Dirty Dango, formerly known as Fandango, had a memorable run with WWE. Though he only won one title during his time with the company, Fandango enjoyed some incredible heights. He memorably faced Chris Jericho at WWE WrestleMania 29, and in a stunning upset, he defeated the former world champion.
In a recent appearance on “Such Good Shoot“, Fandango looked back on this match with Jericho and explained that it was supposed to turn out quite differently. Rather than the nearly ten-minute bout fans wound up seeing, Fandango said Vince McMahon wanted Chris Jericho to destroy him before the former NXT star rolled his opponent up for the shocking victory. Instead, the two competitors got more time, so they worked a more traditional but.
“I remember that Vince didn’t want us to have a wrestling match,” said Fandango. “He just wanted Chris to beat the s— 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 s— 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.”
Fandango emphasized that McMahon didn’t want him to be a wrestler; instead, he wanted the man once known as Johnny Curtis to fully lean into his gimmick as a dancer. He then offered some advice to younger wrestlers by suggesting that it’s important to focus on the future rather than getting comfortable with something that’s getting over in the present.
“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. Think about what I can do next.”
Fandango was released by WWE on June 25, 2021.
The full video is available here:
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