Curt Hawkins took booty dancing classes, then his tag team partner quit.
In 2012, Curt Hawkins and his tag-team partner Tyler Reks debuted a new look that saw the two perform a stripping dance routine before defeating two unnamed opponents. This would prove to be the only time they ran the gimmick. . In an interview on Sam Roberts' Wrestling Podcast, Hawkins gave some insight on why the gimmick ended.
"Reks and I worked so hard for a year straight; put over everyone on the roster three times over. Finally out of nowhere (Triple H) pulled us aside and put that stripper gimmick on us which Vince was head over heels about, loved it. I was taking private booty dance shaking classes on my off days. I was sent to it and WWE paid for it. That's how serious this was," said Hawkins. 'We debuted on Smackdown, then it was Summer Slam 2012, and then we drove to Raw. Reks drove by himself, had some epiphany, and quit in the morning," he continued.
In a move that Hawkins characterizes as "bizarre," Reks told Triple H and other executives he quit but stuck around the arena. Hawkins found out about his epiphany when they were sent to pick up props for their match.
"On Smackdown, we were going to do the stripper thing in firefighter stripper costumes. The seamstress lady had told me 'Hey you got to go get those to get them fitted and we have to do the tear away stuff for it. It's on the prop truck.' I say 'Hey Reks we got to go get those costumes off the prop truck.' So we walk halfway across the arena to this prop truck. I grab this box of stripper firefighter costumes. He's like 'Hey man, I should probably tell you something ... I came in this morning and I quit,'" said Hawkins.
Hawkins mentioned he immediately tried to get Fandango to be his new partner in the stripper tag-team which didn't happen, but believes he the seeds for Fandango to start dancing. After his tag-team broke up, Hawkins injured his knee and sat on the sidelines until his departure from WWE in 2014. He has since spoken to and tag-teamed with Reks but never asked him about his epiphany. In the rest of the interview, Hawkins discusses leaving WWE on good terms and how he worked his way back from independent wrestling.
That interview can be found at Sam Roberts' YouTube channel.
