Curtis Jonathan Hussey (born July 22, 1981) is an
American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE where he performs
under the ring name Fandango.
Hussey began his professional wrestling career in 1999. He
worked for several promotions beginning in September 1999. He competed in
several Independent promotions in New England, winning the PLW New England
Championship; PWF Northeast Tag Team Championship with Kenn Phoenix on more
than one occasion; the PWF Northeast Heavyweight Championship; NCW New England
Championship; Tag Team Championship with Damian Houston; and the SCCW
Lightweight Championship.
In 2006, Hussey signed a development contract with World
Wrestling Entertainment and was assigned to Deep South Wrestling (DSW), WWE's
developmental territory. He was then moved to Florida Championship Wrestling
(FCW) in June 2008, where he won the Florida Tag Team Championship on more than
one occasion with Tyler Reks and Derrick Bateman. In December 2010, he
competed in the fourth season of NXT as Johnny Curtis, and he eventually won
the competition in March 2011.
Beginning on March 1, 2013, Hussey debuted his
"Fandango" character into the WWE. Under the gimmick, he portrays a
suspenseful-acting, overly concentrated ballroom dancer. Central to the
gimmick, he is fussy and exacting, especially with respect to how his ring name
is to be pronounced. In these moments, he typically singles out individuals,
hails and charms them before suddenly turning hostile because said individuals
can't pronounce "Fandango" to his extravagant liking. Expanding on
this fussy shtick, he has distracted his enemies by rating them throughout
their matches, using numbered charts. The gimmick has been acclaimed as
sparking a "Fandango Revolution" consisting of: WWE Raw live
audiences singing and creating a dance for his "ChaChaLaLa" theme
song; his song substantially rising on iTunes charts and drawing notable sells;
and generating much hype in mainstream media.
After months of vignettes hyping the introduction of
Hussey's forthcoming wrestling gimmick, he debuted a suspenseful-acting and
overly concentrated ballroom dancer named Fandango on the March, 1, 2013,
edition of SmackDown. Fandango is accompanied by a female dance partner (this
role has been played by various women) who begins all of his entrances with a
solo dance number. The Fandango gimmick is portrayed as being finicky and
exacting, especially with respect to how his ring name is to be pronounced. As
part of these moments, Fandango singles out individuals and expresses approval
of them before suddenly turning hostile because said individuals fail to
pronounce "Fandango" with his desired extravagance and grandeur.
Expanding on this shtick, he has taken to other finicky behaviors, such as
distracting his enemies by rating them throughout their matches, using numbered
charts.
Hussey's actual debut was in a dark match at the October 23,
2012, SmackDown taping, with vignettes for the character following by
November. On the March 1, 2013, edition of Smack Down, when Fandango was
scheduled to have his first on-air match against Zack Ryder, he refused to do
so because backstage interviewer Matt Striker couldn't pronounce
"Fandango" to his liking. Fandango said that he would debut once
Striker got it right. A similar occurrence happened on the March 4 episode
of Raw when Fandango refused to compete against Kofi Kingston due to Justin
Roberts "mispronouncing" his name according to Fandango. This
scenario repeated itself on numerous occasions with Justin Gabriel, Tensai, and
The Great Khali as neither the ring announcers or his opponents could pronounce
his name to his satisfaction.
On the March 18 episode of Raw, Fandango had a run-in with
Chris Jericho in a backstage segment, where Jericho mispronounced Fandango's
name intentionally, blatantly, and repeatedly so. Four days later on
SmackDown, Fandango interfered in Jericho's match against Jack Swagger and
attacked him afterwards, starting a feud between the two. Three days later
on Raw, Jericho attacked Fandango before his debut match, causing Fandango to
flee the ring. However, Fandango returned and attacked Jericho again after
Jericho was first attacked by Big E Langston. Fandango finally wrestled his
debut match on April 7 at Wrestlemania 29, defeating Jericho.
Fandango wrestled in his Raw debut match against Kofi
Kingston the following night. Despite Fandango being a heel wrestler and
winning via disqualification from Chris Jericho attacking him, he still
received an enthusiastic ovation from the live audience as they boisterously
sang his theme music and created a dance for it as well. Not only did this
take place during and shortly after his encounter, but it also took place
long after the show itself.
The song became an overnight hit as many fans
took to iTunes to buy the single, causing it to gain considerable momentum and
move from #175 to #11 in one day on the UK chart, before settling at #44 by the
weeks end.
On the April 12 episode of SmackDown, Fandango was present at
ringside for Chris Jericho's match against Dolph Ziggler, which Ziggler won
after Jericho was distracted by Fandango and Big E Langston. After the match,
Fandango attacked Jericho once again.
On the April 15 episode of Raw, Fandango
was called out to the ring by Jerry Lawler, who wanted him to address the
"Fandango revolution" that had taken effect the previous week.
However, when Fandango appeared, he simply stated that he was dissatisfied by
the live audience and their attempts at "Fandangoing" and because of
this, refused them anymore of his presence.
On April 19, Fandango appeared
on the 21st edition of The JBL and Cole Show, shown as being turned off by Tony
Dawson trying to effect the Fandango audience dance. On the May 6th, 2013
edition of RAW, Fandango would suffer his first lost via countout to R-Truth
because the judges sitting near the announce table (Tons of Funk and Chris
Jericho) would give Truth a much better rating as a dancer.
Fandango is a lively couples dance from Spain, usually in
triple metre, traditionally accompanied by guitars and castanets or
hand-clapping ("palmas" in Spanish and Portuguese). Fandango can both
be sung and danced.
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