Fan reaction can change many things in professional wrestling.
Fandango's theme music and dance took the WWE universe by storm when he debuted in 2013 but the now former WWE star had a notable dance partner, Summer Rae, who was replaced until the fans made their voices heard through the power of social media.
Summer would explain as much when appearing on Oral Sessions with Renèe Paquette. "When I debuted with Fandango on Monday Night Raw, it was in London and it was because the backup dancer girl -- at first they were hiring a different girl and she couldn't go over there because she wasn't an employee, well none of us are employees, but she's not like independent contracted by WWE," Summer explained. "So, she couldn't go over there so it was like, 'bring up Summer, teach her a little dancey dance. Let's just send her and she'll stay on the tour with Dango the whole time and then she'll come back and we'll replace her.' I went up, did live events, did Raw, trended like crazy and people thought I debuted. Then I went back and I think that Monday in America I even went on TV. Then, they sent me back down. After the tour, they sent me down and the next week they had the girl back on Raw. The fans went wild. They loved her, but they were like, 'No, where is Summer? What's going on.' They couldn't believe it. Maybe two weeks they were like, 'it's fine, they'll forget.' Maybe one or two weeks, I remember going up to TV and Hunter was like, 'Well, you're here because Twitter threw a fit and they wanted you to be here.' I understand why they didn't want me with him because he is the main attraction in that pairing, it was his big debut and me being a name vs. a no name dancer, it would be us. Hunter was like, 'it's very much Chyna with me,' even though she became such a big entity. 'You looking at him the whole time, don't look in the camera, you valet, how can you make it about him? That was our worry about having you two up there.' I just loved that I was getting any kind of direction. You're very much thrown to the wild and they want to see how you do it and then you get in trouble instead of 'XYZ.' I feel like it's best to do 'XYZ' and if it doesn't get over it's like, 'Well I told you to do that.' Dusty would always be like, 'Do it and ask for an apology afterward,' I think about that all the time. Do what's best for you and then ask for an apology after. I was just thankful to be up before I went up, a girl hadn't been up in a year and a half, it was the Funkadactyls. Trin [Naomi] was already up and then Cameron went up and she was really new. When I went up, it was a year and a half. I felt very fortunate. Then, after me, it was every three months and every month and now people just go up and down all the time. I was just like, 'Cool, let's try it, this is my ticket in.' I never took anything that personal."
Summer Rae was released by WWE in 2017 and hasn't appeared with the company since but was recently announced as a participant in this year's Women's Royal Rumble match.
The updated list for the 2022 Women's Royal Rumble match can be found by clicking HERE.
