Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
A gimmick is something that is intended to hook the attention of fans to a wrestler. They may be outrageous or steeped more in reality, whatever the case may be…some have succeeded and many others have failed. The Gimmick Table takes a look at the origins of some of your favorite and not so favorite gimmicks of professional wrestlers.
Today we browse the gimmick of Fandango
The original idea for Curtis Hussey was to debut in a male stripper tag team with Curt Hawkins. Hussey was a last minute substitute for Tyler Reks (who was supposed to be in the team with Hawkins) after Reks was released from the company. Vince McMahon liked Hussey’s look and felt that he could carry the males stripper gimmick by himself and sent him to learn how to dance like a stripper for about two months. He was suddenly told by Triple H that the WWE was no longer going to with the stripper gimmick and was sent to learn ballroom dancing. Hussey trained with instructors for another six months.
Hussey would later said the reason for the character change was Vince McMahon finally watching Chris Jericho doing the reality show ‘Dancing with the Stars’ back in 2011. McMahon thought the idea was so stupid for Jericho to do, but then decided to turn that idea into a wrestling gimmick. It was McMahon who came up with the name ‘Fandango’ which was the name of a Spanish dance. WWE composer Jim Johnston created the theme music for the character called ‘Chachalala’ which would later help Fandango become a popular character with fans.
After several months of vignettes promoting his WWE arrival, Fandango finally debuted in March of 2013. To help Fandango gain credibility as a legitimate dancer, he was partnered with an actual professional dancer affectionately known internally as ‘Lady Fandango.’ His first feud was against Chris Jericho, the man that McMahon was poking fun of and went on to defeat Jericho at Wrestlemania 29. The night after Wrestlemania proved to be extremely beneficial for the wrestler as fans started singing the theme and dancing…which became known as “Fandangoing.”
The gimmick became so popular and mainstream as celebrities were Fandangoing…that Vince decided to push the gimmick and win the WWE Intercontinental championship. Unfortunately, Hussey suffered a concussion and was pulled from that match. Hussey believed that was the beginning of the end of his push, as management felt he was injury prone. Fandango bounced around with different dance partners and teaks to his gimmick, but Hussey felt that the character was limited in how much he could evolve and change. Fandango was eventually released in 2021.
You can read other Gimmick Table entries here