Dirty Dango (Fandango) never achieved singles gold in WWE, but according to him, he was scheduled to win the Intercontinental Championship.
Unfortunately, his plans were derailed when he suffered a concussion and hid it from the company.
"They were going to put the IC Title on me and I got concussed working with Great Khali," Dango recalled to Chris Van Vliet on Insight.
Dango continued by saying, "I didn't tell them I was concussed, it was like a week or two before. I worked Khali a couple weeks out from a pay-per-view and we worked like a week before the pay-per-view. If you get concussed and you go out and get hit again, it's a lot easier to get concussed. If you don't give the swelling enough time to go down, it's really easy to get concussed again. I was concussed and I kept performing and didn't tell anybody. I think I was wrestling Zack Ryder [Matt Cardona] in Long Island and I took a shoulder tackle and I was completely out. We got through the rest of the match, got to the back, and I thought I just wrestled Khali because your brain just goes back to where you originally got fucked up. Then I just said it, 'I thought I worked Khali, I got nocked out.' I stooged myself off. To the company's protocol, I was completely wrong. You should definitely tell them when you're hurt because they don't want any athlete to get seriously injured. I grew up in the wrestling business, if someone is going to put the IC Title you on you, you don't take yourself out of the game. I didn't want to stooge myself off. It was a tough spot. They took me off TV for a couple of weeks. I think Curtis Axel won the title. It derailed me. I was partying a lot at that time too. I kind of let up. I was in developmental for so long and in my mind, I got to the finish line and I had made it. You don't just make it. You have to keep grinding after you get there even harder. I take full accountability for that. I kind of got there, I thought I was in, I was Vince's little pet and I let up. That's on me."
The bout between Cardona and Dango took place on the November 29, 2013 episode of WWE Superstars. Dango wrestled the next night on WWE Main Event.
Dango did end up winning the NXT Tag Team Titles with Tyler Breeze in 2020. He was released by WWE on June 25. He recently appeared at NWA Hard Times 2, beginning his tenure with the promotion.
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