Why is Fandango in WWE?

In the second of what I hope will one day become a hit television series, we look at why Fandango is still in WWE after a career marked by starts, stops and constant repackaging.

WWE employs several men and women who seem to be little more than time fillers for weekly RAW and SmackDown marathons. If the company wants to fix the ratings problems of 2015 and tighten up their programming, perhaps it should look into sending some of these wrestlers out to pasture. This week, we take a look at Curtis Jonathan Hussey, AKA Johnny Curtis, AKA Fandango.

Remember when ballroom dancing was cool? Neither do I but somehow WWE managed to make fans cheer for what amounted to a modern-day Disco Inferno. Fandango has no WWE championships to his name and his biggest accomplishment was being named a breakout star of NXT which carries as much weight as a science fair participation ribbon.

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He cut his teeth in Deep South and Florida Championship Wrestling where he showed flashes of brilliance with solid in-ring ability and charisma. He was half of the FCW Tag Team champions on two separate occasions before appearing on the fourth season of NXT in 2011. He won the competition but his main roster run on SmackDown ended so fast that fans barely noticed when he was demoted back to NXT. It was here that the Fandango gimmick was born.

The character was so incredibly over-the-top that fans loved it so it wasn’t long before he was again ordered to the main roster. His promos began showing in October 2012 but he wouldn’t appear on SmackDown until March 2013. You would assume that his popularity in NXT would make for an immediate impact, but WWE chose to have Fandango refuse to compete for weeks after his debut because nothing puts a wrestler over like apathy.

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Despite attempts to keep him a vocal heel, Fandango was over with fans and established himself as a contender for the Intercontinental Championship until a concussion forced him out for a month. Towards the end of 2014, he again mysteriously disappeared only to reappear at Survivor Series with an updated ballroom dancing gimmick and the addition of Rosa Mendes. Most noticeably, his catchy entrance music was gone as was any interest fans had in this stale routine.

Remember those poor booking decisions that plagued 2015? Few undercard wrestlers suffered more than Fandango and by April his image was yet again repackaged as a face with his old entrance music but it was too late. The love affair fans once had for a dancing clown was over and Fandango now finds himself wrestling almost exclusively on Main Event and Superstars which are WWE career death knells.

I could go on about how Fandango has been treated unfairly and deserves better but the truth is that he never really had a place in the WWE. Even placement in the Social Outcasts wouldn’t help him because affiliation with that faction has yet to help anyone. While Fandango found a modicum of tongue-in-cheek acceptance it was never because he was a great wrestler. Fans loved the gimmick; not the man. It’s only a matter of time before they won’t have to worry about either.

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