The Gimmick Table: The Origin of Zeb Colter
Posted: May 7th 2025 By: Brian Damage - RingTheDamnBell.Wordpress.com
A gimmick is something that is intended to hook the attention of fans to a wrestler. They may be outrageous or steeped more in reality, whatever the case may be…some have succeeded and many others have failed. The Gimmick Table takes a look at the origins of some of your favorite and not so favorite gimmicks of professional wrestlers.
Today we browse the gimmick of Zeb Colter
In 2013, Vince McMahon had an idea for a gimmick that he was convinced would get over big as a heel character. He based it off the ultra conservative Tea Party movement in the United States at the time. The character would be aligned with Jack Swagger and be his mentor. McMahon initially wanted former wrestler Jimmy Golden to portray the character, as he had already portrayed Swagger’s father in a couple of segments back in 2010. McMahon decided to pass on Golden to return to WWE as Swagger’s father with this built in gimmick due to Golden’s lack of promo skills. Instead, Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque called ‘Dirty’ Dutch Mantell to try out for the part.
After Triple H ran down the idea for the gimmick which would include the character being a former Vietnam veteran, extremely conservative and a longtime buddy of Jack Swagger’s father…Mantell auditioned at the arena that was hosting Monday Night Raw that evening in Nashville, Tennessee. Mantell said he related ideally with the gimmick and based his audition promos on the character Walt Kowalski from the Clint Eastwood movie ‘Gran Torino.’ After his 30 minute tryout interview, Mantell was hired by Vince and booked to appear on Raw that very evening.
He was given the name Zeb Colter, in part because during Mantell’s first run with the company in 1995, he was known as ‘Uncle Zebekiah’ and managed the likes of The Blu Brothers (Ron and Don Harris) and Justin ‘Hawk’ Bradshaw. The Colter name was borrowed from conservative talker Ann Coulter. Mantell said his catchphrase of “We the People” came from WWE TV executive Kevin Dunn who suggested it. The gimmick was meant to make Jack Swagger into the company’s biggest heel, but over a short amount of time, the gimmick got over big and treated the Colter/Swagger duo as babyfaces. Zeb Colter went on to manage Cesaro and later Alberto Del Rio. His character lasted until 2016, when Mantell was released from WWE.
Supplemental Information
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