LG
05-31-2013, 05:41 AM
Fandango recently spoke with CT.com’s Reyan Ali about his inspirations, false starts, WrestleMania 29 and more. Check out the highlights:
On getting into wrestling as a fan via WCW: “Yeah, I was a huge WCW fan. I was a huge fan of the lucha libre, the lightweight division, the Cruiserweights. Juventud Guerrera, at the time Chris Jericho but we all know how that worked out, Chavo Guerrero, Dean Malenko, the whole Cruiserweight division…I think for me obviously, being 14, 15 in 1997, ’98 was a great time because that’s when the Monday Night Wars were really starting to get really hot. At 14, 15, as a young man, you’re really into the NWO and you’re switching over to USA to see the New Age Outlaws and Stone Cold and stuff like that. For me, though, like you just mentioned, I was really into the high flying. The Rey Mysterio and Dean Malenko matches really hooked me into WCW. On the other side, it was more the story lines that got me into the WWF or WWE.”
On his “idioms” gimmick after winning NXT: “I wasn’t really exactly sure where they were going with those vignettes. I was willing to do anything to get on TV. Obviously, I wouldn’t disagree or argue with any verbiage they’re going to give me for talking. Wasn’t exactly sure where that was going to go. I don’t if necessarily that was the way they wanted the vignettes to go. Obviously, they scratched it, and then I went back on the shelf for a little while [until] the Fandango thing.”
On his name initially being spelled “Fandangoo”: “Sometimes, when people debut, it takes about a day to really change the idea they had. I remember when Big Show debuted. He debuted in 1998 at the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. His first name was the Big Nasty. I remember the next night on Raw they switched it. Sometimes, they see something—the writing on the wall—and they don’t like the way it looks so they kind of change it up. I remember seeing that [vignette] as well, and I totally forgot about it until you mentioned it. I think it was supposed to be a play off the way I say my name. It definitely looked like “Fandangoo,” which would be confusing.”
On fans singing his theme music on the RAW after WrestleMania: “I almost started smiling when they were doing it just because that Monday Night Raw was unbelievable. For me being a wrestling fan, that was one of those crowds that kind of reminds me of the old ECW [Extreme Championship Wrestling] arena where the fans became part of the show. Anyone that got to go out there that Monday night after ‘Mania got to enjoy that crowd. First thought in my head was, ‘Oh, can we make some money off of this?’ That’s all I thought about honestly. We did the Europe tour right after that. The Raw after ‘Mania we went to Europe for two weeks on tour, and just the crowd reaction over there was unbelievable, so maybe I’m like the new Hasselhoff where I’m just big over in Europe. [Laughs]“
WZR
On getting into wrestling as a fan via WCW: “Yeah, I was a huge WCW fan. I was a huge fan of the lucha libre, the lightweight division, the Cruiserweights. Juventud Guerrera, at the time Chris Jericho but we all know how that worked out, Chavo Guerrero, Dean Malenko, the whole Cruiserweight division…I think for me obviously, being 14, 15 in 1997, ’98 was a great time because that’s when the Monday Night Wars were really starting to get really hot. At 14, 15, as a young man, you’re really into the NWO and you’re switching over to USA to see the New Age Outlaws and Stone Cold and stuff like that. For me, though, like you just mentioned, I was really into the high flying. The Rey Mysterio and Dean Malenko matches really hooked me into WCW. On the other side, it was more the story lines that got me into the WWF or WWE.”
On his “idioms” gimmick after winning NXT: “I wasn’t really exactly sure where they were going with those vignettes. I was willing to do anything to get on TV. Obviously, I wouldn’t disagree or argue with any verbiage they’re going to give me for talking. Wasn’t exactly sure where that was going to go. I don’t if necessarily that was the way they wanted the vignettes to go. Obviously, they scratched it, and then I went back on the shelf for a little while [until] the Fandango thing.”
On his name initially being spelled “Fandangoo”: “Sometimes, when people debut, it takes about a day to really change the idea they had. I remember when Big Show debuted. He debuted in 1998 at the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. His first name was the Big Nasty. I remember the next night on Raw they switched it. Sometimes, they see something—the writing on the wall—and they don’t like the way it looks so they kind of change it up. I remember seeing that [vignette] as well, and I totally forgot about it until you mentioned it. I think it was supposed to be a play off the way I say my name. It definitely looked like “Fandangoo,” which would be confusing.”
On fans singing his theme music on the RAW after WrestleMania: “I almost started smiling when they were doing it just because that Monday Night Raw was unbelievable. For me being a wrestling fan, that was one of those crowds that kind of reminds me of the old ECW [Extreme Championship Wrestling] arena where the fans became part of the show. Anyone that got to go out there that Monday night after ‘Mania got to enjoy that crowd. First thought in my head was, ‘Oh, can we make some money off of this?’ That’s all I thought about honestly. We did the Europe tour right after that. The Raw after ‘Mania we went to Europe for two weeks on tour, and just the crowd reaction over there was unbelievable, so maybe I’m like the new Hasselhoff where I’m just big over in Europe. [Laughs]“
WZR