Why WWE Has Already Ruined the Fandango Character
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Say his name, and we’ll all get what we want.
That seems to be exactly the message that WWE and, more specifically, Fandango have been sending to both fans and competitors worldwide.
There has been so much fanfare and buildup to his long awaited debut that each and every time he is mentioned, the WWE Universe is left wondering what exactly his role will be.
What kind of impact will Fandango make?
As of this writing, no one really knows because the superstar with a ton of fanfare behind him has yet to make his in-ring debut on WWE programming.
And frankly, it seems as if fans, and maybe even company management, have completely lost interest in the character.
Much like it did with the debut of Brodus Clay, the company has consistently left fans wondering if they would finally see the competitor step into the ring. For months, it teased Clay’s debut, only to finally have him become an oversized comedy act rather than the monster that it had portrayed him as.
Clay has done well with what he was given, playing up his gimmick to the delight of fans, mainly the younger ones. Taking on Tensai as his partner has also resurrected a dying career and given the two a possible new angle in pursuing the WWE Tag Team titles.
But much in the same way that it did with Clay, the company has now been airing vignettes touting Fandango’s imminent debut since November with no actual in-ring competition to show for it on WWE television.
Fandango, or as many knew him before, Johnny Curtis, was the winner of the fourth season of NXT. However, that was two years ago, and he has nothing to show for it since. The Fandango character was presumably something that the company figured it could thrust upon him, simply so that it’d get some type of return on its investment.
But what can it really expect to get from this character? How many more weeks can wrestling fans sit around waiting for another midcard talent to debut?
Because love it or not, Fandango will never be a title contender. Sure, in the 1980s and early 1990s when gimmicks were all the rage, this character might have done really well. But nowadays, when many gimmicks have become anti-gimmicks, an over the top dancer has no place.
The company already has one guy that dances, and that’s Clay. Add Tensai to the mix and that’s 800 pounds of dancing that the company doesn’t need in the first place.
Years ago when Dancing with the Stars became a global phenomenon, this angle might have held some weight. But unfortunately for Fandango, that time has passed.
Right now, the heat upon him is great, but it’s more of an annoyed type of hatred rather than disliking him because he’s so deplorable. Wrestling fans are an impatient sort, and by consistently delaying his debut, the company is shooting itself in the foot and doing the same to Curtis and his future plans.
The company may have teased a program involving Chris Jericho on this week's Raw, and that might actually be the answer to how it can generate more interest in Fandango. Putting him into an angle with an established superstar the magnitude of Jericho could, for the time being, elevate the character so that at the very least, he stays in the public eye.
Johnny Curtis is a talented performer. Anyone who has seen some of his work in NXT can echo that sentiment. With the right gimmick, he could have actually done some decent things.
And if something doesn’t change in the near future, the WWE Universe may soon be referring to him as the phonetically pronounced “Future Endeavored.”
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