Kemo
07-29-2021, 07:23 PM
Johnny Curtis adopted the Fandango gimmick in the fall of 2012. That spring, he defeated Chris Jericho in a singles match at WrestleMania 29. According to comments he made recently on the “Such Good Shoot” podcast, Jericho’s appearance on Dancing with the Stars in 2011 set the stage for Fandango’s ballroom dancer gimmick.
“Chris did an amazing job at getting me over and I don’t blame him. It’s a ridiculous character. Look at it this way, guys, so Vince thought it was probably stupid that he went on Dancing with the Stars, right? Vince thought Bryan Danielson was crazy to be a vegan. So anything that Vince thinks is stupid, he’ll make a character out of it, right?”
“So he thought Chris going on Dancing with the Stars was stupid, so what is he gonna do? He’s gonna make an evil dancing gimmick because he thinks it’s outrageous.”
Curtis/Fandango was trained by Killer Kowalski and made his pro debut in 1999. He signed a developmental deal with WWE in 2006 and was assigned to Deep South Wrestling territory. In 2008, he moved to Florida Championship Wrestling and then started with NXT during the 4th season under its original format.
Fandango continued to say that he felt stuck with the character. Meanwhile, someone like Chris Jericho was able to evolve and change his character throughout his career.
“Unless you’re that tippy-top guy like Roman Reigns, you’re gonna kind of go into no man’s land, and that’s kind of what happened to me because I was just riding the wave, you know? So look at what Chris would do. So Chris was always evolving and coming up with different stuff, new characters, twists on his character, and I kind of felt stuck with that character.”
“Chris did an amazing job at getting me over and I don’t blame him. It’s a ridiculous character. Look at it this way, guys, so Vince thought it was probably stupid that he went on Dancing with the Stars, right? Vince thought Bryan Danielson was crazy to be a vegan. So anything that Vince thinks is stupid, he’ll make a character out of it, right?”
“So he thought Chris going on Dancing with the Stars was stupid, so what is he gonna do? He’s gonna make an evil dancing gimmick because he thinks it’s outrageous.”
Curtis/Fandango was trained by Killer Kowalski and made his pro debut in 1999. He signed a developmental deal with WWE in 2006 and was assigned to Deep South Wrestling territory. In 2008, he moved to Florida Championship Wrestling and then started with NXT during the 4th season under its original format.
Fandango continued to say that he felt stuck with the character. Meanwhile, someone like Chris Jericho was able to evolve and change his character throughout his career.
“Unless you’re that tippy-top guy like Roman Reigns, you’re gonna kind of go into no man’s land, and that’s kind of what happened to me because I was just riding the wave, you know? So look at what Chris would do. So Chris was always evolving and coming up with different stuff, new characters, twists on his character, and I kind of felt stuck with that character.”