Mind of Michaels: My Opinion On Fandango & Gimmicks In Wrestling

By Chris Michaels

"Fahn-Dahn-Go!” we have been hearing this name in WWE for months now and finally this superstar after handfuls of vignettes has come to fruition and we saw the television debut of him on SmackDown. He is taking the similar path to how Damien Sandow made his in-ring debut, but instead of refusing not to wrestle opponents because they do not meet his standards, Fandango is refusing not to wrestle until the interviewers and announcers can get his name right.

People are already counting Johnny Curtis out and the reason they are is because he has this salsa dancing gimmick and when you think of these kinds of superstars you think of; Disco Inferno, Brodus Clay, and insert failed dancing gimmick here, but these are the kinds of people who I have a gripe with. The people who are already calling for the failure of Fandango are the same people who do not believe that there is a place in wrestling for gimmicks. These are the same people are taking wrestling too serious and believe that all wrestlers should have serious gimmicks. These are the same people who believe every debuting superstar in the WWE should already have a position on the roster as upper mid-card to main event status, but here is the reality.

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Fandango may not be an upper mid-card talent or will never see the daylights of a main event, but it is a gimmick and gimmicks have been part of professional wrestling for as long as the history can go back. They are portraying characters and WWE has the word in the company’s name, “World Wrestling ENTERTAINMENT”. This is supposed to be an entertaining gimmick it is not supposed to be taken seriously. When Brodus Clay debuted as the, “Funkasarus” everyone counted him out, but when he was fresh on the scene I enjoyed seeing him take on a different character and a direction than the usual big man coming back and running through jobbers shtick. Fandango might end up in jobber obscurity in the next year just like Brodus Clay did, but for people to count this gimmick out with only a TWO promos, yeah, TWO promos and not even see what he has to offer inside of the ring is just mindboggling to me and here is why I think most people are wrong about Fandango.

I think people are wrong about Fandango because WWE, for some reason, I cannot even put my finger on it sees something in Johnny Curtis. Johnny Curtis won the fourth season of NXT and vignettes of his eventual debut on SmackDown were all over television, but when he debuted he got squashed by Mark Henry and that was the last time we saw of him. Since then he has been on WWE NXT (both the online show and the revamped show) and he is one of them superstars who WWE could have released a long time ago and nobody would have cared and believe it or not they could have pulled the plug on the Fandango gimmick as well. WWE went weeks without any mention of Fandango, but WWE decided to keep him around and they did, why? That is what I cannot figure out. Plus, John “Bradshaw” Layfield has went on record and said that Fandango gets tons of heat at house shows and if the gimmick is done right then it could be successful. That is why I’m not counting Johnny Curtis or Fandango out just yet.

People just need to realize that professional wrestling will have; dancers, clowns, pimps, vampires, greasers, Elvis impersonators, superheroes, and other outrageous and unreal gimmicks because that is what professional wrestling is, but just remember this one of the best in WWE today, Dolph Ziggler, started off as a cheerleader and it is only a matter of time before he wins the World Heavyweight Championship and is main eventing Pay-Per-Views. So do not count out Fandango/Johnny Curtis because they could have got rid of him a long time ago and do not complain because of the silly gimmicks because that is a part of professional wrestling. Just sit back and enjoy and if it’s just unbearable then just do not watch, but please do us a favor a, “SHUT THE HELL UP!”