Fandango Reveals Scrapped Plans To Win The WWE Intercontinental Title

A concussion derailed plans

Photo of Aidan Gibbons with his arms crossed

Dec 17, 2021

Fandango WrestleMania 29.jpg

Fandango has revealed he was once scheduled to win the Intercontinental Championship, but a concussion ultimately derailed the plans the company had for him.

"They were going to put the IC Title on me and I got concussed working with Great Khali. 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," Fandango said on Insight with Chris Van Vliet.

"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 f*cked up. Then I just said it, 'I thought I worked Khali, I got knocked 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," he continued.

"I grew up in the wrestling business, if someone is going to put the IC Title 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."

Fandango faced The Great Khali four times in October 2013, including in a Mixed Tag Team Match at Hell In A Cell 2013 where Dango teamed with Summer Rae against the WWE Hall Of Famer and Natalya. Dango would wrestle several more times before a Superstars match against Zack Ryder on November 25.

Curtis Axel was Intercontinental Champion when Fandango suffered a concussion but Axel would drop the belt to Big E on November 18, 2013.

Fandango has since been released by WWE and he debuted in the National Wrestling Alliance at Hard Times 2 earlier this month.

H/T to Fightful

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