascarita Dorada in AAA, was with the company from 2013 as the mascot and partner of Los Matadores.
Hornswoggle appeared on WWE television in 2006 as a leprechaun associate of Irish wrestler Finlay and supposedly lived under the ring. He managed to capture the WWE Cruiserweight Championship in 2007 by defeating Jamie Noble before losing the title back to him.
In 2008, he was briefly revealed to be Vince McMahon’s illegitimate son to wrap up a long-running WWE storyline, but that turned out to be misinformation. In 2009, he became the “mascot” of D-Generation X for a time.
In 2015, Hornswoggle was suspended for 30 days for violating WWE’s Wellness policy. He last appeared on WWE television in early 2015.
Postl also appeared in films during his WWE tenure. The lifelong Muppet fan had a small role in Muppets Most Wanted and he appeared as the titular character in WWE Studios’ 2014 reboot, Leprechaun: Origins.
Alex Riley had been signed with WWE since 2007, adopting the Alex Riley “Varsity Villain” gimmick in 2008. In 2010, he was a cast member of the second season of the competition-show incarnation of NXT, taking third place. He became a lackey of his mentor, The Miz, including being the Miz’s second at WrestleMania XXVII. He split from the Miz in 2011.
In 2013, Riley began doing color commentary, particularly in NXT. He returned to in-ring competition in NXT in 2015, although he did not pick up any significant wins. He is scheduled to appear on NXT television next Wednesday in a pre-taped match against Shinsuke Nakamura.
Zeb Colter, as Dutch Mantel, was a star and a mainstay of professional wrestling all over the world from the 1970s to the 1990s. He was a manager for the Blu Brothers and Justin “Hawk” Bradshaw in the WWF in the mid-1990s and has worked for just about every wrestling promotion you can think of.
In 2013, he began appearing on WWE television as Zeb Colter, a jingoistic parody of right-wing Tea Party mouthpieces. He began managing Jack Swagger and famously called out Glenn Beck for not getting the joke. He later managed Cesaro along with Swagger as the Real Americans. Most recently, he had returned to WWE television as Alberto Del Rio’s manager before quickly parting ways with him.
For further updates on this story and any subsequent WWE releases, please visit Cageside Seats.
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