Fandango discusses the difficulties surrounding what was undoubtedly his biggest moment in WWE, a WrestleMania victory over Chris Jericho.
When Johnny Curtis re-debuted as Fandango in 2013, he was briefly on a path to unfathomable success. The start of that success was his WrestleMania victory over Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 29.
Speaking about this moment and the surrounding hesitation from Chris Jericho leading up to this match, Fandango would say that he doesn't blame Chris Jericho for not wanting to lose to him because he thinks the gimmick was ridiculous and he never wanted to be a “fucking dancer.”
“Chris, he was a big reason why I wanted to be a wrestler. So working my first major program with him, you know, obviously, you're nervous, you're intimidated, and I didn't want to be a fucking dancer, but I knew that you got to make the best of it. So if I was him, I probably won't be too excited about it, too. Maybe he was told he was gonna work someone else which I could see him being pissed off,” Fandango said during an appearance on the Such Good Shoot podcast.
He added, “I don't blame him, it was a ridiculous character. So, you’ve got to look at it this way, guys. Vince probably thought it was stupid that [Jericho] 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? He thought Chris going out Dancing with the Stars was stupid. So what is he gonna do? He's gonna remake an evil dancing gimmick because he thinks it's outrageous. It's funny.”
Furthermore, the former NXT Tag Team Champion revealed that Vince McMahon didn't even want Fandango to get any offense in the match outside of the winning roll-up, but unfortunately, because of the way the show was timed, that was impossible.
“I remember that Vince didn't want us to have a wrestling match," said Fandango. "He just wanted Chris to beat the shit out of me for like five minutes. They gave us too much time, so the way that it was supposed to be, I think, was like Chris just beats the shit out of me and I roll him up out of nowhere. So it was supposed to be like the biggest upset, but I think they gave us like 10 minutes. So it ended up being more. It was way too much time for what Vince wanted, I think.”
Continuing on, Fandango would say that Vince McMahon really had no desire for him to be a bell-to-bell kind of wrestler, forcing him to focus on what he can control.
"Vince didn't want me to wrestle, he didn't want me to be a wrestler. That was the whole thing," said Fandango. "Yeah, he just wanted me to be a dancer, so it was weird. It was a weird situation that I think we pulled off as good as we could, you know. On me, though, I just relied on, in retrospect, a lesson learned. For any young talent out there listening, don't rely on what's getting over now, and think about what I can do next.”
Elsewhere on the same podcast, Fandango gave advice to Karrion Kross, who is just making his way on the Monday Night Raw roster. Learn more here.
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