WWE Set to Add More Moments to New Jersey’s WrestleMania Legacy

Fandango Debuts, WrestleMania 29

For much of the winter in 2012, vignettes heralding the arrival of a ballroom dancer named Fandango aired on WWE television. Eventually, the dancer was revealed to be the former Johnny Curtis, who competed on NXT pre-Full Sail University. When it came time for Fandango to actually compete, he would always refuse, due to nobody being able to pronounce his name correctly.

Before the refusal to wrestle, though, Fandango would make his way out to the ring with his dance partner. The absurdity of the gimmick – as well as the performer’s ability to play it straight – connected with the WWE Universe. Despite not performing a single maneuver in the ring, Fandango slowly became one of the most popular superstars in WWE.

Part of that meteoric rise came from his first official feud. Chris Jericho was the first superstar to get Fandango in the ring – mainly by intentionally mispronouncing his name repeatedly. Fandango would step into the ring in a match for the first time at WrestleMania 29 – defeated a likely future Hall of Famer in Jericho.

Some may say that Fandango’s popularity was artificially enhanced by the New York/New Jersey crowd. Others will say it was the “Fandango-ing” that was over, and not the wrestler himself. Whatever the case is, in April 2013, a ballroom dancer debuted with a victory at WrestleMania, and that’s pretty amazing.