Fandango: Vince McMahon Just Wanted Me To Be A Dancer
“It was a weird situation that I think we pulled off as good as we could.”
Before his days in the Fashion Police, and after his days as Johnny Curtis, Fandango was ballroom dancer supreme in WWE.
Fandango’s first opponent in WWE was Chris Jericho, with Fandango getting a win over Y2J at WrestleMania 29. Now in an interview with the Such Good Shoot podcast, Fandango has given his thoughts on his debut WrestleMania win, and Vince McMahon’s thoughts on the character:
“Chris, he was a big reason why I wanted to be a wrestler,” started Fandango “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 f****** 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.
“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.”
Despite getting the win over Jericho on the grandest stage, Fandango was on the receiving end of Jericho’s attacks for 99% of the match. But apparently it was originally meant to be even more one sided:
“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.”
Despite the win, Vince McMahon didn’t even want Fandango to be a true ‘wrestler’:
"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.”
H/T: Fightful
